Originally Posted by
Pete Marino
Heres the deal as of right now... Because of all the new water there are tons of bushes and trees all the way out to 25-27 ft deep... the bass are suspending in the trees.. They aren't on the deep offshore ledges like they used to be...(Im sure some are but not in big numbers) I used to love ledge fishing at Perris.. but because the water has come up it has forced us to have to adapt or get left behind and call people that have adapted, liars haha..
The crank bite continues to be a great way to catch bigger fish right now... DEEP CRANKS like 20+ footers... Youll throw it for a long time, almost lose confidence then boom, boom, boom, you find the right tree that has a school and youll catch a few.. Then back to nothing for a while... A key for me has been marking those spots with a waypoint and going back to them later and the spots replenish and you can get bit again in the same spot.. Keep in mind that if you catch a bass you HAVE To MAKE ANOTHER BUNCH OF CASTS ON THAT SPOT BECAUSE that spot may have a huge school of bass on it... You just never know so you have to mark it and come back.. even if you don't catch a second fish at that moment there..
Also what Im doing is starting with a deep crank and after I catch one or a couple and then they slow down Ill switch to the dropshot with a short leader... Because if they stop chasing the crank or don't chase it at all then they will be feeding down eating slow moving things like crawdads or sculpin... So im going from one extreme (the fast moving crankbait) to the other (The Dropshot -A slow moving bait that is close to the bottom) Ive been pretty surprised how many times this summer that I saw them on the graph and couldn't get them to eat the crank only to switch to the dropshot and catch them.
As June progressed and as things tightened up, I started having several other different rods on the deck and fished what seemed right.... Good Ol'Junk fishing.
But overall, It hasn't been an easy Summer so far but there have been fish to be caught, its just taken a variety of techniques to put together a good bag... Junk fishing has been the name of the game and I hate junk fishing... I like to be extremely dialed in... BUT keep in mind that June is usually a tough month at Perris....This year the tougher bite has extended into July BUT.. Things are starting to happen though so the lake is only a couple weeks behind schedule of its normal summer..
Things are starting to pop... shad are headed shallow, the topwater bite is starting in the typical areas it starts in.. and the water is getting some color in it... Things are coming along... And right now you can catch them on the Dropshot, the Texas rig, the Carolina rig, the fly line rig, a squarebill, a deep crank, an Alabama rig, a tailspin, a popper, a walking topwater, a frog at a variety of depths from 3ft all the way out to 45ft.. ....