Lake Perris: The Making and Destruction of a Trophy Spot Lake

Episode 38
With the success of the Florida Bass experiment conducted in San Diego beginning in the late 1950s and through the early 1970s, California biologists turned to another bass sub-species for one of their new lakes. This new lake, Lake Perris, would be devoid of cover and have drastic water-level changes over the course of a season, not conducive conditions for rearing largemouth. Because of this, the DFG looked to the Alabama spotted bass to fill a niche.
Spotted bass were known to spawn in deeper waters than their big-mouthed cousin and didn’t need the cover associated with typical bass waters. They also provided great sport to the angler.
In 1973, CADFG started talks with the Alabama Fisheries Department and set up a trade: Florida strain largemouth from California for spotted bass from Lewis Smith Lake, Alabama. By 1974, the lake was stocked with 200 spotted bass from the lake that held the world record. Within five years, this second black bass experiment proved to be on track to set a new world record.
Mentioned in the show:
• Orville Ball and the F...
• Alabama's World Record...
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[@kidsguitaracademy]

This episode really hit home for me. My dad was there in the late 70's fishing the Spotties. I caught the bass fishing bug as a young teen in 89', but by then we were only pulling largemouth from the lake. My dad, who had taken a hiatus from fishing due to the demands of his job, was puzzled over the fact that the Spotties were gone and assumed that the introduction of the largemouths was the reason. I guess he was mostly right. He would had loved this episode. Unfortunately, he passed away almost exactly one year ago. Even so, I can still hear a faint echo of his voice talking about the "beautiful Spotties of Lake Perris".

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you! We're glad it brought back some memories for you! Terry

[@user-dd1hs7ur9r]

Great episode. I cut my teeth on Perris as a kid fishing and learned a lot from gentlemen like Gil Rowe, Dave Nollar, Woody Woodruff, and Bob Bringhurst. I still have a box of Perris special worms and olive green Westy worms.

[@thebigbasspodcast]

thanks user-dd! Terry

[@lroyson]

Man, you guys get the details. Great show.

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank lroyson! There were more but Ken cut me off! LOL. Terry

[@lroyson]

🤣

[@rogerdudra178]

Back in 2015 I fished the Musselshell river in south central Montana, the state small mouth record was 6.66 pounds which I vowed to topple. I saw a smallmouth in the river that could have beat the record by a couple pounds but the fish had to die to get the record. Now that I'm 74 I'm glad that fish got to live too. I saw that fish from a distance of a couple feet as it spit out my tiny red fox spinner.

[@Bassgrabber1]

This is great guys ! Love all the history of my fishing hole !

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you Bassgrabber! Terry

[@rickrobinson7032]

Another great show boys!

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you Rick! Terry

[@kenmccarthyfishing]

I can’t believe people don’t know what there State record is,that blows me away.Thank you gentlemen ❤👏👏👏

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Ken, the only defense he has is that it was falling at a pretty fast rate. Still, he should have known himself instead of relying on someone else. Terry

[@Bassgrabber1]

Dave Nolar is a legend out here !

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Yes he is! One of the OGs from the 1970s! Terry

[@dariusking2927]

Great show guys👍👍 as you may know Terry there is a big controversy over Alabama Spots in Tennessee, North Carolina and so on. As them devastating the fishing and largemouth and smallmouth populations. As living on Kentucky lake I hope these things don’t take over the Tennessee river system and Cumberland river system. You think people would learn to quit moving nonnative fish to other parts of the country. It usually ends up, biting them in the ass 😂

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Darius, are they Kentucky Spots or Alabama Spots they're worried about here? I have heard nothing good about Kentucky Spots and their ability to take over watersheds. Do you have any links where I can read up on this? Terry

[@dariusking2927]

@@thebigbasspodcast it’s Alabama spots the latest thing I’ve seen about it is on Alex Rudd fishing KZbin they have a fish biologist on there Alex live in Knoxville there has been other shows about it too if you got time watching Alex‘s show

[@dariusking2927]

@@thebigbasspodcast the show was on about 3 weeks ago

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Darius, I'll check it out! Thanks man! Terry

[@socal_outdoors]

Awesome show! And love the history of my home lake. I've been fishing Perris since the 90's and only had one night catching a mix of largies and spots.

[@gregc7314]

Great episode fish Perris all the time. One correction though Southern California is not a desert it's biome is chaparral.

[@bryanventura157]

Wow grate show, 268 views and 46 likes 19 comments come on views hit the likes git it up there. One of the top 3 podcast Boom lets go.

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you Bryan!! Terry

[@estebancoronafishing8900]

Thanks for the awesome history lesson of the record spots Lake Perris use to have.

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you!

[@johnblaha5692]

Interesting episode this week. Keep up the good work, fellas.

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you John! Terry

[@benonem]

another awesome podcast guys, look forward every week!

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you Ben! Terry

[@DouglasSubbs]

Awesome show. And that’s for the single source of state records and world records

[@kevinatwell9781]

Great podcast thanks guys!

