Natural Lefty
10-09-2010, 04:38 PM
I made it out to the marina docks yesterday afternoon, with a little trepidation regarding the effects of Thursday's bluestoning of the lake. I made it to the store around 2:45, where the employee was nice to me and gave me a dock fishing permit for $1.50:Smile: and told me that the bluestoning was actually done in the middle of the lake.
Apparently, the copper sulfate had not made it to shore yet. There were no signs of bluestoning, and indeed, there was a couple with a good number of nice size Bluegills in a bucket, including one that appeared to be about a pound. There was also a shirtless guy with a sour look on his face, who saw me carrying 4 poles and asked me how many one can use. I said you can bring as many as you want, but only use 2 at a time and only with a second rod stamp.
I brought a bunch of homegrown redworms, along with the usual assortment of artificials. I put a 1/80th ounce jig on one pole, and redworms on the other. Before long, I had several hits on the jig, but I suspected that they were Bluegills. Meanwhile, my suspended redworms on the other pole were swallowed by a half-pound Bluegill that hooked itself. I had eight pound line on that pole, and a rather tight drag, because I didn't want to lose another large fish in the snags out there as I did this summer. It wasn't much of a contest getting the Bluegill in with that setup, but I wasn't complaining. I saw my neighbors catching Bluegills also, all on crickets, although the people farther away were not getting so much as a nibble. I was on the left side of the building, in the shade where people usually fish.
To sum it up, fishing continued to be good, with one mysterious lull in the action. I wound up catching another good sized, half-pounder and a bunch of smaller ones. By my count, I caught 15 and kept 5 of them, letting go the juvenile fish, although very few of them were the little baby ones yesterday. Other people seemed to be keeping all of the ones they caught including ones the size of the fish I let go.
Eventually, the guy with the sour look on his face, and his friend, migrated toward my area. They seemed out of practice, fishing-wise, and asked lots of questions. Eventually, one of them caught a couple of Bluegills on crickets. Finally, the guy with no shirt and the frustrated expression caught a good size Bluegill. Somehow, it fell back into the water as he was trying to put it on the stringer, but no matter, his mood improved after that. He had been talking about how he must have been cursed by the fish Gods prior to that, to paraphrase him. Eventually, he caught 3 Bluegills.
He also kept talking to me, and asked some unusual questions. For one, he asked me what I thought of the Marijuana proposition. I gave him a long, detailed answer about my thinking regarding what to do about drugs, and how my thinking has evolved. Apparently, he liked my answer and kept talking to me. Another strange question was that he asked me if a was disabled. What? I don't look disabled; that's for sure. But he said that he and his friend were both disabled (they don't really look it but hard to tell), and had gotten an annual pass to Perris Lake for $5 because of that. He was also telling me about his political misadventures running for mayor or city council, doing whistle blowing on corruption, and being made to pay for his honesty, etc. He was an unusual guy, tattoed, with earrings, smoking hand rolled cigarettes, cussing, yet apparently a devout Christian who said his main concern was always to help people, and I believe him. They also said they didn't have jobs, so they were low income people looking for cost-effective recreation and a place where they could catch some fish. They seemed happy to find the "community" docks at Perris.
At 6 p.m., right on cue, the security guy came out there and told us to move operations toward shore. I had already told my new acquaintances, Steven and Terry, about the procedure, so they went along with me to the nearshore part of the docks. Strangely, I could hardly get anything to bite there, although Steve caught a good size Bluegill there. Meanwhile, another family (dad, mom, and daughter who looks like a high school student but apparently already has a 6 month old child), said they recognized me from about a month ago when I was catching fish on flies. The dad introduced himself to me as David and shook my hand. I didn't recognize them, but they were nice people and I will remember them now. They overheard me talking to Steven, and knew my name was Robert. Anyway, they were using Waxworms under a bobber, and kept catching decent size Bluegills on them. For some reason, they didn't want to eat them -- the daughter said she used to like eating fish but not anymore -- so they kept giving them to me. I gave the second fish from David's family to the disabled guys Steve and Terry. Eventually Steve and Terry left, but not before saying some very nice things to me. Anyway, I wound up with 14 Bluegills in my cooler, all decent size (like at least 1/4 pound), although the 2 biggest were still the half pounders I caught out on the end of the docks. David, his wife and daughter also talked to me about trout fishing in the Sierras. Strangely, David asked me if the fish they were catching were Crappies, or what. Huh? I informed them that all of these fish were Bluegills. Apparently, they are much more familiar with trout than with panfish. They also said that they had fished there last week, but only caught one fish then, so the fishing was a lot better yesterday.
I fish in lots of places, including piers where lots of other people are, but for some reason, I meet the friendliest and most interesting people consistently at the Perris Lake marina docks. I was even telling Steven that people often give me fish there, and sure enough, David and his family kept giving me their Bluegills. Strangely, there was no evidence of Redears, Crappie or any fish other than Bluegills there yesterday, except for some likely Bass feeding on shad, but despite the bluestoning of the lake, the Bluegill fishing was good, I would say better than it had been my last few times out to the end of the docks there, although all the fish I caught were on redworms. I tried jigs, 2 types of flies, jigging a spoon, crickets, and nightcrawlers, but only caught fish on redworms. I was tempted to try waxworms, but was afraid the sawdust would make my allergies act up. There was not much midge or surface activity last night, probably as a result of the rains earlier in the week, although several real mosquitoes (not the midges) showed up and tried to bite us.
