Ouch!

Charles and I left for Perris at 5:15am to get on the topwater bite asap.  The weather forecast was calling for hot and sunny conditions all day.  By 5:45am the sun was already blazing with no cloud cover.  I had a feeling it was going to be a tough day. 

We fished the shallows and threw poppers most of the morning.  Not a single bass came up for my fly.  Charles had a handful of missed opportunities and eventually we switched to streamers.  I rigged the 6wt with T3 Outbound sinktip.  We switched flies several times and Charles finally got a take on his fugly fly.  I tied on the swamp mutant bugger that I have success with at Prado lake.  Eventually I got a hard take and hard fight from am angry foul hooked bluegill.  Ouch!

If the fishing wasn't hard enough why should it end there?  The trolling motor limped about halfway to the boat ramp until it basically died.  About a quarter mile later we paddled and carried the lifeless pram to the parking lot.  What a day...

Topwater

Off guard and struggling with limited resources, our unexpected journey to Lake Perris was a hard battle.  The fishing partner showed up around 5:45 thinking that Prado Lake opened around 6:00am.  Tough times for us continues and I wasn't going to sit around until Prado opened their gates at 8:00pm.  We returned to my place to collect extra needed gear and made a mad dash to Perris.

Thinking that we were going to be fishing Prado, I did not bother charging my trolling motor battery or fish finder for that matter.  Nothing went as planned and we sailed off with a 50% charged battery and dead finder.  We were to fall back on good old instincts.  Luckily the sky was cloudy however wind made the topwater bite difficult that day.  I managed three topwater bass all on the frog gurgler fly.  I did get to fish with my new Winston BIIMX saltwater 6wt fly rod that I got for a steal on eBay.  It can really throw large flies with authority all while busting through wind.  It's my new versatile streamer stick that has accompanying me to the bay, bass lakes and eventually large trout water.

The new streamer rod.

Life support.  We limped into the boat ramp with 5% battery power.