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you Kevin! Terry

[@fakegucci2244]

This is my home lake I think some of the bigger bass in there can be hybrids

[@gcharter97]

I believe the biggest limit of spots ever weighed in a tournament was in our club at Bullards 40.01lbs!!! Have you heard of a larger limit weighed in?

[@thebigbasspodcast]

gcharter, all that Bullards Bar data is hard to find and clarify. You guys kept that place on lockdown for a long time. But, anyway, I have never heard of a bigger limit than 35lbs so a 40lb limit would be the biggest. Terry

[@gcharter97]

Bullards would make a great show, the record has been broken multiple time in the past 10-15 years and held once by Cody Meyer

[@thebigbasspodcast]

gcharter, we're going to be moving up the list with Pine Flat and then Bullards. Terry

[@orionhunt6901]

Terrys back who was that other guy 😂

[@thebigbasspodcast]

LOL. Some imposter....

[@curvinh6289]

A 21" fish can be over 7lbs with a 18" girth in my experience. That's largemouth I don't know a thing about spots🤷 Great show as always!!

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Yeah, they just look like balls when they get like that. Terry

[@curvinh6289]

@@thebigbasspodcast the way we like em!

[@secretbassrigs]

​@@thebigbasspodcast BASSketballs!!!

[@reb5166]

Another piece to the So Cal puzzle. They should have put spots in Diamond Valley.

[@secretbassrigs]

Bassketballs!

[@thebigbasspodcast]

There you go Secretbassrigs!! I like it! Terry

[@bassman4201000]

Do a show on spring lake in santa rosa?

[@thebigbasspodcast]

We’ll get there!

[@chrishampton8842]

Does Parris have any spots at all today guys? Thanks for a great podcast again

[@secretbassrigs]

"While all of the other reservoirs where spots have been planted in California remain excellent spotted bass fisheries, Lake Perris is completely devoid of spots. They have not shown up in a Department survey or in an angler’s catch for over 20 years." (From Outdoor News Service, March 28 2020, Mathews)

[@reb5166]

Stripers took them out.

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Chris, I would have to say no. Thank you for the kind words! Terry

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you secretbassrigs! Terry

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Reb, I won't give you my opinion of stripers...... Terry

[@davidblake5199]

Green is a color of the deep water, and they can easily see it… So they say

[@garretdeckert1749]

The the Florida bluegill took them out, in addition of the largemouth

[@PeterWFishing]

best intro yet no doubt about that 😂

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Peter, don't egg him on!

[@PeterWFishing]

Hahaha it was partially Terry's embarrassment to be associated with such a fool that made it so entertaining! @@thebigbasspodcast

[@secretbassrigs]

From that intro, I finally figured out which comedic duo Ken and Terry remind me of...The Sicilian and the Giant from the Princess Bride.

[@kenduke6631]

My name is Inigo Montoya.... -- Ken

[@secretbassrigs]

@@kenduke6631 "Inconceivable!"

[@jackack8100]

i saw your Casitas story...what do you think of the fact that Casitas is up to 70% full heading into an el nino winter...does it have a chance to come back?

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Jack, well it depends on what you mean by come back? Will the population of bass increase and will the fishing get better? Yes. Will it again produce world-record class fish? I don’t think so. From what I understand they no longer stock trout that are small enough to become a good source for bass and that’s a key ingredient to big bass production.

[@bryanhead4040]

chasing a record and don’t know what number your chasing. Hhmmm 😂😂 Good show as usual !!

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Yeah Bryan, pretty amazing...... Terry

[@qaze0338]

We have been fishing perris since the early 90’s and never caught a spotted bass …sad to say 🙁

[@TheirsHopewithJesusChrist_277]

Maybe it's over pressured or over fished?

[@maxcole3930]

There's a lot of spots in Clarks Hill & their even worse in Lake Russell on the Savannah River Chain. Idk why guys put spots in these lakes back in the day? Should have stocked ton of largmouth & or even smallmouth. In past 2 years sense I've lived down here the biggest spot I've seen/caught was only 3.4 I would absolutely 100% rather catch largmouth. Which I why I prefer Santee Cooper lakes , Murray & other smaller lakes in my area. Spots are the last on list of species I want to target or catch. Maybe if I saw some biggins, even decent ones that would change. I haven't seen that. 95% of spots I've seen are 12-14 inches.

[@secretbassrigs]

"...if it weren't for those meddling kids!"

[@thebigbasspodcast]

LOL. Yeah, in this case they screwed up a pretty good thing. Terry

[@secretbassrigs]

@@thebigbasspodcast the oldest son should have known better than to risk it. But of course he should have been taught better. So it's always Dad's fault. 🙄😒

[@benbunting2491]

Yep, there comes a time all pod-casters lose it.............just kidding great show.

[@thebigbasspodcast]

Thank you Ben! Terry

[@sikamoreify]

The biggest threat to the future of our fisheries is anglers, nothing less, nothing more. Far too many people with lines in the water are uneducated on sustainability and have zero interest in learning.