Perris Lake Thursday 5/19

[Jon McLean]

A friend and I fished the marina at Perris Lake yesterday.  All together we caught 93 fish.  Almost all bluegill and about a half dozen weird little sculpin.  Very few of the fish were big enough to bother taking home.  I usually catch a lot of really big ones at the marina, so I was a little surprised that so many of them were so small.  Then again, I usually go there later in the season, and maybe they haven't had a chance to grow up.  I had a very nice trout hooked and up to the edge, but I had left my net in the car and the line broke as I was trying to get it out of the water.  My friend caught a trout on a castmaster and got some strikes.  Other guys were catching trout about the time we had to go.  One had a $10.00 tag.  If I'd had any sense I'd have switched to trout fishing once that first one got away, but I didn't really expect so many trout there so late in the year.

Some guys had caught some shad minnows and were catching crappie.  Does anyone know if the sculpin make good bait for bass or crappie?  They were nothing but a nuisance.  If I didn't catch a bluegill in a minute or so I always knew I had a sculpin on line.  I was using maggots for bait.