Apparently, the copper sulfate had not made it to shore yet. There were no signs of bluestoning, and indeed, there was a couple with a good number of nice size Bluegills in a bucket, including one that appeared to be about a pound. There was also a shirtless guy with a sour look on his face, who saw me carrying 4 poles and asked me how many one can use. I said you can bring as many as you want, but only use 2 at a time and only with a second rod stamp.
I brought a bunch of homegrown redworms, along with the usual assortment of artificials. I put a 1/80th ounce jig on one pole, and redworms on the other. Before long, I had several hits on the jig, but I suspected that they were Bluegills. Meanwhile, my suspended redworms on the other pole were swallowed by a half-pound Bluegill that hooked itself. I had eight pound line on that pole, and a rather tight drag, because I didn't want to lose another large fish in the snags out there as I did this summer. It wasn't much of a contest getting the Bluegill in with that setup, but I wasn't complaining. I saw my neighbors catching Bluegills also, all on crickets, although the people farther away were not getting so much as a nibble. I was on the left side of the building, in the shade where people usually fish.
To sum it up, fishing continued to be good, with one mysterious lull in the action. I wound up catching another good sized, half-pounder and a bunch of smaller ones. By my count, I caught 15 and kept 5 of them, letting go the juvenile fish, although very few of them were the little baby ones yesterday. Other people seemed to be keeping all of the ones they caught including ones the size of the fish I let go.
Eventually, the guy with the sour look on his face, and his friend, migrated toward my area. They seemed out of practice, fishing-wise, and asked lots of questions. Eventually, one of them caught a couple of Bluegills on crickets. Finally, the guy with no shirt and the frustrated expression caught a good size Bluegill. Somehow, it fell back into the water as he was trying to put it on the stringer, but no matter, his mood improved after that. He had been talking about how he must have been cursed by the fish Gods prior to that, to paraphrase him. Eventually, he caught 3 Bluegills.
He also kept talking to me, and asked some unusual questions. For one, he asked me what I thought of the Marijuana proposition. I gave him a long, detailed answer about my thinking regarding what to do about drugs, and how my thinking has evolved. Apparently, he liked my answer and kept talking to me. Another strange question was that he asked me if a was disabled. What? I don't look disabled; that's for sure. But he said that he and his friend were both disabled (they don't really look it but hard to tell), and had gotten an annual pass to Perris Lake for $5 because of that. He was also telling me about his political misadventures running for mayor or city council, doing whistle blowing on corruption, and being made to pay for his honesty, etc. He was an unusual guy, tattoed, with earrings, smoking hand rolled cigarettes, cussing, yet apparently a devout Christian who said his main concern was always to help people, and I believe him. They also said they didn't have jobs, so they were low income people looking for cost-effective recreation and a place where they could catch some fish. They seemed happy to find the "community" docks at Perris.
At 6 p.m., right on cue, the security guy came out there and told us to move operations toward shore. I had already told my new acquaintances, Steven and Terry, about the procedure, so they went along with me to the nearshore part of the docks. Strangely, I could hardly get anything to bite there, although Steve caught a good size Bluegill there. Meanwhile, another family (dad, mom, and daughter who looks like a high school student but apparently already has a 6 month old child), said they recognized me from about a month ago when I was catching fish on flies. The dad introduced himself to me as David and shook my hand. I didn't recognize them, but they were nice people and I will remember them now. They overheard me talking to Steven, and knew my name was Robert. Anyway, they were using Waxworms under a bobber, and kept catching decent size Bluegills on them. For some reason, they didn't want to eat them -- the daughter said she used to like eating fish but not anymore -- so they kept giving them to me. I gave the second fish from David's family to the disabled guys Steve and Terry. Eventually Steve and Terry left, but not before saying some very nice things to me. Anyway, I wound up with 14 Bluegills in my cooler, all decent size (like at least 1/4 pound), although the 2 biggest were still the half pounders I caught out on the end of the docks. David, his wife and daughter also talked to me about trout fishing in the Sierras. Strangely, David asked me if the fish they were catching were Crappies, or what. Huh? I informed them that all of these fish were Bluegills. Apparently, they are much more familiar with trout than with panfish. They also said that they had fished there last week, but only caught one fish then, so the fishing was a lot better yesterday.
I fish in lots of places, including piers where lots of other people are, but for some reason, I meet the friendliest and most interesting people consistently at the Perris Lake marina docks. I was even telling Steven that people often give me fish there, and sure enough, David and his family kept giving me their Bluegills. Strangely, there was no evidence of Redears, Crappie or any fish other than Bluegills there yesterday, except for some likely Bass feeding on shad, but despite the bluestoning of the lake, the Bluegill fishing was good, I would say better than it had been my last few times out to the end of the docks there, although all the fish I caught were on redworms. I tried jigs, 2 types of flies, jigging a spoon, crickets, and nightcrawlers, but only caught fish on redworms. I was tempted to try waxworms, but was afraid the sawdust would make my allergies act up. There was not much midge or surface activity last night, probably as a result of the rains earlier in the week, although several real mosquitoes (not the midges) showed up and tried to bite us.