Fished two days in the First to Fish thing this weekend. It is an awesome lake!!! Tons of habitat and stucture. I was running and gunning around the lake all day. I've never faced so many choices fishing in SoCal. The lake is down about 30', so you can see tons of terrace cuts, brush piles, rock piles, and pipes on the exposed banks. Mike said he put those down to 125' in his seminar, so there will always be fishable structure and cover no matter the level. Tons of points, coves, humps and saddles. Mike did an awesome job!! I can't believe we have it out here in the 909.

We caught or witnessed catches on just about all types of baits (except topwaters). Go have fun and throw what you are confident in and you should stick at least a couple of keepers. My wife caught her 1st LM, and it was 3lbs. I didn't witness anybody looking like they were having a 50 fish day, and I did not see one double hookup either day, so just like any fishing, it takes some work.

A funny thing. Most of my bigger fish felt like weeds after the set because they were swimming towards the boat just a little slower than I could reel. As soon as they saw the boat (actually I think it was the motion of the fisherman because they were close) they would take most back, and I had my drag torqued, so be ready when you think you're reeling weeds.

Oh, I even caught a smallmouth!

Be sure and check out the quarry pit if you're boating. I don't know if there are any fish in it, but it is a breathtaking site when you are in the middle of it!

See you on opening day,
NoTrollMotor

Cool, thanks for the report :) Now, I really wanna know, how good is it and how big are the fish?! I saw a few fish pics on fishinghotpage.com and they didn't look like footballs to me. And it sounds like some 5's and 6's are coming out along with the occasional 8 or 9. But what is the average fish. Are we talking 2lbers here? Are you seeing any big fish 8+ pounds or anything like that?

-Rob

My buddy stuck 28 fish the second day. mostly 2 - 3 pounders on small swimbaits & jigs. No big ones for him but he said that there was a 10 caught. Said the lake fishes small because of the steepness of the banks. Don't know, just going off of what he said. I do know that two guys cancelled their reservations because they were not impressed by the size of the fish and the fact that it's a typical So Cal lake. They explained it by saying that they did there homework by studying maps and found flats to fish. Once they stopped and started fishing, guys would blast by them, turn around and start crouding them. Lake Perris revisited. I'm pumped though...everybody go to Diamond Valley and I'll be at Perris.;)

SWMB8R

Definitely 2# to 3# was the norm. I wasn't using big fish baits most of the day, so who knows? Mutiple times I'd see another catch a fish soon after I stuck one and think "That's the same fish!" Most of the decent fish seem from the same spawn. They'll grow. (If the barnis don't et'm first).
This weekend I'm going to leave the dropshotting to my backseater and throw for some bigger fish.

Hey swmb8r. What are you throwing at Perris?? I don't think I've ever come close to 28 2 to 3 pounders there;-) Believe me, Perris is a bowl in comparison. I didn't find the crowding to be a big deal. There are tons of good spots to fish. At Perris, if someone crowds you on one of the 10 or so spots to fish, it's a big deal. The one or two times it might of occurred, I just moved and caught some fish somewhere else. I was happy to put them on the spot. There were a few crowds of five or six boats, but they were on really obvious spots. I joined one for a few casts. It seemed that everybody was catching, so I didn't see the big deal.

I'm throwing 8 to 16 ounces of rubber love. That's it. Nobody crowds me;-)

SWMB8R

they allow shore fishing right?
thanks

never mind, they do allow shore fishing. sorry im such a dumba$$ somtimes.

I was talking to some boaters on Sunday. They caught a 4# from shore on Saturday. They were stoked with the boat bite though. The rentals are really cool, but some were complaining about the batteries running down on the troll motors.
NoTrollMotor

Do you think the sudden influx of boats on the lake is going to effect the bite?

Brad

~ )*))))><

I would think that 200 boats or more suddenly running around and that many electronic graphs and depth finders pinging away all day will most definitely freak the fish out for a while. They've been living pretty quitely for several years now. Think of it as if you had been living all nice and quite in your home then suddenly your son brings over the football team for a giant kegger. You're gonna be a little tense. It will probably take the fish a while to adjust to the noisy neighbors, maybe a month or so. Who knows?

I agree, it ought to have some effect. I have no idea what kind since I've never fished a brand new lake before. Most guys said the fishing kind of dwindled each day at the $500 first to fish thing. From what I hear the fish kind of moved off the bank a ways. I'm fishing the first two days, depending on the results of day 2's morning I may just move off the bank a bit and fish deeper water. I think they'll still be schooled up and looking for food, just in deeper water, and maybe mid-water column. I don't think they'll get lockjaw, just change location.
-Brian