Natural Lefty
11-13-2010, 02:54 PM
My wife is still painting her daughter's house so no trip for us, and I went fishing solo again. After seeing lots of Redears last week at the Perris Marina, I decided to go back there earlier in the day, since I had the day off for Veterans Day.
My plan was to fish late morning, go back home, eat lunch, then fish again all afternoon. I got there at 10:30 a.m., went to my usual spot, and started fishing with redworms on various setups, none of which were working. There were a lot of people fishing along the left side of the docks, and none of them had the wristbands they were supposed to as far as I could tell. Only the people on the end had visible wristbands. Anyway, I stayed where I have been told you can fish for free, despite seeing a few small and smallish Redears and Bluegills caught by other people. Around 11:15, I decided to try closer to shore with my 2 pound setup. I left the other pole with a redworm sitting on the bottom a ways out and put the pole on top of my cooler. That turned out to be a big mistake. A few minutes later, I heard a large "Whack" sound, and immediately looked where my pole was supposed to be, but it was on the ground. I ran the 30-40 feet to get to it as fast as I could, but got there a second or two too late, just in time to see my ultralight Ugly Stick disappear into the lake's murky waters. To make things worse, that was the only bite I had all morning. I spent the next 45 minutes trying to catch my line and hopefully the gigantic fish I imagined being attached to it, all in vain. Finally, I gave up and headed for the launch ramp area before going home for lunch. The only thing I got at the launch ramp were snags, so I headed home for lunch around 12:45.
I was back at the marina around 2:45, having gone to Wal-Mart to buy a cute little grey ultralight Shakespeare rod/reel combo to replace the lost Ugly Stick, plus some more redworms. The fishing wasn't any better than before at first, but I stuck with it. Mostly I used redworms, plus a few nightcrawler pieces. The redworms from Wal-Mart were huge, though. Some of them looked more like nightcrawlers, the biggest ones I have ever seen.
I was getting ready to give up on the marina after another fishless hour there, but around 3:45, I started getting some MWP (missing worm phenomenon) action which is not uncommon with light biting Redears, so I stuck with it. Soon, I checked my 2 pound setup with a microjig and a small redworm on it. Despite no signs of bites, there was a decent size Redear on the line. After that, I started to get bites and catch fish regularly, as though a switch had been turned on. It's strange how differently fish act from one week to the next. I get there late last week, and people say they were biting all afternoon, so I get there earlier this week, and they don't start biting until about an hour before sundown. Anyway, I was happy to finally be catching fish. Before the fish started biting, I had talked to a lake employee who was putting the rental boats in their proper places, and told him about my rod that was pulled into the lake by a fish. He said there must be a bunch of rods down there. A while later, he and another employee came by, and I caught a Redear just as they were asking me if my luck had improved, so we were all smiles at that time. A few minutes later, some guys were leaving from the end of the docks, and just as they stopped to ask me about the fishing, I hooked a good one on my 2 pound setup. Since I was worried about losing it, one of them netted the fish for me. It was an 8 3/4 inch Redear, which was the second biggest one I have seen over the past couple of weeks. I guess that was my consolation prize from the Fishing Gods. Most of the Redears are smallish, but still nice panfish. The 3 men I was talking to had the biggest one. It appeared to be about a pound, maybe more. They also had one good size Bluegill, plus about 15 smallish Redears and Bluegills. They said the same thing about the fishing. They suddenly started biting a while earlier out there, so they caught most of the fish in the last half hour they were there, but had to leave.
After that, the employees came back and asked me to move to the other side of the gate, as it was about 4:35 by then. I showed them my bigger fish and promptly moved. It was a bit early to move, but the employee said I would have to move in a while, anyway. The fishing wasn't as good on the other side of the gate, but I did manage to catch one more decent size Redear. I woman with 3 kids came down and visited me at this time. She said the kids had been playing at the arcade but were interested in fishing. The woman had a pack of cigarettes in her hand, and seemed hyper like she might have been on a stonger stimulant that nicotine, if you know what I mean, but she and the kids were nice and well behaved. Unfortunately, I didn't catch any fish while they were there. I got a few more missing worms and lite bites, but the fishing slowed down after 5 p.m. I finally gave up and headed for home at 6 p.m.
My totals for the day were:
5 Redears, all on redworms (4 kept);
1 Bluegill on a redworm (kept);
Plus, one lost Ultralight Ugly Stick, possibly with a fish attached. If anyone on this board sees it, please inform me. I told my wife that "I bought her a new fishing pole" but she wasn't buying that. This was actually the first time I have ever lost a fishing pole to a fish. I did catch two Redears on the new pole fishing redworms dropshot style, but this time, my usual minijig with worm technique seemed to work better.
