Natural Lefty
10-31-2009, 11:55 AM
Sometimes, a fishing trip is more about the people one meets than the fishing. Such was the case this time.
Yesterday I had 1 more chance to go fishing before the "fall back" time change. When I went to Walmart to buy some nightcrawlers, there was a newspaper article posted on the bait refrigerator about pollution in SoCal lakes. Silverwood was by far the worst for Mercury and PCBs, apparently because its water comes straight from the delta. I guess Pyramid would also be in that category, as well, but I didn't see anything about it. Perris wasn't on the list, either. I guess the pollution is filtered out pretty much in Silverwood. Anyway, the article gave me a bad feeling about Silverwood, which I was thinking it was time to try, so Silverwood was out and Perris was in.
I got to my usual place at the Perris Lake launch ramp around 2:15 p.m., but the fish weren't cooperating there, at least not yet. Around 3 p.m., I decided to go to the fishing docks at the marina. I saw lots of small Bass near shore as I was leaving, which seem to be swarming all along the shorelines of Perris this year. I thought there might be some Bluegills too, so I dropped my Adams fly down by the edge of the dock, and lo and behold, one of the Bass grabbed it. It had a short trip into the atmosphere as I quickly unhooked it and put it back in the water. That goes to show how almost any type of freshwater fish except for Catfish will sometimes bite on flies originally designed for Trout.
I went to the marina, where the employee gave me the pass for $2 since it was late in the day. The employees have been really nice to me. Last time, they let me go for free. When I got out there, there was a father and son fishing for Bluegills with a slip-bobber setup. They were fishing only a few feet down, and doing pretty well on smallish Bluegill. The father appeared to be around 80 years young, give or take a few years, and the son, probably in his 40s. The father caught more fish than anyone else on the docks, outfishing several other fisherpeople on the docks. He must have caught about 15 Bluegills while I was there, while I caught only 3. I was hindered by having only nightcrawlers as live bait, so I wound up feeding the fish most of the time. Also, I lost 3 better size fish to poor knots or poor hooksets. I heard the same comments about feeding the fish from others out there. Since the fish were not on the bottom, I was using a bobber with a really long leader, probably 8 feet, and nightcrawler pieces. There were lots of bites, but not many hookups, probably due to the size of the bait. I guess I should have brought redworms. The father and son were using mealworms (which they reported were working better than Crickets once again), which I would also be using were I not allergic to them. As it was, I sneezed a couple times out there, probably from mealworm residue in the air.
I was really happy to see an older fisherman doing so well. I hope that I can fish so well when I am that age. I wish my father, who is that age, could too. (He has been in a hospital for almost a month now, by the way, but due to get out in another week or two. Meanwhile, my eldest brother has the swine flu and had a temperature of over 104 a few days ago.) This veteran Bluegill fisherman really had good skills. By the way, he was saying that larger Bluegills were biting on Tuesday. Being able to fish on Tuesdays is one of the advantages of being retired.
This Bluegill fishing champ kept giving advice to his son: make the bobber just barely bouyant by adding split shot, jig the bait up and down, use 2 small mealworms instead of 1 big one, fish more shallow, try more deep, etc. I thought the advice he was giving his son Ken was good, but it was a bit much. I started feeling sorry for Ken after a while, although I know his father was well intentioned. Anyway, Ken was catching a good number of Bluegill as well. They were keeping the larger ones, and putting the smaller ones back. One time, the father was putting a "keeper" Bluegill in their cooler, when his pole nearly went into the water from another fish. Ken grabbed the pole and brought up the Bluegill. It was pretty comical; I had never seen anything quite like that happen before. What was left of the bait most have been barely below the surface, but a fish grabbed it and hooked itself, anyway. When the father returned, he was having trouble believing what his son told him had happened, but he was convinced when I verified it. He thought his bait wasn't in the water, but it had inadvertantly fallen in.
Around 5:30, I started heading back to the launch ramp to try my bobber and fly setup, but on the way in, ran into a younger father/son team, who told me the son had caught a Crappie and a Redear. I tried jigs and worms there for awhile to no avail, but the son hooked a really large Crappie. The father grabbed my net (with my blessings) and went to net it, but it came off. Anyway, it was good to know that some Crappie and Redear are around there. I made it to my flyfishing spot around 6 p.m. There were fewer Midges than last time, but some. There were still lots of fish surfacing, although the action decreased along with the Midge population. I did manage to catch 5 Bluegills on my size 16 Adams, keeping 1 and putting 4 smaller critters back, so I was happy. I doubt the flyfishing bite will last much longer this fall, though. I also tried nightcrawler pieces and the jig from the westernmost launch ramp dock where I like to fish, to no avail, so I left around 7 p.m., which was already dark. Next week, it will be dark by 6. But tonight, I will be handing out Skittles and Peanut Butter Cups to the neighborhood kids.
