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View Full Version : Perris on a Summer's Eve 7/5



Natural Lefty
07-06-2012, 05:14 PM
I have been fishing lately (various places) but haven't posted a report for various reasons, although no metaphorical fishing skunks for me, just the real ones that visit my yard, so here goes.

I was supposed to go fishing with my friend Juanmore late yesterday afternoon, but unfortunately his wife needed the car so he couldn't get there. Anyway, I headed for the marina, since I have been catching larger fish there in recent months. (My wife and I took 2 of my nieces to Sail Cove 3 weeks ago, and we caught fish, but only small 5 inch Bluegills were biting.)

The store guy at the marina asked if I wanted a dock fishing pass, so I thought "what the heck, okay" and he gave me one for half price as usual. On my way to the docks I encountered Lorenzo plus his friend Frederico along with some people I guess were Frederico's family -- lots of friendly greetings there. Frederico's friend started disbursing a bunch of crickets on the ground, but Frederico told him to give them to me. I don't use crickets for bait much, but I gladly accepted them. Then Frederico showed me his fish, Bluegills and Redears in an icechest, 25 of them I guess, and he gave those to me too then I went home, end of story. Just kidding, I went there to go fishing, after all, but Frederico did give me a bunch of crickets. It was certainly a better atmosphere than at Silverwood Lake over the past couple of weeks, where I ended up getting a ticket for not coming to a stop as I left the park near closing time last week, then being virtually interrogated by the police officer since he had the impression that I was driving a stolen car. It turns out that the dispatcher entered the wrong number so my car came back as unregistered.

I headed for the end of the docks around 4:30 p.m., where I tried various worms, crickets and jigs in futility over the first hour. Finally, a fish inhaled my worm and I caught about an 11 inch bass on the right side of the dock around 5:30. I figured it was a bass because it simply created a sudden weight on the line instead of nibbling, but I was somewhat disappointed it wasn't something else. I knew I would catch fish later on, because I saw a guy catch a Bluegill in front of the gate as I was walking onto the dock, so I wasn't worried about being "skunked." I was just hoping to catch some decent size panfish.

Anyway, there were no more bites on the end of the dock, so it was almost a relief when the employee said it was time to head in at 6 o'clock. Indeed, I caught and released a small bluegill almost immediately near shore. Both fish to this point were caught on my "lucky grey pole" which I had just restrung with new 6 pound line. After that, I commenced to using up the crickets, and they got bitten quickly almost every time, but I was having trouble hooking the fish. I finally caught a decent size Bluegill when I didn't cast as far from the dock. After that, I cast out a cricket closer to the gate but to the right, using my red pole and a 1/80 ounce jig, and caught a decent size Bluegill, then a bigger one that was over 8 inches in the same spot. I figured that the Bluegills were spead over the area in a large school, with the larger ones mostly on the outer edge of the area, in deeper water, so I started concentrating on fishing closer to the gate after that. Fishing was pretty steady for me. I ran out of crickets eventually, but I continued catching a fish here and there on worms. I kept fishing until about 8:30 and wound up catching 10 fish on the day -- 8 Bluegills, a Redear, and the Bass.

The guy who caught the Bluegill as I was first heading onto the dock looked familiar. He was using what appeared to be some sort of slip bobber setup with a super long leader and waxworms for bait, casting out way to the left of the dock in a certain area, and he was getting bit almost constantly. He missed some fish, but caught a lot of them, and kept about half of them which were decent size. He was with his son, who was fishing closer to the gate, and didn't catch as many although I saw the son bring in a good size Bluegill one time. Eventually, I recognized them as people I had met several years ago at Puddingstone. The think that cued my memory was the peculiar way he always addressed his "boy." The "boy" was maybe around 10 years old when I met them before, but now, he is a big, strong looking young lad, although dad still calls his "boy" by the same moniker. I guess it's a term of endearment in his case. I asked the father if he fished Puddingstone, and he said yes, they lived in Pomona and fished Puddingstone a lot. In fact he has an annual pass for Puddingstone, but he complained about the small size of the fish that are biting there this time of year. We ended up having a nice conversation.

There were a father and son who were out on the end of the dock with me too, who also moved closer to shore after 6. I didn't think they had caught anything, but eventually, I saw the son show another kid a large Bluegill they had caught. They were using bobbers with line that looked too heavy and leaders that looked too short, with crickets. There were probably at least 4 other families that I saw this balmy, pleasant evening on the pier, but disappointingly, I didn't see any of them catch any fish. I tried to show the mom of one family how I was catching fish, but it didn't seem to help. I tried to show the boy from the end of the dock what to do too. I wanted him to ditch the bobber, but I wasn't sure how to rerig his pole because their setup was so complex, with various swivels, beads, bobbers, etc. With all the fish that were around, I was surprised there weren't more caught. At least the weather was nice.

I didn't take any photos, but as people say on this site, everybody knows what 6-8 inch Bluegills and Redears look like. I kept 5 Bluegills and the Redear, which were lunch today, and released the others. One of the Bluegills I kept only because it was bleeding and I thought it wouldn't make it, but the others were okay size, along with the one larger one. About half of them were caught on the crickets, about half on worms but I didn't keep track of the exact numbers. I came prepared to use flies, as always, but sadly, the larger midges never showed up, and the place was devoid of surface activity except for a lone splash in the enclosed area near near shore which is usually bursting with surfacing juvenile Bluegills in the evening. The Bluegills were there, but they seemed to be holding deeper this time.

old pudd fisher
07-06-2012, 07:18 PM
Thanks for the nice report and hope your mom and dad are doing ok. I remember you saying that they both had some health problems.

Natural Lefty
07-06-2012, 08:22 PM
Old Pudd Fisher, my father will probably return home from Villa Healthcare in Riverside this Sunday, so he has improved some. My mother seems to have improved some too. However, my wife was unable to accompany me because she had a spell of nausea and vomiting last week, followed by a probable ulcer from which she is still recovering. This seems to be diabetes related, and has been happening to her once every few years. It takes her several weeks to recover, but she is taking medications for it that she brought from Taiwan.

Thanks for your concern. These are some of the reasons that I haven't been posting much, plus computer problems and other stuff. I have been catching fish, although nothing remarkable. My wife was catching too, before her nausea bout. Most notably, we caught a whole bunch of Brook Trout in Sequoia where we went for my birthday, but I already mentioned that in another thread on this site.

castle
07-07-2012, 05:23 AM
Bummer to hear of your experience at Silverwood lake. Perris is also controlled by the state police, and yes, the tickets from them can be expensive. Thats why i didnt go back for a season or two.

Bassmaster Bob
07-07-2012, 09:57 AM
i got pulled over at Perris for going 37 in a 35 downhill so watch out there too. I didn't get a ticket though

Natural Lefty
07-07-2012, 10:53 AM
All tickets are expensive, and the price is always increasing. The last one I had was at a red light camera in Riverside a few years ago on the way back from my parents' house. It was a fiasco, because they sent the correspondence to some place in Florida for some mysterious reason. (I have never even been to Florida.) Thus, I never found out about my court date, so they added $300 to the bill for not showing up in court. The original bill was about $450 which mostly goes to the private company from Australia that runs the cameras. (They have offices in Arizona, though.) Thus, I was asked to pay something like $750 just for not coming to a full stop at a right turn. No, I have never run any red lights. I had the $300 refunded eventually when I explained the situation. My checking into what happened also revealed the fact that the police correspondence was being sent to Florida. These experiences make me feel that police staff are quite incompetent, frankly.

The ticket before that was about ten years ago when I was lost and not paying proper attention to the stop signs, and the police officer almost pulled a gun on me when I reached for a map.

I did get a ticket at Perris Lake a long time ago, but I pretty much know to drive very slowly there now, and of course, know where everything is, but it's true that LPSP is heavily patrolled, too, the roads at least. I don't feel like going back to Silverwood for a while, either, so I know how you feel, Castle and Bob.