Natural Lefty
09-11-2010, 03:52 PM
I went to Perris for a late afternoon fishing session, armed with leftover nightcrawlers and my supply of various artificials. I would have been able to leave home earlier, but my wife is overseeing remodeling her daughter's house (again) and I couldn't contact her. I finally found the phone number of a worker, and my wife was there. It turns out her cell phone battery was out of energy, and the house has no phone.
I finally got to Perris at about 4:30 and decided to go to the free dock area of the marina, out of curiousity, despite Deyymonayy's frustration with the lack of larger fish there. For a few minutes, I was getting no bites, and was thinking of trying another part of the lake, but as soon as I dropped my bait into the shady area I usually fish on the right side of the free docks, I started getting bites. I had one line with 6 pound line flylining nightcrawler pieces with a small hook, and 2 pound line on the other rod with a nightcrawler piece on a jig. Before long, a good size Bluegill took the flylined bait, and I brought it onto the dock, a good start. I would say it was an adult salad plate size Bluegill. It measured 8 1/2 inches at home, probably about 1/2 pound.
The next fish was one of those potato chip size ones that Deyymonayy mentioned, so I released it. Before long, I caught a somewhat large Bluegill on a flylined piece of nightcrawler about 10 feet to the right of the shady area, I would say a kid's size salad plate size, so I kept it. I continued getting lots of bites, but many missed hooksets probably on small fish, with the most action in the shady spot. Eventually, I caught a couple of smallish Redears which I kept, plus 3 more dink Bluegills which I released.
Around 6 p.m., the security guy came to close the gate, so I moved to the shoreward side of the gate. Fish were still biting, but I kept missing them at that point. There had been some kids fishing on the end of the pier, who did not seem to have caught anything, unfortunately, but there was also a guy with a pier cart who had a couple of good size Redears he had caught in the pay area. He settled near me to continue fishing after they closed the gate.
Strangly, the fishing slowed down as evening approached. Also, I eventually ran out of worms. Next time, I think I will bring some smaller worms with me, and probably try a different part of the lake. As evening approached, I heard the Midge Serenade made by the buzzing of swarms of midges around me, and fish began surfacing at a decent rate. I tried using a fly (Adams, I think), and caught one tiny Bluegill on it and lost another, but somehow the fly action wasn't nearly as good as I thought it should have been. Also, the torpedo bobber I was using kept slipping. I need to work on the proper use of those. Meanwhile, the other guy was clearly fishing 3 poles at the same time. I didn't say anything to him about that, but I am surprised that he was doing that since he seemed familiar with the place and probably knew that rangers check the pier frequently. As it turned out, he caught 2 more Redears, one about the size of mine, and one about the size of my larger Bluegill. I think he was using a drop-shot type setup with nightcrawler pieces, and was just leaving his bait in one place casting out to the left, and putting a bell on his line like stillfishers for trout often do. It was strange that all 4 of his fish were Redears, but I caught 2 Redears myself, so the fall Redear season seems to be shaping up. Deyymonayy only mentioned catching Bluegills a few days earlier.
Also strange was a kid about 8-10 years of age who showed up by himself. He didn't have any fishing equipment; he just wanted to talk. One of my poles fell down with a thud, and he said it had a gentle way of falling. He said that the island was "an exotic place" and no one went there anymore. Then he said something like he would like to take a net and make a jetski out of it and go to the island. Huh? Around that point, I started to wonder about this kid and just said, yeah, sure. A while later, he wandered off, back to his mother presumably, with whom he had been touring the state park. It's a good thing that kids don't get schizophrenia, because he was saying some pretty strange things. I guess he just had lots of imagination. :EyePop:
I kept trying to catch more fish until about 8 p.m., even borrowing a nightcrawler from the other guy, but to no avail, so it wound up being another trip with one good size panfish (adult salad plate size, 1/2 pound), a few smallish ones (kids plate size, 1/4 pound) and some dinks. That seems to be pretty much the norm there. I did lose another good size one in the shady corner area at one point, but it was only on the line for a second or so -- definite bendo though.
Here's the catch:
5 Bluegills on worms, kept one good size (1/2 pound) and one smallish one (1/4 pound) and released three dinks;
1 dink Bluegill on bobber and fly (released);
2 smallish Redears which I kept (about 1/4 pound each).
The first picture shows our newest cat Xiao Hua investigating this strange creature. Gorjilina didn't show much interest in the fish (been there, done that).
