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View Full Version : Perris Marina 5/27 I Was the Redear Champ



Natural Lefty
05-28-2012, 02:19 PM
I headed for Perris Lake for a rare Sunday trip after a rough week. My father had prostate surgery on Monday, and we were told that all had gone well and he was ready to go home on Thursday, but on Friday, we were told that he had a stroke and was being taken to rehab. Meanwhile, my mother wasn't doing well in his absence. She went to the nursery on Saturday and hit another car in the parking lot. To top it off, I was informed that her doctor will tell her next week that she has Alzheimer Disease. It doesn't seem to me like that is what she has, but whatever it is, this is really bad news.

After finding out about my mom's problems just as I was getting ready to go fishing, I didn't feel like going anyplace farther than Perris Lake. My wife was in Las Vegas with our daughter, so I could use the company at Perris, anyway, which I knew there would be plenty of with the holiday.

I was somewhat surprised that people still were being let in at Perris when I got there around 2:30 p.m. I headed for the launch ramp first, but with the holiday, both ramps were open to boat use (and thus closed to fishing), and the shoreline was so crowded with holiday-goers that there was essentially no room to fish. Next, I tried going to Sail Cove, but the entire parking lot was full, so I headed to the marina, which was far less crowded since it has no beach. I always seem to end up there, anyway.

There were not many people fishing there when I got there, surprisingly, just one group of a few teenagers, and a familiar person whose name I didn't know. I later found out his name is Navonn (not sure of the spelling). He fishes at the docks quite a bit, and usually tries for Crappie, so I am sure a lot of people would recognize him. He did tell me about almost catching a large Redear earlier, but somehow it broke his line when he went to get a stringer.

Navonn and a couple of the teenagers caught a couple of small Bluegills early on, and one of them had a good size Redear on the dock, but somehow it flopped back into the water and broke his line. That was it as far as catching went for the first hour or so. My leftover worms from last week turned out to be dead, and I only had 3 new ones. I was hoping to catch fish on flies as I did last week, actually, but not many fish seemed to be around. Anyway, after about an hour of trying around the docks, in the shallows, and casting out with my redear rig with the droppor loops, I was trying a spot on a nearby dock with my red pole, when Navonn hooked a fish on my "lucky" grey pole and yelled out to me. I did the fifty foot pole dash and Navonn handed the pole off to me. It turned out to be a decent size Redear of about 8 inches. This fish was on my last redworm. After that, I went up to the store and bought some "dillies" (baby nightcrawlers although some of the ones in this box looked more like garden worms than nightcrawlers, which was okay with me).

After that, I concentrated on fishing both poles Redear style, casting out with dropper loops and the weight on the bottom. It worked for me. A while later, one of my poles had a major bendo and it would have gone into the lake if I hadn't wrapped the line around a boat tie. That was a nine inch Redear. After that, I caught a holdover trout on the same rig the same way. This one was funny though, because Navonn was trying to tell me he had seen a light bite on that line, but I didn't see anything at first, until the pole suddenly bent over. This one really pulled hard and I thought it was a bigger fish than it was. Around that time, 5 p.m. or so, about 15 other fisherpeople showed up, plus a group of 7 teenage gals who were literally lying on the docks, talking. They weren't wearing bikinis or pajamas, so I don't know exactly what to call it. :Confused: Anyway, I had to step around this group of happy, singing, cute gals for quite awhile after that as I fished.

From this point, the next several fish caught were trout, by several different people, none of whom were fishing for trout. Most were caught on worms I think, and at least one was on a dead leftover shad. For awhile, I thought we had magically been transported to Big Bear Lake, or at least Hemet Lake.:EyePop: In all, I counted a total of 8 trout caught from 5-8 p.m.

Around six p.m., I decided to toss out into the sheltered, enclosed area (the area near shore that is surrounded by docks). I immediately felt a couple of light taps, which I figured was a small Bluegill. I moved the line a bit, more taps ensued, so I set the hook, and to my surprise, this was an even bigger Redear, almost 10 inches long. The Bluegills had strangely gone absent, but eventually, a small number of them showed up but in nowhere near there usual numbers. In all, I think I saw about 3-4 good size (8 inch) adult Bluegills caught, and about 10 or so small juvenile ones. I did catch one of the little 5-6 inch ones in that same area a while later, which I put back. I teenage kid caught a good size one on a waxworm in the enclosed area around that time too. He didn't know what Bluegills or Redears were, and thought my trout was a bass at first, but he was a fast learner.

My last fish came around 7:30 and it was the biggest one. It was a large male Redear in spawning colors in the enclosed area also, surprisingly close to shore. Navonn was very nice helping me with the net. This one was 10 1/4 inches long, and really husky looking. (The other 3 Redears I caught were females.)

