Perris Lake Labor Day Dock Fishing with Grubs (Real Ones)

[Natural Lefty]

With the interesting weather yesterday -- it sprinkled off and on almost all day in MoVal -- the relatively cool temps and my not having gotten out of the house all weekend, I decided to go to Perris for a Labor Day afternoon/evening of fishing. I couldn't get away earlier because I remembered I already have to make exams and study guides for my classes, and worse, I gave the computer with all that stuff on it to Duo-Duo in Taiwan since my wife Eunice asked me to.

Anyway, I checked for worms, and found a bunch in the compost, but also a bunch of grubs of various sizes. We always have these grubs in the soil, although I don't know what they turn into. They grow pretty large, so maybe they turn into those big stink bug beatles. I have just started using them for bait though (more on that later). I found a quite a few small ones about the size of waxworms along with bigger ones, so I put them in along with the worms.

I got to Perris Lake around 4:45 after an unscheduled stop at Lasselle Lake which is near my school. I noticed what appeared to be an opening near the bridge, and sure enough, it was open and 4 people were fishing for Catfish there. They hadn't caught any though and I decided to head to Perris. I don't know if that place by the open gate is only open to residents or what, but if anyone here knows, I would like to know. I know anyone can walk in there.

Anyway, I headed for the marina docks although I knew they would be crowded. Hey, somebody has to post a report to represent the hordes of dock, pier and shore fisherpeople at Perris. I have been seeing lots of float tube and boat reports from there all summer with good results, but I guess the shore fishing hasn't been nearly as good. I've been out of state or out of the nation most of the summer, so not many trips to Perris for me this summer. Oh well! I can't complain.

Anyway, there were more people on the end than I had ever seen there, like 30-40, but I didn't pay and went to the free area closer to shore. There were no obvious signs of people catching fish, even on the end, but people did have a few fish on stringers or in baskets. They were small to medium-large Bluegills and Redears. One guy was walking around with a Bass on a stringer too, that looked of questionable size. I was thinking I might need to change locations before long, but after awhile, I got a bite on a redworm, then a fish almost pulled my pole into the lake while I was working my other pole. It turned out to be a smallish Redear, but I was happy. It was my first Redear since May I think, so I kept it. A while later, I caught a decent size (7 inch) Bluegill which walloped my redworm as I was creeping it along the bottom.

Around 6:15 p.m., I saw the employee go out to the end to fetch all those fisherpeople, so I moved to my favorite spot on the left side of the dock just in front of the gate. At that point, I decided to give my grubs a serious try, which turned out to be the secret of my success. I started catching Bluegills in short order, nothing big, but not too small, so I kept them. There were a couple of pretty pre-teen gals with their dad who were trying to learn how to fish, and their nightcrawlers were dead from the heat, so I gave them some of the grubs to use, but sadly they didn't catch anything. They might have, but the older gal's spool fell into the lake which annoyed their dad and put an abrupt end to their fishing. They were at least able to get the spool back, but the line had a big tangle in it. Before long, some of the other kids there were asking me for any Bluegills I didn't want, so I gave a couple of the smaller ones away.

Eventually, the fishing slowed some, and finally, I ran out of grubs. I noticed that the fish bit better on the small ones, even decent size Bluegills. They also bit on medium size grubs, but didn't seem to bite on the large grubs. I guess they were too big for their mouths, or didn't look like food to the fish. I switched back to redworms after the grubs ran out, and fishing was pretty good with them too, for me, but I seemed to be catching more fish than the rest of the people there combined, and I counted 19 people fishing, including myself around 7 p.m. People started leaving, but I was still getting bites and fish here and there, so I stayed until 8:30 p.m. They were still biting when I left in fact, but it was late and I was hungry, so I went home.

There was a guy fishing across from me after the gate was closed, who had been out on the end of the docks earlier, and he had done pretty well on Bluegills. He had about a dozen of them in his basket, mostly fairly good size, and he was using crickets. When he left, however, to my surprise he gave all of his fish to a group of about 5 teenagers who only had one small Bluegill between them. (They were also using crickets.) He told them that he had just come to fish, anyway. I had the impression that he was planning to give his fish to someone else all along. Actually, I once was the recipient of an even more generous fish supply at Perris Lake once. This was probably around the late 1980s, when I fishing by lots 11 and 12. A boat parked near me with 3 men in it, and they asked me if I wanted some fish. I said "sure" and to my surprise, they proceeded to unload about 20 large Redears and Bluegills averaging around a pound each into my cooler! Why they didn't want to eat those fish, I have no idea.

I was using split small hooks with split shots a little way up the line for weight. One was a mosquito hook on 6 pound line, and the other was actually an Adams fly left over from last Wednesday, on 2 pound line. Other people were mostly using crickets, mealworms or nightcrawlers. I think they should have been checking their yards for small grubs or redworms. I did find several mealworms the stomach of one of the larger Bluegills when I cleaned it. Another one, when I caught it, strangely seemed to have a mouthful of what appeared to be purple Power Bait.

