Lake Perris Shore Fishing- A Personal, Historic Day

Lake Perris Shore Fishing- A Personal, Historic Day
May 2018, Carl Garrard

Last Wednesday, a life long friend of mine (Brian) and I went shore fishing for largemouth bass. As kids, it was a common sight seeing us two on the shore just about anywhere around the lake, we practically lived there. Lake Perris CA is one of two places where we really learned how to fish for bass, and at that time it was fishing for Alabama spotted bass. As we progressed our fishing skills over the years, that thriving Lake Perris fishery, choc full of spotted bass, florida bluegill and redear, blue and channel catfish, threadfin shad, and crayfish, later saw a forced transformation in its ecosystem as largemouth bass were illegally introduced into the lake. Spotted bass were eventually forced out by the more aggressive largemouth species. At one point soon, they would never be seen again despite the near perfect conditions for that species. Lake Perris had even held the world record spotted bass (at one point).



Eventually most of the crayfish all but disappeared, seemingly along with most of the threadfin shad, but "stocker" trout and florida bluegill would help continue to keep the largemouth well fed. Eventually, it became a pretty good lake for largemouth bass fishing. Yet about the time that it became a lake that was pretty well known for good largemouth bass fishing action, a defect in the lakes' design would be found that would change the entire atmosphere and lake environment for the next 13 years. The dam would need a retrofit, because a small leak was discovered at the base of it that showed a weakness for earthquake activity.

The water level was lowered some 25 vertical feet from its max fill line in 2005, and would remain that way till March of this year, when they began to fill the lake one full inch per day. Most of the shoreline and the dam remained off limits to shore anglers during this 13 year drought. But in late April of this year, the entire lake was re-opened to shore anglers. It was time to celebrate and reunite ourselves to the old days and do some shoreline largemouth bass fishing. And on Wednesday, my good friend and I went to the south east end of the lake near Bernasconi Beach to fish for the first time in probably over 15 years. Being there alone brought back a lot of childhood memories, too many to share in this article.

My lifelong friend Brian and his cheese ball early morning smile. Give me some coffee please!

The first hour or so was pretty slow fishing near the boat ramp in lots 11 and 12 (I caught one little dink), so we decided to take the long walk back and go check out the east end of the lake- the farthest to the back side we could go.

I don't care what size they are, largemouth are fun and smart fish to catch!

We were fishing topwater (our favorite at this lake), and instead of getting jig or spinnerbait gear we just kept our same rods and made a b-line east. This was just supposed to be a quick scouting trip to see how the lake looked with the new higher water levels. All we took with us was our smaller top water set ups and jerkbaits. While scouting we threw our jerkbaits into the exposed pockets of water inbetween all the trees and floating reeds and moss on the east end. 


To our surprise we had not one, but two back to back double hookups on very decent sized bass in the 2lb range. For Perris, this is a good sized fish because the limit is set at 15". This means that many fish come just shy of that mark. To get four keepers by 9 am was none the less surprising, let alone on a recon mission!

Brian with a 2lb 1oz keeper. Nice fish! I figured he'd have the big fish of the day, nice chunk!

My next cast after Brian landed his fish: A 1lb 10oz bass, ironically the best fighting fish of the day. It fought like a Spotted Bass, way bigger than his just shy of two pound body! We doubled!

Brian scores again this time a 1lb 9oz bass, he's going to make it tough on me today I thought. Two keepers back to back!

My turn, 1lb 11oz, the very next cast after Brian's fish, again! Two back to back double's!

We wanted to see other parts of the lake however, so we decided to hoof it back to the car, and take a drive around the dam to Bernasconi beach. This was an area that he and I hadn't fished in well over 14 years, and together probably almost 20 years. It was sort of like a reunion of old times. And when we took the all familiar left hand turn into that side of the lake all the memories started coming back. We parked, took a quick scout of the shoreline to see what the conditions were like, then came back geared up for wadin' bassin', and headed out.

One of our doubles. Great shot Brian.