To that point, I had seen no surface activity whatsoever. Finally, I started seeing some fish surfacing far to the right (west) side of the docks, then closer to the docks on that side. I tried my fly that had worked so well the past couple of times, behind a bobber, but only had one or two strikes. Maybe there were just fewer fish feeding on flies in the area, but it seemed as though they weren't going for that pattern like they had in previous weeks. There was a nice young man who was fishing artificials, so we took a look at his flies, and picked out a beadheaded Prince Nymph for him to use with a bobber since the fish weren't surfacing that much. He went over to the right side of the docks to fish it, and afterward, told me that he had 5 strikes on the fly but couldn't hook any of them. I am hoping this summer and fall won't be a dud for fly fishing at Perris like last year, but at least I think there is hope in that department. Maybe yesterday was just a down day for the flies. We did eventually see a swarm of midges buzzing around us though. I finally left around 8:30 p.m. The fish had stopped biting on worms too, but I kept trying for one more fish.

Aside from the scarcity of Bluegills, I saw no bass whatsoever for the second week in a row. I didn't see any Crappie yesterday, either. I was the only person who actually landed any Redear yesterday afternoon. Not that many fish were landed, but most of them were good size ones, aside from a few small Bluegills.

My total catch was:

4 Redears, all kept, 1 on a redworm, 3 on pieces of baby nightcrawlers;

1 holdover Rainbow Trout on a piece of baby nightcrawler, kept;

1 juvenile Bluegill on a piece of baby nightcrawler, released.

When I cleaned the largest Redear, I noticed it had a lot of food in its stomach. It turned out that a hook fell out when I looked at its stomach contents. Upon further investigation, I found a line in the fish's mouth, leading to a second, larger hook in the fish's gullet. That fish sure ate well for a fish with two hooks in its gullet. I found a nightcrawler, several small aquatic snails, tubifex worms, something like an earwig, and several of what appeared to be plant seeds in its stomach. (Redears need to eat their veggies too, I guess.) :Surprised: I was wondering if this might have been the same dangerous living, gluttonous fish that had broken Navonn's line and the teenager's line earlier.

My scale said this fish weighed 12 ounces, and the 5 fish I kept totalled 2 pounds, 12 ounces. Twelve ounces is not as big as many of the ones my wife and I have caught from the Colorado River this year, but still the largest I have caught at Perris since at least last fall. (I weighed a Redear from Aha Quin I caught earlier this month, and it went 1 pound, 4 ounces.) Navonn also gave me the trout he caught.

All of the fish were caught on my "lucky grey pole" so it was one of those lucky pole days, and I was definitely the lucky, Redear catching champ of the day.

I took a photo of the fish I kept, plus a photo of the fillets from the largest Redear I caught along with the 2 hooks I found in its stomach.

Natural Lefty
05-28-2012, 02:59 PM
I tried several times to add the 2 photos from the attachments, but nothing happens when I try. I will try once more on this reply.

Good -- this time it worked. That's a keeper.

fish4anything
05-28-2012, 03:43 PM
Sorry to hear the bad news about your parents. Tough. But thanks for the report!! Awesome!

The Fishing Queen
05-28-2012, 09:24 PM
Nice write up and some good catches, Lefty! Sorry about your mom and dad's situations. It's a tough time for you and your family right now, but I hope that everything will be better in the future!

old pudd fisher
05-28-2012, 10:35 PM
Now thats worth a good lunch for two, and nice fillet job. Take care.

Natural Lefty
05-29-2012, 11:44 AM
Hello Old Pudd Fisher. I have a nice bag of the fillets in the refrigerator now. I saved them for my wife's return from rip-off Memorial Weekend in Las Vegas. (Everything was super-expensive, but her daughter wanted to go when she had time off from work.) I had to stay off the computer yesterday afternoon and evening waiting for their calls about when to pick them up in Rowland Heights. (They took a bus to Las Vegas.) Their return trip took 8 hours due to bad traffic so they didn't get back until 8 p.m.

Fishing Queen and fish4anything, thank you for your concern. I guess I expected my parents to be like my 94 year old Okinawan neighbor, Shin (or Old Pudd Fisher's dad for that matter), whom I saw working in his front yard this morning, but they are about 10 years younger than that and seem to be falling apart already. I think a lot of my parents' problems are psychological but it affects the physical as well. I know we all have to go sometime but it's hard when you see your family members deteriorating and becoming invalids. As I think Buckminster Fuller (or somebody famous like that) said: I don't want to die until I am all used up.

Sorry to be such a downer. I guess I needed some fishing therapy on Sunday, if you know what I mean. I didn't mean to be a braggart, either. I was the only person catching the Redears at the marina, but I think "the force was with me."

