Natural Lefty
09-25-2010, 04:20 PM
After finishing my teaching and chores yesterday, I headed for Diamond Valley lake for the first time in several years. I got there around 3:45, which is pretty late considering the early closing time there, but I was curious to see what is going on there. The young woman at the entrance was nice to me and voided the parking fee, but I still had to pay $5. There is a new fee of $2 for "hiking," giving me another reason why I don't go there often.
I had the impression that people could fish from the rocks near the launch ramp and store, so I went there first. Looking down at the cove behind the store, I was astounded by how many shad and bass were hanging around there. The place looks almost like a gigantic fish hatchery specializing in Bass and Shad. I went down to the rocks near the launch ramp, and started casting a minijig, but could only see scads of shad and a bunch of bass who didn't seem very interested in my offering. There were also Grebes that were swimming around and feasting on the shad. After a few minutes, a lake employee approached me and told me that people weren't allowed to fish there "due to the rattlesnakes" he said. The fishing area to the left of the marina does not start until after the rip rap area, which looks like about 1/4 mile. The lake is still low and the shoreline over there looked steep and plain, not very promising except for the presence of deep water. Today, I noticed that my hiking pass came with all sorts of disclaimers about how dangerous it was to fish there. They are clearly worried about liability in case of accidents.
Viewing the situation, I decided to go to the old shorefishing area I was fairly familiar with. I walked over to the trail to the "3 coves" and took it to the old dirt road that goes down to the lake. When I got there, another guy was already fishing nearby. He feigned anger when I got there, saying he had reserved that entire part of the lake, but he was actually friendly. I found out that his name is Ray, and he fishes there a lot. I have actually had a couple of unpleasant experiences when I was fishing about 30 feet away from some people, not bothering them at all, but they got genuinely angry at me (angry at life, I guess) for intruding upon their space, but not Ray and not at DVL.
The shad and bass situation was about the same there as at the other place. It was remarkable, just as Saltydog (not sure of the name) mentioned in the other post from yesterday. Here, there were also Bluegill visible as well. On my first cast with a jig, I caught a little one, which I put back. After that, things slowed down fishing wise, although the fish were putting on a show that was worth the $5 I paid for admission. It was not unusual to see a LMB of 2-3 pounds jump completely out of the water while chasing shad. Ray was using a large topwater lure of some kind and casting to boils when he wasn't talking on his cell phone. I tried putting a metal lure on one pole. I picked out a Z-Ray for some reason, and tried it on and off with no success, but then, I didn't see Ray catch anything either. I think the fish were too busy feasting on the real thing to bother much with imitations. I was really hoping for a Striped Bass, actually, but I didn't see any yesterday, just a great many LMB of various sizes.
I also tried casting out redworms with a sinking, sliding bobber to no avail. In fact, the fish seemed uninterested in worms except for some young little Bluegills near shore. Diamond Valley certainly is an unusual place. Eventually, I put a Royal Coachman fly on my 2 pound line, with a small bobber, and began getting strikes. I managed to catch another small Bluegill plus a decent size one I had seen swimming near me on this fly, and missed a few other decent size ones. Eventually, I set the hook too hard on one, and my line broke.
By this time it was about 5 p.m., only one hour left, and Ray was getting ready to leave. He pulled up a basket as he was leaving with one of those elongated, predatory green-bodied sunfish in it, about 15-16 inches I would say. He said he was going to give it to a neighbor of his, and it was the only fish he caught that day, but he had lost several large ones and had caught large stripers and LMB there on other occasions. He also mentioned to me that he killed a rattlesnake at that spot last week, so they are around, although I have yet to see one there (guess I am just lucky that way).
As soon as Ray left, I decided to go to another spot not far away, where I have always caught more Bluegills than other shoreline locations for some reason. I tied on a Light Cahill fly on my 2 pound pole, casted out there, and bam! I had another decent size Bluegill on almost before I had started reeling. I wound up catching 3 more, all decent size which I kept -- this action occuring despite the fact that no fish could be seen and none were surfacing at this location. The largest was 8 inches with that large male Bluegill appearance. I find the variation in the Bluegills at DVL interesting. The lake was stocked with both florida and northern strain Bluegills in the beginning, and now, almost all of the Bluegills have a combination of florida and northern strain characteristics with lots of individual variation, not that a lot of people would care except for me. However, I caught one Bluegill at my favorite shoreline spot which was absolutely golden throughout most of its body. I was about to clean it, but felt compelled to take some pictures of it and some of the other fish.
