Perris' mix of surprises 9/17

[TheAsianGuy]

Great to see a deck load of people out in the water today. I always seem to see one regular tuber in the Caddis with the orange top, but always forget to ask for his name. White male, nice beard, look young, and quite efficient with the multitasking in the tube. Just saying *HI*!

Temp in water was 74°F at 6:35am while air was 56°F. 77°F in water at 11am, and air headed up to 81°F, and remained until 1pm. Heavy overcast with a light sprinkle until 9am. Overcast until 11am.

Water level dropped 3 feet. Water receding from original shoreline by 15ft.

Once I hit the water, I tossed Mr. Gary Yamamoto watermelon worm for panfishes to see how it fairs, with size 1 worm hook and size 6 octopus hook. The second it hits the water BAM! LMB no more than 8" hit one of the rods. I barely touch the 1st rod, and BAM! Second rod went bendo. Another LMB 10". C&R after some tender loving since the 10" received a wound to the right eye because the size 1 hook went through its mouth and into the right eye. Toss again in two different directions with the fish finder going nuts displaying schools of fishes everywhere. BAM! BAM! Two more LMBs hit in from different directions within 3 minutes of casting. All dinks. What's going on? Where are my panfishes?

Carp leaped out 5 feet away grabbing a flyer. FUN TIME! Switch to my Betty's bug neon green grasshopper. Casted and slack some line as I hunt for the bigger LMB. I chased the schools of fishes to the first bank of the tire reef. SNAG! My rod bent nearly touching the water (5 feet of pure behind for a 6'5" graphite..oh crap!).

Fought with the monster for a good 10 minutes, as it ran into the tules. SNAG! Crude..it stuck but still pulling. Crickle crickle..WUH? SNAPPED! OH MY FREAKING ROD! That first bendo cracked the rod at the attaching point. No worry. Still have the chance to hand pull it in. Line gave way, and the freakish monster got away. Looks like my 4lbs test line wasn't enough to handle the monster and the weeds. Oh well.



Hang around the tire reef from 9am to 12pm. Schools after schools of fishes swam by from 1 foot to 21 feet. Pulled out huge nightcrawlers, juicy redworms, M&M (mealworms and marshmallows), using Texas, Caroline, and modified dropshot rigs. Even play around with the paternoster rig. Nothing for a whole hour. HUH?! Pulled out the secret weapon: the distilled sardines, using dual hooks with worms and sardine combo. Never failed before..DISAPPOINTMENT!

Okay, this pissed me off. Pulled out my crankbaits: Rapala X floater (purple silver) and the Yo-Zuri Tennessee bean. Deadly combo. Bluegills started the attacks every 5 to 10 minutes. Ended up with dinks, and a 6 keepers. Time to head home as I troll back to the loading ramp. Final hit, but freakishly heavy. May be a massive cat or carp. 10 minutes of gingerly pulling the line in on a 4lbs test line, and WHAT THE FREAKING CRAP IS THIS?! Hauled out a 9" bluegill with a beach umbrella? Time to haul both of them back, and do some trash cleaning.


Made it back to the loading ramp, and more trash. The freaking families that were there early left craps behind. This is why our resources are screwed up. Try to have some decency to clean up after yourselves. Spend 20 minutes cleaning up the loading ramp before heading back.

[Kelster]

@AG How long does it take to kick a tube down to the tire reef? I've never gone that way and pretty much know where it is as I have an old topo map of the lake. Maybe next time I'm out there I will just troll on down there. Looks like you had a fun time.

[TheAsianGuy]

@AG How long does it take to kick a tube down to the tire reef? I've never gone that way and pretty much know where it is as I have an old topo map of the lake. Maybe next time I'm out there I will just troll on down there. Looks like you had a fun time.

It doesn't take that long. Took me 10 minutes on my pontoon. Two other tubers followed, and took them a good 25 minutes as they trolled while heading towards the buoy near the tire reef. To get there, you better be prepared to fight the wakes caused by the watercrafts, and be ready to have a nice anchor to plant yourself down once you're there. 25 to 30 ft deep.

[fishmounter]

Yeah Leo there are lots of little bass chasing the shad schools near the old road area. The tire reef can be a great spot, but it has not produced too good lately and I always lose jigs and rigs by snagging up on the big submerged tires. The larger BGs and REs are in deeper water where some are suspended and some are along the bottom.

[tunagod1]

I lost a beach umbrella out of my boat a few years ago, It was on the south side of the island. Blew right out og the boat and sank before we could retrieve it.

white and pale blue if I remember correctly.