The second picture shows a better view of the larger Bluegill. It is daytime in these pictures because I put the fish in the fridge overnight and took the photos this morning.
I think fishing should be pretty good this fall at Perris. At least the Redears are already starting to show up in greater numbers.
I finally got to Perris at about 4:30 and decided to go to the free dock area of the marina, out of curiousity, despite Deyymonayy's frustration with the lack of larger fish there. For a few minutes, I was getting no bites, and was thinking of trying another part of the lake, but as soon as I dropped my bait into the shady area I usually fish on the right side of the free docks, I started getting bites. I had one line with 6 pound line flylining nightcrawler pieces with a small hook, and 2 pound line on the other rod with a nightcrawler piece on a jig. Before long, a good size Bluegill took the flylined bait, and I brought it onto the dock, a good start. I would say it was an adult salad plate size Bluegill. It measured 8 1/2 inches at home, probably about 1/2 pound.
The next fish was one of those potato chip size ones that Deyymonayy mentioned, so I released it. Before long, I caught a somewhat large Bluegill on a flylined piece of nightcrawler about 10 feet to the right of the shady area, I would say a kid's size salad plate size, so I kept it. I continued getting lots of bites, but many missed hooksets probably on small fish, with the most action in the shady spot. Eventually, I caught a couple of smallish Redears which I kept, plus 3 more dink Bluegills which I released.
Around 6 p.m., the security guy came to close the gate, so I moved to the shoreward side of the gate. Fish were still biting, but I kept missing them at that point. There had been some kids fishing on the end of the pier, who did not seem to have caught anything, unfortunately, but there was also a guy with a pier cart who had a couple of good size Redears he had caught in the pay area. He settled near me to continue fishing after they closed the gate.
Strangly, the fishing slowed down as evening approached. Also, I eventually ran out of worms. Next time, I think I will bring some smaller worms with me, and probably try a different part of the lake. As evening approached, I heard the Midge Serenade made by the buzzing of swarms of midges around me, and fish began surfacing at a decent rate. I tried using a fly (Adams, I think), and caught one tiny Bluegill on it and lost another, but somehow the fly action wasn't nearly as good as I thought it should have been. Also, the torpedo bobber I was using kept slipping. I need to work on the proper use of those. Meanwhile, the other guy was clearly fishing 3 poles at the same time. I didn't say anything to him about that, but I am surprised that he was doing that since he seemed familiar with the place and probably knew that rangers check the pier frequently. As it turned out, he caught 2 more Redears, one about the size of mine, and one about the size of my larger Bluegill. I think he was using a drop-shot type setup with nightcrawler pieces, and was just leaving his bait in one place casting out to the left, and putting a bell on his line like stillfishers for trout often do. It was strange that all 4 of his fish were Redears, but I caught 2 Redears myself, so the fall Redear season seems to be shaping up. Deyymonayy only mentioned catching Bluegills a few days earlier.
Also strange was a kid about 8-10 years of age who showed up by himself. He didn't have any fishing equipment; he just wanted to talk. One of my poles fell down with a thud, and he said it had a gentle way of falling. He said that the island was "an exotic place" and no one went there anymore. Then he said something like he would like to take a net and make a jetski out of it and go to the island. Huh? Around that point, I started to wonder about this kid and just said, yeah, sure. A while later, he wandered off, back to his mother presumably, with whom he had been touring the state park. It's a good thing that kids don't get schizophrenia, because he was saying some pretty strange things. I guess he just had lots of imagination. :EyePop:
I kept trying to catch more fish until about 8 p.m., even borrowing a nightcrawler from the other guy, but to no avail, so it wound up being another trip with one good size panfish (adult salad plate size, 1/2 pound), a few smallish ones (kids plate size, 1/4 pound) and some dinks. That seems to be pretty much the norm there. I did lose another good size one in the shady corner area at one point, but it was only on the line for a second or so -- definite bendo though.
Here's the catch:
5 Bluegills on worms, kept one good size (1/2 pound) and one smallish one (1/4 pound) and released three dinks;
1 dink Bluegill on bobber and fly (released);
2 smallish Redears which I kept (about 1/4 pound each).
The first picture shows our newest cat Xiao Hua investigating this strange creature. Gorjilina didn't show much interest in the fish (been there, done that).
The second picture shows a better view of the larger Bluegill. It is daytime in these pictures because I put the fish in the fridge overnight and took the photos this morning.
I think fishing should be pretty good this fall at Perris. At least the Redears are already starting to show up in greater numbers.