San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

After getting stuff done at home, I ditched the beach gloom for beautiful San Vicente and fished on both Sunday and Monday afternoons in the kayak. Overcast weather with slight breeze. This is trip 4 and 5 to SanV following the same panfish pattern. Its a slam dunk to take the kayak with the advanced electronics, this fishing is so much fun and so productive. I can barely get out of the marina area, there are plenty of fish everywhere to catch! I could even post another separate post over in the bass forum.

There were very few water skiers both days, seemed odd for a 3-day weekend.

Sunday the bass were going nuts in the early afternoon and eating the nightcrawler pieces like Skittles. They were crashing schools of shad under the kayak. I caught 6 or 7 bass. The panfish bit better a little later, with a beautiful pumpkinseed hybrid, a few bluegill and two nice redear at 1.8 lbs and 2.02 lbs. Got all of the battle action on the GoPro again.

** All fish were released **



One of many clone bass, super fun on the light gear. See the shad ball with a nice bass under it on the meter.


Hybrid sunfish? How about the orange highlights? LOL



Standard bluegill. So. Boring!



Scored a chunky redear over two pounds.





Crazy brilliant turquoise color when the sun hits it just right!


[POST is continued below in protest of the 6 picture max per post ]

Back to that pumpkinseed or green sunfish hybrid panfish, that mouth is super cool!


This other redear that weighed in at 1.8 lbs






Below are shots from my Monday-Memorial Day trip. I wear a different hat on each day mainly for the fish photos
Monday was slower on bass, but I caught a beauty on my first cast on a crappie jig. And then some really nice panfish to finish off the day.


First cast surprise!



That jig was fun to get out, he had inhaled it on the drop!!






Another fatty redear.





Lipping the bronzy.

Nice panfishing, I still have a hard time telling the difference between big bluegill and redear

Nice job as always. Really good quality overall. Any over two pounds are special. Yep, that one with the orange fins looks like a green sunfish hybrid. There seems to be a lot of them in there.

foulhook wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 5:52 am Nice panfishing, I still have a hard time telling the difference between big bluegill and redear

Thanks! Yes and I wonder if there are any 'purebreds' left in there. I highly doubt the people that keep the lake records(?) could properly judge one way or the other on species.

Fishbreath wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 8:45 am Nice job as always. Really good quality overall. Any over two pounds are special. Yep, that one with the orange fins looks like a green sunfish hybrid. There seems to be a lot of them in there.

Thanks Larry! Its really a lot of drag-burning fun as you know, a really under-subscribed fishery here!

I'll bet you anything that I just released a lake-record-sized Green Sunfish - the thought didn't even cross my mind at the time. The current lake record was set almost 60 years ago at JUST OVER ONE POUND. I also have no idea what would qualify as a "green sunfish" - how hybrid can it be?

blackcloud9 wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 4:29 pm I also have no idea what would qualify as a "green sunfish" - how hybrid can it be?

I miss having Queue to help us sort out these kind of questions. My understanding is that hybrids are sterile. That's why you can stock wipers without fear that they will reproduce and take over a lake. That being said, it would seem that all hybrids are 50/50. In the very rare cases that hybrids do reproduce, the offspring are 100 per cent one species or the other. It's good that they don't reproduce, otherwise we would have a lake full of sunfish mutts, especially when you throw the bluegill/redear sunfish hybrids into the mix.