Here's the catch:
5 Bluegills and 1 baby Bass on my size 16 Adams fly, one Bluegill kept, other fish quickly released
3 Bluegills on nightcrawler pieces, all kept.
Yesterday I had 1 more chance to go fishing before the "fall back" time change. When I went to Walmart to buy some nightcrawlers, there was a newspaper article posted on the bait refrigerator about pollution in SoCal lakes. Silverwood was by far the worst for Mercury and PCBs, apparently because its water comes straight from the delta. I guess Pyramid would also be in that category, as well, but I didn't see anything about it. Perris wasn't on the list, either. I guess the pollution is filtered out pretty much in Silverwood. Anyway, the article gave me a bad feeling about Silverwood, which I was thinking it was time to try, so Silverwood was out and Perris was in.
I got to my usual place at the Perris Lake launch ramp around 2:15 p.m., but the fish weren't cooperating there, at least not yet. Around 3 p.m., I decided to go to the fishing docks at the marina. I saw lots of small Bass near shore as I was leaving, which seem to be swarming all along the shorelines of Perris this year. I thought there might be some Bluegills too, so I dropped my Adams fly down by the edge of the dock, and lo and behold, one of the Bass grabbed it. It had a short trip into the atmosphere as I quickly unhooked it and put it back in the water. That goes to show how almost any type of freshwater fish except for Catfish will sometimes bite on flies originally designed for Trout.
I went to the marina, where the employee gave me the pass for $2 since it was late in the day. The employees have been really nice to me. Last time, they let me go for free. When I got out there, there was a father and son fishing for Bluegills with a slip-bobber setup. They were fishing only a few feet down, and doing pretty well on smallish Bluegill. The father appeared to be around 80 years young, give or take a few years, and the son, probably in his 40s. The father caught more fish than anyone else on the docks, outfishing several other fisherpeople on the docks. He must have caught about 15 Bluegills while I was there, while I caught only 3. I was hindered by having only nightcrawlers as live bait, so I wound up feeding the fish most of the time. Also, I lost 3 better size fish to poor knots or poor hooksets. I heard the same comments about feeding the fish from others out there. Since the fish were not on the bottom, I was using a bobber with a really long leader, probably 8 feet, and nightcrawler pieces. There were lots of bites, but not many hookups, probably due to the size of the bait. I guess I should have brought redworms. The father and son were using mealworms (which they reported were working better than Crickets once again), which I would also be using were I not allergic to them. As it was, I sneezed a couple times out there, probably from mealworm residue in the air.
I was really happy to see an older fisherman doing so well. I hope that I can fish so well when I am that age. I wish my father, who is that age, could too. (He has been in a hospital for almost a month now, by the way, but due to get out in another week or two. Meanwhile, my eldest brother has the swine flu and had a temperature of over 104 a few days ago.) This veteran Bluegill fisherman really had good skills. By the way, he was saying that larger Bluegills were biting on Tuesday. Being able to fish on Tuesdays is one of the advantages of being retired.
This Bluegill fishing champ kept giving advice to his son: make the bobber just barely bouyant by adding split shot, jig the bait up and down, use 2 small mealworms instead of 1 big one, fish more shallow, try more deep, etc. I thought the advice he was giving his son Ken was good, but it was a bit much. I started feeling sorry for Ken after a while, although I know his father was well intentioned. Anyway, Ken was catching a good number of Bluegill as well. They were keeping the larger ones, and putting the smaller ones back. One time, the father was putting a "keeper" Bluegill in their cooler, when his pole nearly went into the water from another fish. Ken grabbed the pole and brought up the Bluegill. It was pretty comical; I had never seen anything quite like that happen before. What was left of the bait most have been barely below the surface, but a fish grabbed it and hooked itself, anyway. When the father returned, he was having trouble believing what his son told him had happened, but he was convinced when I verified it. He thought his bait wasn't in the water, but it had inadvertantly fallen in.
Around 5:30, I started heading back to the launch ramp to try my bobber and fly setup, but on the way in, ran into a younger father/son team, who told me the son had caught a Crappie and a Redear. I tried jigs and worms there for awhile to no avail, but the son hooked a really large Crappie. The father grabbed my net (with my blessings) and went to net it, but it came off. Anyway, it was good to know that some Crappie and Redear are around there. I made it to my flyfishing spot around 6 p.m. There were fewer Midges than last time, but some. There were still lots of fish surfacing, although the action decreased along with the Midge population. I did manage to catch 5 Bluegills on my size 16 Adams, keeping 1 and putting 4 smaller critters back, so I was happy. I doubt the flyfishing bite will last much longer this fall, though. I also tried nightcrawler pieces and the jig from the westernmost launch ramp dock where I like to fish, to no avail, so I left around 7 p.m., which was already dark. Next week, it will be dark by 6. But tonight, I will be handing out Skittles and Peanut Butter Cups to the neighborhood kids.
Here's the catch:
5 Bluegills and 1 baby Bass on my size 16 Adams fly, one Bluegill kept, other fish quickly released
3 Bluegills on nightcrawler pieces, all kept.