Here is a picture of the larger Redear plus two that are the average size being caught there.
My plan was to fish late morning, go back home, eat lunch, then fish again all afternoon. I got there at 10:30 a.m., went to my usual spot, and started fishing with redworms on various setups, none of which were working. There were a lot of people fishing along the left side of the docks, and none of them had the wristbands they were supposed to as far as I could tell. Only the people on the end had visible wristbands. Anyway, I stayed where I have been told you can fish for free, despite seeing a few small and smallish Redears and Bluegills caught by other people. Around 11:15, I decided to try closer to shore with my 2 pound setup. I left the other pole with a redworm sitting on the bottom a ways out and put the pole on top of my cooler. That turned out to be a big mistake. A few minutes later, I heard a large "Whack" sound, and immediately looked where my pole was supposed to be, but it was on the ground. I ran the 30-40 feet to get to it as fast as I could, but got there a second or two too late, just in time to see my ultralight Ugly Stick disappear into the lake's murky waters. To make things worse, that was the only bite I had all morning. I spent the next 45 minutes trying to catch my line and hopefully the gigantic fish I imagined being attached to it, all in vain. Finally, I gave up and headed for the launch ramp area before going home for lunch. The only thing I got at the launch ramp were snags, so I headed home for lunch around 12:45.
I was back at the marina around 2:45, having gone to Wal-Mart to buy a cute little grey ultralight Shakespeare rod/reel combo to replace the lost Ugly Stick, plus some more redworms. The fishing wasn't any better than before at first, but I stuck with it. Mostly I used redworms, plus a few nightcrawler pieces. The redworms from Wal-Mart were huge, though. Some of them looked more like nightcrawlers, the biggest ones I have ever seen.
I was getting ready to give up on the marina after another fishless hour there, but around 3:45, I started getting some MWP (missing worm phenomenon) action which is not uncommon with light biting Redears, so I stuck with it. Soon, I checked my 2 pound setup with a microjig and a small redworm on it. Despite no signs of bites, there was a decent size Redear on the line. After that, I started to get bites and catch fish regularly, as though a switch had been turned on. It's strange how differently fish act from one week to the next. I get there late last week, and people say they were biting all afternoon, so I get there earlier this week, and they don't start biting until about an hour before sundown. Anyway, I was happy to finally be catching fish. Before the fish started biting, I had talked to a lake employee who was putting the rental boats in their proper places, and told him about my rod that was pulled into the lake by a fish. He said there must be a bunch of rods down there. A while later, he and another employee came by, and I caught a Redear just as they were asking me if my luck had improved, so we were all smiles at that time. A few minutes later, some guys were leaving from the end of the docks, and just as they stopped to ask me about the fishing, I hooked a good one on my 2 pound setup. Since I was worried about losing it, one of them netted the fish for me. It was an 8 3/4 inch Redear, which was the second biggest one I have seen over the past couple of weeks. I guess that was my consolation prize from the Fishing Gods. Most of the Redears are smallish, but still nice panfish. The 3 men I was talking to had the biggest one. It appeared to be about a pound, maybe more. They also had one good size Bluegill, plus about 15 smallish Redears and Bluegills. They said the same thing about the fishing. They suddenly started biting a while earlier out there, so they caught most of the fish in the last half hour they were there, but had to leave.
After that, the employees came back and asked me to move to the other side of the gate, as it was about 4:35 by then. I showed them my bigger fish and promptly moved. It was a bit early to move, but the employee said I would have to move in a while, anyway. The fishing wasn't as good on the other side of the gate, but I did manage to catch one more decent size Redear. I woman with 3 kids came down and visited me at this time. She said the kids had been playing at the arcade but were interested in fishing. The woman had a pack of cigarettes in her hand, and seemed hyper like she might have been on a stonger stimulant that nicotine, if you know what I mean, but she and the kids were nice and well behaved. Unfortunately, I didn't catch any fish while they were there. I got a few more missing worms and lite bites, but the fishing slowed down after 5 p.m. I finally gave up and headed for home at 6 p.m.
My totals for the day were:
5 Redears, all on redworms (4 kept);
1 Bluegill on a redworm (kept);
Plus, one lost Ultralight Ugly Stick, possibly with a fish attached. If anyone on this board sees it, please inform me. I told my wife that "I bought her a new fishing pole" but she wasn't buying that. This was actually the first time I have ever lost a fishing pole to a fish. I did catch two Redears on the new pole fishing redworms dropshot style, but this time, my usual minijig with worm technique seemed to work better.
Here is a picture of the larger Redear plus two that are the average size being caught there.