Thursday 5/19 Perris Lake, Riverside, CA

A friend and I fished the marina at Perris Lake Thursday. 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. I tried chumming with maggots for the first time, but I couldn't get half of them to sink. They just floated away.

Picture of a pain in the butt sculpin:

Attachment 62515

That looks very similar to a fish in Canada they call that a Round Goby...
and ask that you kill any of them that you catch.
It seems to be a very invasive little creature. I know that
its hard to get a worm down to catch a yellow perch in parts of Lake Huron
without one of those PIA's stealing the worm.

http://www.invadingspecies.com/Invad...m?A=Page&PID=8

like tnvol said, that looks like a Goby. I don't think we have them this far South (Georgia), but I've bought a bag of Goby lures from Culprit....and never caught anything on them.

lake Erie,the Niagara River and lake Ontario are LOADED with Gobys.If you walk down the piers near where I live you cans see the bottom is littered with them.As far as fishing goes if your bait gets near the bottom (which is where we do most of our river fishing) they'll drive you nuts.Perch fishing the other day I would geuss I caught 10 gobys for every Perch.They're an absolute nuisance and way over populated.Most of us kill everyone we catch but I doesn't seem to put a dent in them.

I thought it was a Goby also.

Once at Cachuma lake in Cali,i hooked one of these sculpins while trout fishing with salmon eggs while reeling in my bait, near shore,only to have a very large largemouth bass inhale it and snap my 8lb test line after a short battle.Darndest thing you ever saw!Sculpin darts from rock crevices , eats salmon egg,darts around when hooked,gets inhaled by huge bass.I'll never forget that moment!:eek: