Lake Perris crappie?

[fishmounter]

Sorry, this isn't a Perris Lake Report, but hopefully I can turn it into one..
Is there anyone out there that has had good crappie fishing the last couple of years or so at Lake Perris? I'm talking about numbers of fish, not catching one here and there by accident. I know there are some very large Black Crappie in the lake, I've seen them caught, and I got an almost 18 inch fish a couple of years ago from a spot that should have held many more fish, and I tried to get another bite in that spot for at least an hour, but no dice. Seems like fishing from the marina docks in the early springtime with live shad is probably the best bet for catching several fish. Has anyone had any success at Perris catching crappie from a boat or float tube where you get near limits? Seems like the crappie don't stay in groups of fish or "schools" like they do in other SoCal lakes like El Capitan, Hodges, Elsinore, Vail, Piru. At these lakes when you catch one, you will usually catch several more, possibly even limit out. I've seen groups of fish on fish finders at the lake, but they usually end up being large Bluegills and Redears, which are great fish to catch, but I'd like to concentrate more on catching some nice crappie this year from 'my' local close to home lake. Maybe there are not many crappie in Lake Perris. There's tons of baitfish to support large groups of big crappie, but where are they?

[QB7940]

They're still there...but not in huge numbers.
Perris will never be like the lakes you mentioned.

Couple things to consider, the crappie haven't had decent brush to spawn in for 5-6 years at that lake? When the water is up on the East End their numbers always bounce up the following year.
In my experience, Crappie do a lot better in lakes with stained water. Go to any of the lakes you mentioned..green sometimes brown water year round. Horrible visibility.

That spot you pulled the 18inch fish from was the X for many years...the buoys have been rearranged but more brush has been added to that same area.

Good Luck this spring.

49624

[crappiemike]

were hoping for a great spawn this year
into next year,,,,

me in a rental many years ago...



http://i1030.photobucket.com/albums/y363/crappiemike13/29EDC39B-D8B6-4C80-8A04-B98800978E4D-343-00000060EB0A0423_zps28cc16ea.jpg (http://s1030.photobucket.com/user/crappiemike13/media/29EDC39B-D8B6-4C80-8A04-B98800978E4D-343-00000060EB0A0423_zps28cc16ea.jpg.html)


cm

[Ifishtoolittle]

Man the crappie masters showing us how it's done! The marina docks are where I've seen consistent numbers of them caught.

[muskyman]

That lake has some serious loids in there

[Brent]

The water level is supposed to be raised up 10-15 feet fairly soon and with all of the new trees and brush, the lake should have incredible spawning and rebound really nicely over the next couple of years.

[Natural Lefty]

I remember when there was a good population of Crappie in the lake in the early 2000s before it was drawn down, but it has been sparse since then. Maybe after the lake is raised again, which is beginning now, the population will rebound.

[fishmounter]

Natural Lefty.. Where have you been? Have not seen you on this site for 'many a moon'… Not sure why I'm still here..

[Natural Lefty]

Thank you for asking, Jeff. My parents passed in 2013 and I inherited their house in Riverside. It was a lot of work, but we finally sold it. That kind of took the wind out of my sails, along with other stuff that has been keeping me busy, so I have not been fishing much. When I have gone fishing, I haven't been reporting it here, but nothing much noteworthy was caught. Last summer, we did go on a vacation. When we got to Portola in norcal, our destination, the car next to ours caught fire in the parking lot and ignited our car. Argh! We lost our fishing equipment but continued the trip in a rental car.

We went to Taiwan at the beginning of this year, and just returned February 9. I was hoping to go fishing, but I needed a hernia surgery that I had as planned in Taiwan (much easer to schedule and inexpensive). I ended up spending much of the time recuperating, but the surgery was very successful and now I am fine and without the hernia. Part of the problem is that both Zunliang and I caught a couple of germs in the hospital which made us quite ill. LOL We can laugh about it now. When we felt better, I did go shrimp fishing with some of Zunlaing's relatives, where they stock tiger shrimp in a pond, and we caught some, but no actual fishing for fish. Apparently most places are off limits in Taiwan now, and fishing is discouraged. We saw fish including Tilapia and Marble Goby but either there were no fishing signs or we had no fishing equipment.

I will probably be able to go fishing more this year and hope to go to Perris Lake more often. I already bought a parking pass. The rising lake level is good news, at least for future years.

[AndyJ]

That is amazing. Pig slabs