Perris lake Catfish?

[Vies]

ive been tubing Perris for a couple years now and i have never seen anyone or heard of anyone catching cat fish at the lake. Any stories? if so, i gotta gear up for some Catfish on the tube! ;D

thanks guys

v

[fishmounter]

Yes, we have caught them fishing for Bluegill on jigs tipped with crickets. Not often, but once in a while. I would think that if you fished the submerged boulders on the east side of the island with flylined bonita or mackerel chunks in the early morning and evening hours, you would do pretty good.

[TheAsianGuy]

Oh..plenty of cats in Perris. If you're looking for the channel cats, they're going deep during the day, and creep out at night. Early early morning, they're lurking around the 5 to 10 feet depth. Best spots to hunt for them, based on my past experiences, are at the dam's outlet (south west corner of the lake), where the concentration of nutrients lay. They lurk at the very depth. Next best spot is near the tire reefs. Bulls tend to search the nests of the gills there I believe. Not sure if they eat the young gills, or there are odd food sources there. Someone got to dive there to confirm. Just from the tire reefs, head straight to the island or directly to the tules (tall grasses). There they lurk the shallows (5 to 10 feet). Early early morning, carps and cats lurk the shallow water along the eastern and southeastern banks of the lake. During summer time, make sure to watch out for snakes when you play along the shores around here. Same goes for tubing. My gripe is I can't seem to catch them carp. However, channel and bull cats, not a problem on carp's bait. Odd creatures.

[tacklejunkie]

You need flies or shad baits for the carp. Jerkbaits etc.
Carp bait works too, seen it. I see them eating flies too. microscopic white midges.

Bass worms on drop shot with scents also.

Fish the carp off main lake points even though they're up in the shallows.

Everyone I know who regularly fishes bass there has at least hooked into those carp. Not everyone lands it but nobody is usually expecting it either. lol

[TheAsianGuy]

I know exactly what you're talking about. Tossed everything in there to catch them, include sinking and floating midgets, carp baits, and fly lures of all sorts. The odd thing is, other fishes snapped them up, but not the carps..hahaahahaha..Only got lucky once to catch a small 1lb carp. But I'm not giving up.

[tree]

me and sublime steve were at Perris about a month ago and saw a HUGE floating log of a 10+lb catfish.

[TheAsianGuy]

Early morning near the dam right? or the east areas of the Bernasconi? Those large cats roam the morning water for those huge insects that get blown onto the surface by the 2 to 5am morning breezes. Saw a carp and possibly a bullhead chomped the water surface for those large green beetles floating dead in the water. I took a handful of crickets, tossed them in the water were they just took the beetles, floated my lines with 4 crickets on two hooks per line, and still didn't catch them. They just circled the crickets for a few minutes, and just swam away. I nearly jumped into the water with my hunter's knife to catch them bare handed. Oh well..next time I'll just follow my gut instinct and jump right in for an early morning swim.

[Kelster]

Just the one on my avatar. Caught it from my tube fishing for BG

[Kelster]

me and sublime steve were at Perris about a month ago and saw a HUGE floating log of a 10+lb catfish.

I saw a BIG floater about 6 weeks east of 11 and 12.

[bassgrabber1]

We zapped a lot of huge cats at 11/12 with DFG....huge meaning over 12lbs.

[tacklejunkie]

We zapped a lot of huge cats at 11/12 with DFG....huge meaning over 12lbs.

Pretty sure at that size their main forage is gonna be Shad or crawdad in this lake.
Scoop some shads up and let them sit with a C-rig out there and this might get them.
Dead stinky rotten crawdad tails too.

I've hooked three really big fish at Perris once and they all got away.
One of them I brought up giant carp scales on my jerkbait after a 5 minute fight.
They eat it, then they turn and it gets stuck to their head and when they break free you bring up a scale.
One broke me off in the marina around the docks after 5 minutes. Never saw what it was. (either cat or bass)
One also broke me off on the east of the island on a cricket after 5 minutes. lol

Matt D lost a giant carp on a crankbait once. brought up a giant scale too.

All at Perris.
FD420's friend landed one on drop shot with 8lb test once. 15lb carp

I think Bassguy did also.

[TheAsianGuy]

We zapped a lot of huge cats at 11/12 with DFG....huge meaning over 12lbs.

Jeeze James! Did you guys hauled those cats back for some major lunches and dinners? 10+lbs cats. Sheesh man. Huge floating bodies from the shocks..major haul right there! Or did you guys let them recover and resubmerge?

[tacklejunkie]

I think he was just surveying the fish and letting them go?

Those things eat shad. It's not often you see big fish like cats and carp on normal baits from Perris. Nightcrawlers maybe but those get picked up by the bass and gills before the cats smell and get to them.
Later in the summer I used to see some Asian guys doing really well with the carp though.
I have a picture of some dude in a straw hat pulling in a 40lb carp on a 10' surf rod off a point I was clobbering bass from.

Don't make me dig it up, trust me I have it somewhere lol
I watched him land the whole thing. The fight was amazing. He was looking around for help like I did when I hooked my DD. Haha. That's when you know you hooked into something. When you start looking around for help!

I almost got a carp yesterday at some no named lake. He was circling my powerbait. lol

[tree]

Yeah the DFG surveys the fish with shocking and netting. James was volunteering with topwaterbassin there as well.

[Kelster]

The one I saw didn't make it then, it was definitely dead, down at Brushflats area.

[bassgrabber1]

Yup...just survey. I wouldn't eat a cat that big anyway.....IMO they might be a little old to eat.

[TheAsianGuy]

So, you guys shocked them only to send their neuro pathways a jolt for them to float sideway for survey, and recover 20 minutes later? Or they all went bell up and died?