Got Lucky with a Catfish limit on shore at Lake Elsinore.
Sometimes I feel I get rewarded for some of my kind deeds I do. Monday was one of those day's at Lake Elsinore fishing in the La Laguna Marina. I've fished Lake Elsinore a fair amount in the past but it's a tough lake for anything but Carp. So when I read a couple of weeks ago in W.O.N. the catfish were biting a little bit at Elsinore, "I said what the heck" it's only an hour away and it only cost a small fee to go fish the Marina, so off I went alone. In reality I'm a pretty lousy fishermen! I can't shake a Mini Jig to save my Hiney or work a Bass lure to make it swim appealing to a Bass to want to eat it. But what I can do is gather information about fishing and go completely prepared! The way you get prepared to fish at Lake Elsinore, is to call Williams Bait and tackle and ask them for information! So I ask them are the catfish biting a little and what time are they feeding and what are they hitting best. It's a morning thing and their hitting on Mack bites! So what time are you open on Monday was my next question? 9:30 am was their answer! (that is no bueno for me to buy the Mack bites from them!) So I went looking on the Phone for Mack bites. It was a Bear to find them but Young's tackle in La Palma had them. (I joke with my friends all the time, "I need the stuff or all is lost!"
When I got down to the Lake bedsides me their was only 1 other guy fishing in the whole Marina! (that's usually not a good fishing sign) I also found out why Williams wasn't open till 9:30, he went catfishing in his pontoon boat! I meet the nicest young man who worked there and he told me everything. They had a kid's catfish derby about a month ago here and the Catfish are also spawning in the rocks. (so that W.O.N. report had some validity, it was just old and out of date) So I Flylined my Mack bait right next to the rocks. It's snaggy but what do you do? First cast I caught an nice #4 pound Catfish! That was cool and they kept biting for the next 3 hours! I ended up catching 5 and missed 4 more bites. The nice young man said, "I did great for a mornings worth of fishing!" I really just got Lucky! Because Williams who is the man, didn't catch anything that I could see in his boat! I will keep in mind for next year to look for that Kids Catfish derby. I'll bet it was really good for a few day's after that!