Around 5:30 the same guy who chased me out of the rip rap area came by in a boat, and said the lake would close "in about 20 minutes." Meanwhile, my line, which was probably frayed from battling the bushes onshore and snags in the water, gave way while setting the hook again, so I tied on a parachute Adams, and it kept getting bit, but I kept missing the fish. I think I was getting nervous about getting out of there. I finally exited Diamond Valley Lake around the 6 p.m. deadline, but noticed that there were still about 12 vehicles in the parking lot and several boats still approaching the launch ramp.
Since it was only 6 p.m., and fish hit flies around dusk at Perris, I decided to stop there on the way home. I headed to the launch ramp area there and went to the west side of that cove where I seem to have the most action, though mostly for young little critters. Indeed, they were going for the Parachute Adams trailing the small bobber. It was already past sunset when I got there, and many fish could be seen surfacing. I caught 6 of them, but they were all small Bluegills which I put back. I did hook something bigger briefly, but it came off. Eventually, I put on a Mosquito pattern fly which I had just bought at Big 5 for fishing Perris mainly, and as it was getting dark, I hooked a somewhat larger fish quite far from shore. It splashed a lot but I couldn't see what it was. I figured it was just a decent size Bluegill, but when I brought it in, I saw that it was not a Bluegill...nor a Redear...nor a Bass... but a Crappie. It wasn't big, only about 7-8 inches, but not too small, and definitely a pleasant surprise. After the Crappie, I wasn't able to land anymore fish, so I finally headed home around 7:30.
The total catch was:
Diamond Valley -- 7 Bluegills (5 kept, 2 released), one on a microjig, 2 on a Royal Coachman, 4 on a Light Cahill;
Perris Lake -- 6 Bluegills all released (5 on a Parachute Adams, 1 on a Mosquito), plus one Crappie on a Mosquito.
Photo number 1 shows 4 of the fish on the cutting board. (I had already cleaned two others).
Photo number 2 is a close-up of the golden hued Bluegill. We have all heard of Golden Trout. Now we have Golden Bluegills too, very striking coloration.
I had the impression that people could fish from the rocks near the launch ramp and store, so I went there first. Looking down at the cove behind the store, I was astounded by how many shad and bass were hanging around there. The place looks almost like a gigantic fish hatchery specializing in Bass and Shad. I went down to the rocks near the launch ramp, and started casting a minijig, but could only see scads of shad and a bunch of bass who didn't seem very interested in my offering. There were also Grebes that were swimming around and feasting on the shad. After a few minutes, a lake employee approached me and told me that people weren't allowed to fish there "due to the rattlesnakes" he said. The fishing area to the left of the marina does not start until after the rip rap area, which looks like about 1/4 mile. The lake is still low and the shoreline over there looked steep and plain, not very promising except for the presence of deep water. Today, I noticed that my hiking pass came with all sorts of disclaimers about how dangerous it was to fish there. They are clearly worried about liability in case of accidents.
Viewing the situation, I decided to go to the old shorefishing area I was fairly familiar with. I walked over to the trail to the "3 coves" and took it to the old dirt road that goes down to the lake. When I got there, another guy was already fishing nearby. He feigned anger when I got there, saying he had reserved that entire part of the lake, but he was actually friendly. I found out that his name is Ray, and he fishes there a lot. I have actually had a couple of unpleasant experiences when I was fishing about 30 feet away from some people, not bothering them at all, but they got genuinely angry at me (angry at life, I guess) for intruding upon their space, but not Ray and not at DVL.
The shad and bass situation was about the same there as at the other place. It was remarkable, just as Saltydog (not sure of the name) mentioned in the other post from yesterday. Here, there were also Bluegill visible as well. On my first cast with a jig, I caught a little one, which I put back. After that, things slowed down fishing wise, although the fish were putting on a show that was worth the $5 I paid for admission. It was not unusual to see a LMB of 2-3 pounds jump completely out of the water while chasing shad. Ray was using a large topwater lure of some kind and casting to boils when he wasn't talking on his cell phone. I tried putting a metal lure on one pole. I picked out a Z-Ray for some reason, and tried it on and off with no success, but then, I didn't see Ray catch anything either. I think the fish were too busy feasting on the real thing to bother much with imitations. I was really hoping for a Striped Bass, actually, but I didn't see any yesterday, just a great many LMB of various sizes.