The water was dingy but oh man was the water level up nice. Trees everywhere in the water and area's to fish in between them with a drop off close nearby the inlet cove. We both knew this lake has a lot of potential for becoming even better than its ever been. Trees have had over 13  years to grow on the exposed shoreline providing a ton of new cover for fish to take refuge in. This lake is going to be awesome in a year or two! But today, this area was all about massive carp spawning in the warm shallows, and I mean everywhere. They were huge, and all along the southeast and eastern shoreline making a ruckus everywhere churning up the water and stopping our hearts with big boils and thrashing in the water.

We walked over to the inlet cove near the fence line. The cove was riddled with half sunken rocks and trees with water in between, there had to be bass in here. A couple fisherman in expensive bass rigs navigated between the trees and rocks fishing senko's or jigs, but I didn't see them hook up. I stuck with my jerkbait regardless that it was clear blue sky and almost 10:45am. This lake breaks the rules with topwater, experience has shown. A few casts yielded nothing for me, Brian was down the rocky shoreline a ways experimenting with different lures. I changed up my retrieve to an erratic under the surface type of presentation and a 1 pounder jumped on it. Ah-hah! Next cast I did the same, and the same thing happened. These fish were active, and wanted a faster presentation.  Couple casts later I landed the largest fish of the day, a 20" 2lb 9oz chunk.

It's been a while since I've caught a decent bass like this at Perris!

Shortly after the big bass of the day, I spotted a male protecting fry, made a cast and he followed but didn't commit. I yelled out to Brian that my next cast would get him, and sure enough I did get him! He was just over 1lb, probably 1lb 5oz or so. I didn't want to stress him by taking a picture, so I let him go immediately back to his babies.

Brian almost hooked up on his next cast with a chatterbait, and I landed one more 1lb bass to which I let go immediately (he actually fell off just as I was about to grab him, and bounced off a rock back into the water). That made 8 fish for me for the day so far. As Brian and I shifted spots on the bank, I went closer to the fence line to see if I could get some deeper bass to commit. Then I heard Brian yell out "ohhhhh whoa, that was close! Rattlesnakes dude!". Yep, plural, not one, but two red diamondback rattlers were sunning in the rocks, likely right above a den. Luckily, they are the most mellow of rattlesnakes and didn't lurch at Brian's leg, but that was a close call!

We decided that we would move on and wade the northern side of Bernasconi road, but not before I made one final cast and got my lucky and veteran jerkbait caught on a fence. I snapped it off begrudgingly because it was pretty far out in the water along the fence line. I hesitated for a moment then decided nope, I'm not going to lose this lure. I will swim out and get it. Hey, I already caught  8 fish with a brand new lure! You just don't let lucky lures like that go, let alone  get picked up by wandering bass boat captain for free. A little water wasn't going to hurt me!

Water was cold, barbed wire too!

 

Determination!

Great Success!

My lucky lure in hand, we high tailed it to the other side of Bernasconi Beach where we waded some back waters. I only landed one dink, but it was nice to be back in that area and see the trees, rocks, and structure in the water. A lot more carp, and very warm water, but no more bass. It was getting hot so we decided to head back to the first spot we started at early in the morning and work some frogs on top of floating dead reeds and peat moss. That long walk and effort only proved to be only a couple of hits through the junk, no fish, but fun never the less.

We did see a mule deer buck by the water when we arrived at that spot again, along with tons of different bird species on the lake this day, even a Barn Owl and Osprey! Overall it was a great day, a grand welcome back to the lake. We caught 11 bass from the shore, which exceeded our expectations on a high pressure, blue sky, warm day. But even better was to see a lake that is coming back from a shell of what it once was. There is new life breathing in Lake Perris for the first time in over 13 long years. We're positive with all the planning and clean up, new shoreline growth, and sustained water levels, that this lake will bounce back greatly. It may end up being better than ever.

What a historic personal day for two great life long friends, and its so wonderful to see our childhood lake come back from virtual death. Can't wait for the next adventure of  Finn and Sawyer!

-Carl Garrard