Small Schoolie Stripers in Perris Lake

[Stumpknocker]

I'm curious to hear the official statement by DFG biologists about how the stripers are seemingly able to breed in a lake "without current", and how they once again failed to stop this - just like at DVL and other lakes, if they were trying to stop them at all.

I'm not a DFG biologist, but it's an interesting question that I've thought about. The literature about striped bass spawning success assumes that all fertilized striper eggs are denser than water and will sink to the bottom and die without sufficient current to prevent that. My question is, in deep reservoirs where stripers attempt to spawn (and they do...I've watched them, and also cleaned plenty that were females gravid with eggs or ripe & running males), are all eggs in all females equally buoyant? If not, are some neutrally buoyant with the about the same density as water? If there are some like that, and if the characteristic is a genetically inheritable trait, then some of those fertilized eggs could survive until hatching bouncing around in the water column, and those surviving striper fry could grow up to produce more neutrally buoyant eggs. Just a guess on my part...haven't done any research, but there has to be some explanation for why lakes like Castaic and DVL have so many striped bass when they don't have rivers flowing into them. I doubt that aquaduct spawning explains that, especially at Castaic where the incoming water comes in an underground tube from Lake Pyramid, where they're also not supposed to be spawning..

[Natural Lefty]

In other words, evolution, Stumpknocker.

My friend Leo recently mentioned reports of baby Corvina in the Salton Sea, and even Flathead Catfish in brackish water there, so maybe they are adapting, too.

There is current in Perris Lake, at least sometimes. There is the underwater inlet near Sail Cove, and also there are underwater currents which keep moving lines around. I experience this on the Sail Cove Pier and also fishing from the docks in the marina. I think they are generated by the winds. The currents change direction a lot, but the water is usually going one way or another.

Here's an update in place of a new report: I went back to the Sail Cove Pier on Thursday. The same technique -- long leader (around 5 feet) with a worm on a microjig -- worked again, but no stripers this time. I caught 3 little LMB of about 8 inches, 2 Bluegills (one over 1/2 pound) and one good size Redear (about 3/4 pound), so now, I have caught Bluegill and Redear. It seems better spring fishing than last year, at least at Sail Cove, and it's improving. I kept the Bluegill and Redear but I don't think that they were spawning.

Oh, the water was FAR clearer than in the previous few weeks. I could see the bottom at the end of the pier, I would say about 6 feet down. (It's shallower than usual due to the low water level.) It was a pleasant relief to see such nice water conditions after the lake being so pea-soup murky.

There were 6 other people on the pier toward evening, and everybody caught at least one fish. Most of them caught trout on Power Bait. A couple of undersize LMB were caught on plastics, too. I was the only person who caught any panfish but I was targeting them.

The trout seemed like the recent stockers from 3 days earlier. I did catch a trout in the marina a couple of months ago that was a holdover. It had pink meat, which is the first one like that I have seen since the water level was lowered. We just ate it yesterday and it was delicious. I am hoping for more "pinky trout" when the water is raised again; they used to be fairly common when the water was higher. I just hope the stripers don't eat all the trout in the future.

Oh, the water was FAR clearer than it has been in recent weeks. I would say that visibility was at least 6 feet, a very welcome sight.

[Natural Lefty]

About the LMB and Crappie, Ifishtoolittle, I know that LMB were never stocked in Perris Lake. I thought Crappie weren't either, but I have talked to some people who said that they were but took many years to become established, so, I dunno...

I am not sure that Green Sunfish were ever stocked there, either, but they were common from the beginning, actually, less common now that their rock habitats are largely out of the water.

I figure that everything that is in Silverwood, will probably eventually be in Perris, but we shall see. I have caught some native delta fish such as Sacramento Splittail and Tule Perch in Silverwood, and also something called Bigscale Logperch, but have yet to catch any of these in Perris.

[Stumpknocker]

In other words, evolution, Stumpknocker.

Yes it is an evolutionary hypothesis for how the ability for stripers to successfully reproduce in a reservoir could come about...I gave the full hypothetical description instead of just using the "E" word because, as a former science teacher, I've found that the possible mechanism for evolution is tougher for some people to reject than the "E" word if it makes sense...