Strangely, there was very little surface activity, and most of what I saw, I suspect were shad feeding on small flies. The lack of fly fishing action this summer at Perris has been bizarre. I guess there aren't as many midges or other flies around as usual. There were several actual mosquitos trying to bite me after dark, though.

I wound up catching the 1 Redear and 12 Bluegills.

Here is the breakdown:
1 Redear on a redworm, kept;
7 Bluegills on homegrown grubs, 5 kept, 1 given away, 1 released;
5 Bluegills on redworms, 3 kept, 1 given away, 1 released.

I wound up with a pretty good pile of Bluegill fillets, but none of the fish were noteworthy, so no pictures. They were 6- 7 1/2 inch Florida Bluegills and the one Redear, averaging around 1/4 pound for the keepers.

A second semi report:

I went to the little pier in Sail Cove last Wedenday evening from about 5 - 8 p.m., and caught 6 smallish Bluegills, keeping 3. I also lost a 12-14 inch Bass on my 2 pound line which went under a cable and my line broke when I tried to get it out. Last Wednesday is when I discovered that the grubs work as bait. I also caught a Bluegill on an Adams fly when they were surfacing near shore in the evening. I have had good success from that pier this year.

Well, believe it or not, I realized a while ago that I have to go to school to xerox some stuff, so I will leave it at that.

[fishmounter]

Natural Lefty is finally back with his nice dock reports! Welcome back. Yea, I have found several kinds of grubs (larval stage of various beetles) in my garden too and have taken them out on my float tube for sunfish. All worked great except for the giant grubs that turn into those big metallic green Japanese Beetles...or is that a June Bug? Those big nasty grubs can bite pretty good too I found out!

[jeepnkal]

F.R.A.T

J/K :)

Great report!

[Natural Lefty]

jeepnkal, you may have to explain your joke. I don't know what F.R.A.T. stands for. Thanks though.

Fishmounter, I think I only went to Perris Lake once this summer (not counting last Wednesday which I mentioned in the report), believe it or not, the time I lost something big (probably a bass) on my 2 pound line, accidentally snagged the line later on, the fish was still on, but I couldn't control it and it broke again. I really expected to go more often but I was gone much of the time. Fishing was better than I expected.

I think those might be the larvae of the metallic green Japanese beetles, but I don't see those around here and I do see stinkbugs, plus the metallic green beetles always seem to hang around figs. Anyway, the size seems to be the crucial thing. They want something that looks food-size to them. I happened to have found quite a few baby ones about the size of waxworms, atlhough they were the same kind as the big ones, and found that the baby ones or smallish ones worked better. By the way, I accidentally wrote Beatles. I meant Beetles, not John, Paul, George and Ringo.

[Cartman]

Wow, thanks for the great report. Excellent reading and excellent trip. I keep saying that there are other baits out there.

[SirBluegill]

Great report Lefty, I need to try some shore fishing again, float tubing has spoiled me :)

[carpanglerdude]

Great report. Lefty, I also have noticed that the topwater bite at dusk for 'gills has been awful at Perris this summer. Last year, I killed it on topwaters around dusk, but this year has been very disappointing. Not sure why.

[vortec_cruiser]

Nice job there on the panfish. I've had best luck with crickets, but sometimes I think it just boils down to what the fish feel like eating.

By the way, those big grubs turn into Green Scarab Beetles.

[Natural Lefty]

voctec cruiser, I don't use crickets very much, only due to lack of availability. I use homegrown baits a lot when I use bait, or buy worms at places like Wal-Mart that don't have crickets. I think crickets were working that day, but not as well as the baits I was using. I was also outfishing other people around me because I had a good spot, and many of them were inexperienced fisherpeople who had hooks that were too large, line too heavy, didn't pay proper attention to their lines, etc., all the things that fishing novices do.

I think the Green Scarab Beetles were the same thing that Fishmounter was referring to. That could be the case, but I don't see many of those around here. I do see a lot of them in Riverside though, like hanging onto the figs at my parents' house.

carpanglerdude, it's really puzzling to me. I had a day when I met SirBluegill when they were biting great on flies at Sail Cove in April, but since then, very little surface activity. The fish are there, though. Maybe they are hanging deeper and feeding on scuds (shrimp) or whatever is down there. Perhaps we should try scuds or nymphs close to the bottom. They were biting on bead-headed nymphs drifted down from the marina docks in May, I think it was, but not now.

SirBluegill, it's good to hear from you. I am back from my globetrotting now. I envy all of you float tubers when I see your reports. Sometimes I wonder what I could catch that way, but I am sticking with shore-based fishing for now.

Cartman, were you the person who was growing maggots and catching a bunch of fish on them at Puddingstone? I know someone was. There are lots of good baits out there, perfectly legal, a lot of them better than the commercial stuff. It's a matter of discovering them and trying them. As I recall, SirBluegill was said to be catching fish on an earwig a few months ago.

[TheAsianGuy]

Nothing better than reading your report there Lefty. Very nice job!