I also tried casting out redworms with a sinking, sliding bobber to no avail. In fact, the fish seemed uninterested in worms except for some young little Bluegills near shore. Diamond Valley certainly is an unusual place. Eventually, I put a Royal Coachman fly on my 2 pound line, with a small bobber, and began getting strikes. I managed to catch another small Bluegill plus a decent size one I had seen swimming near me on this fly, and missed a few other decent size ones. Eventually, I set the hook too hard on one, and my line broke.
By this time it was about 5 p.m., only one hour left, and Ray was getting ready to leave. He pulled up a basket as he was leaving with one of those elongated, predatory green-bodied sunfish in it, about 15-16 inches I would say. He said he was going to give it to a neighbor of his, and it was the only fish he caught that day, but he had lost several large ones and had caught large stripers and LMB there on other occasions. He also mentioned to me that he killed a rattlesnake at that spot last week, so they are around, although I have yet to see one there (guess I am just lucky that way).
As soon as Ray left, I decided to go to another spot not far away, where I have always caught more Bluegills than other shoreline locations for some reason. I tied on a Light Cahill fly on my 2 pound pole, casted out there, and bam! I had another decent size Bluegill on almost before I had started reeling. I wound up catching 3 more, all decent size which I kept -- this action occuring despite the fact that no fish could be seen and none were surfacing at this location. The largest was 8 inches with that large male Bluegill appearance. I find the variation in the Bluegills at DVL interesting. The lake was stocked with both florida and northern strain Bluegills in the beginning, and now, almost all of the Bluegills have a combination of florida and northern strain characteristics with lots of individual variation, not that a lot of people would care except for me. However, I caught one Bluegill at my favorite shoreline spot which was absolutely golden throughout most of its body. I was about to clean it, but felt compelled to take some pictures of it and some of the other fish.
Around 5:30 the same guy who chased me out of the rip rap area came by in a boat, and said the lake would close "in about 20 minutes." Meanwhile, my line, which was probably frayed from battling the bushes onshore and snags in the water, gave way while setting the hook again, so I tied on a parachute Adams, and it kept getting bit, but I kept missing the fish. I think I was getting nervous about getting out of there. I finally exited Diamond Valley Lake around the 6 p.m. deadline, but noticed that there were still about 12 vehicles in the parking lot and several boats still approaching the launch ramp.
Since it was only 6 p.m., and fish hit flies around dusk at Perris, I decided to stop there on the way home. I headed to the launch ramp area there and went to the west side of that cove where I seem to have the most action, though mostly for young little critters. Indeed, they were going for the Parachute Adams trailing the small bobber. It was already past sunset when I got there, and many fish could be seen surfacing. I caught 6 of them, but they were all small Bluegills which I put back. I did hook something bigger briefly, but it came off. Eventually, I put on a Mosquito pattern fly which I had just bought at Big 5 for fishing Perris mainly, and as it was getting dark, I hooked a somewhat larger fish quite far from shore. It splashed a lot but I couldn't see what it was. I figured it was just a decent size Bluegill, but when I brought it in, I saw that it was not a Bluegill...nor a Redear...nor a Bass... but a Crappie. It wasn't big, only about 7-8 inches, but not too small, and definitely a pleasant surprise. After the Crappie, I wasn't able to land anymore fish, so I finally headed home around 7:30.
The total catch was:
Diamond Valley -- 7 Bluegills (5 kept, 2 released), one on a microjig, 2 on a Royal Coachman, 4 on a Light Cahill;
Perris Lake -- 6 Bluegills all released (5 on a Parachute Adams, 1 on a Mosquito), plus one Crappie on a Mosquito.
Photo number 1 shows 4 of the fish on the cutting board. (I had already cleaned two others).
Photo number 2 is a close-up of the golden hued Bluegill. We have all heard of Golden Trout. Now we have Golden Bluegills too, very striking coloration.