I won't be able to go fishing again until spring classes are finished around June 8 or so.

fishmounter
05-29-2012, 03:15 PM
Wow! That's a wide gap plastic worm hook used for bass fishing. Huh...
Hey so sorry to hear about your folks. I hope everything will go well with them. Sucks getting older...

castle
05-29-2012, 05:38 PM
Lefty, are there still small bullheads on the bottom or has this changed also?

GhettoBasster
05-29-2012, 06:12 PM
Sorry to hear about your family situation Lefty. I'm going through something similar myself. Fishing always helps melt the stress away. Anyways, great detailed report. The stomach contents of the big one are really interesting. I've always wondered how the fish I've released after a gut-hooking have done. It seems like that one was doing ok. Oh and yes, old age sucks and we'll all be there one day; therefore we should fish as much as possible.

Natural Lefty
05-29-2012, 06:20 PM
Yes, I thought that hook looked kind of big and strange, Jeff, but it was in the largest Redear's gullet and it had a piece of nightcrawler on it. There was a second nightcrawler in the fish's stomach.

My wife and I just talked to my mom and dad plus a couple of health care workers. My parents seemed to be in a good mood, but my father is worried about a huge imaginary hospital bill. The hospital workers didn't know to give him his antianxiety meds. Getting older does indeed suck. We aren't really sure about my mom's diagnosis yet, but nobody in her family has had Alzheimer Disease and she can talk quite lucidly and remember a lot of stuff. I think her being upset about my father's problems is contributing to her memory lapses when she has them.

Castle, I didn't catch any Sculpin this time if that's what you mean. It was strange how quickly things had changed. Last week, there were large schools of shad, but not this week, and large schools of Bluegill, but they were scattered this week. Last week, there were no trout, but there were this week. There were no bass either week. I am guessing that the cold front had something to do with the changes.

Natural Lefty
05-29-2012, 06:21 PM
Ghettobasster, I'm sorry to hear that you are going through a similar situation too. I guess it's lucky for us in a way that our parents have made it this far. I suppose most people on this site are going through the aging, invalid parents thing, or already have, or will in the future.

That fish was gut hooked with not one, but two hooks and it was still doing fine. In addition to what I noticed, it probably had some insect larvae and/or small crustaceans in its stomach. The sunfish family is quite hardy. Trout, however, have a high mortality rate after being caught unless lip hooked, so I have read. But I suppose the bass, etc. other than trout, that you release are doing fine, with a few possible exceptions.

fishmounter
05-29-2012, 06:38 PM
Yeah Robert, I always worry about fish I let go that swallow my hook or just breaks my line... I always wonder if they will survive. I guess if they are not bleeding bad, they probably be alright.

angelsfan951
05-29-2012, 08:16 PM
sorry to hear about ur parents problem but hang in there. some are lucky to have their parents for a long time as for me i wasn't so lucky. my dad passed away when i was 21. I'm now 26 and i still look for him sometimes in his chair but unfortunately he's not there anymore but all i can say is even when they are not here anymore memories live for ever and they are always with u. BTW thanx for the report.

Natural Lefty
05-30-2012, 10:47 AM
Hello Jeff. I think the general finding is that gut-hooked trout or salmon usually die afterward, but other species usually survive. Trout and salmon hooked in the mouth, however, also usually survive, thus the use of artificials only regulations in a lot of trout waters with minimum sizes etc. The Redear with the hooks in its gut seemed quite unaffected and was still quite frisky. The hooks hadn't been there long, I think, but I read that they dissolve from the stomach acid after a couple of weeks.

Thanks Angelsfan. I am an Angels fan by the way but not into it as much as I used to be. My brothers and I have been lucky to have our parents so long. We are currently emailing and calling each other about the situation. I just got off the phone with my eldest brother. I have been thinking about our family vacations in the Sierras and all the times my dad took me fishing locally, wishing we could go again like before, but I am pretty sure my father won't recover enough to do that again, if at all.

M@M
05-30-2012, 02:19 PM
Hang in there Lefty...... thanks for the report

Natural Lefty
05-30-2012, 09:27 PM
Thanks M&M. I am doing fine, other than worries about my parents.

phishin phool
05-30-2012, 11:05 PM
Excellent report and read as always, thanks for sharing and prayers out to you and your family. Tight lines and bent rods to ya.

Natural Lefty
05-31-2012, 09:27 PM
Thank you phishin phool. I think my wife and I will be able to fish quite a bit this summer. I am sure that there will be lots of catching. Meanwhile, my wife and I spent most of the afternoon at my parents' house talking to my mother. That was no picnic, though, if you know what I mean. I have gotten sick for the second time in the past two weeks (sore throat and fatigue), due to the combined stress of my parents' situation and my teaching (finals starting tomorrow), I think.