LOL

Tuna Out

[TheAsianGuy]

I lost a beach umbrella out of my boat a few years ago, It was on the south side of the island. Blew right out og the boat and sank before we could retrieve it.

white and pale blue if I remember correctly.

Nah..it was a large rainbow. Look at it on my tube..however, someone did snag something similar umbrella earlier in the year. So..you can reclaim it at the local landfill

Yeah Leo there are lots of little bass chasing the shad schools near the old road area. The tire reef can be a great spot, but it has not produced too good lately and I always lose jigs and rigs by snagging up on the big submerged tires. The larger BGs and REs are in deeper water where some are suspended and some are along the bottom.

No kidding Jeff. Lost a few jigs myself. Nearly lose my favorite slow diver crankbait too. Everyone scattered all over the east side. I was the only one playing at the reef. Can believe how many carps doing leaps all around me. Need to bring some floating masa dough balls.

[SirBluegill]

Nice report Leo, ya I love it when those carp only jump like 10 ft away from me, it scares me every time lol. Its a shame people leave trash on the shore, considering the dumpster is only a 100 ft up the ramp.

Speaking of which on the lake Perris website : "On Saturday, October 22, 2011 we will have our annual "Inner Coastal Clean Up" here at Lake Perris! It is a great opportunity to bring your family and friends out to enjoy the outdoors and help clean up the areas surrounding the lake!"

[Natural Lefty]

Hello AsianGuy. Sorry to see that first big one broke youir line and the second was an umbrella. I think I need to get some of those small crankbaits. They seem to work surprisingly well for panfish. Good job on those.

I went fishing at Perris on Friday, but was on the phone on a conference call all afternoon yesterday and didn't get to report. Wow, those people can talk, 5 3/4 hours and they were still talking so I said I had to make dinner.

Since I know all of you are good sports, I will summarize my trip here and try to add a photo. I had a surprise catch, too.

I fished the docks from 3:30-8:00 p.m. I even bought a pass to fish out on the end, which the employee charged me only $2 for. There were only a few people this time and everyone was catching fish. It took me awhile to find out where they were biting, and a while after that to start catching, but I would up catching 26 fish total by my count. I was trying the (fig beetle?) grubs as well as redworms and both worked, maybe the grubs a little more, but like Cartman's recent report, the fish were running small. Around 5 p.m. however, my unattended pole's line slowly tightened up, and there was a fish on which turned out to be a small 1/2 pound Channel Catfish. That is only the second Channel Catfish I have caught at Perris over the years. I caught pretty equal numbers of fish on the end, and after 6 closer to shore.

Totals were 23 Bluegills, only 3 kept, 2 Redears, both kept, and the Channel Catfish which I kept. Both Redears were caught after they closed the gate, closer to shore, and both bit hard and fought like larger fish at first, before running out of steam. Oh well, at least they were Redears, and not too small. To my surprise, one of them bit on a grub. About 3 of the Bluegills were tiny 3 inch babies, and most were 5-6 inch juveniles. I only kept the biggest ones as did most other people there. As usual, people were nice and generous. One guy gave me a good size Bluegill, and another gave me 3 nice Bluegills, a good size Redear and a small White Catfish, so I took home 12 fish, only half of which I caught. The guy who gave me those 5 fish was also feeding the birds and racoons small Bluegills, which was fun to watch. Meanwhile, we both gave some Bluegills to a couple of guys who were keeping the little ones. I think I gave them 6 Bluegills of the juvenile variety. There was also a guy who was fishing inside the boathouse. He said he paid $10 to fish there, but they weren't biting. He was trying mainly for Crappies, but didn't catch any. He did catch a few Bluegills though, a small bass in the evening near shore, and lost a large Bass only about 15 feet from shore in the area surrounded by docks. He was using a Crappie jig.

Before I forget, there were a couple of racoons in a boat, and some guys trying to get them out of there. They seemed scared of the racoons. Anyway, the critters finally left and ate my new fishing friend's Bluegill offerings.

I weighed the 12 fish on my digital fish scale, inside a plastic bag, and they came out to 3 pounds, 8 ounces, only 4-5 ounces average per fish, and these were the "big ones" so they are definitely running small as they usually do in the summer. An employee told me a woman caught a huge Bluegill the day before by the gate, though. It was a fun afternoon with lots of action.

Here's a photo of the 12 fish I brought home.

[skunked again]

Nice boat AsianGuy, I have always loved kick boats. I was last out there at the reef 3 mo ago and the shad were everywhere. Perris sounds like it really is blooming. We are going to have some fat bass in the next few years to come.

[carpanglerdude]

Excellent report. Bummer with the broken rod though, next time you'll get him!