Perch Fishing

[lineman49]

I would guess between 20-30 boats out.

[wnyguy]

Finally calm seas in the forecast!

I should be out wed or thurs

[fishkiller16]

3 of my uncles went out of Sturgeon today a touch west, they boxed out 3/4 of their perch were real nice 11"+. They had a great day. I missed out with this stupid broken ankle.

[wnyguy]

Well it was nice being out fishing in shorts in october. For a variety of reasons did not get out on the lake until 11am, when the lull seemed to hit everyone, and when we finally started catching fish my wife and I had to leave, only fished a couple of hours. 54 feet west seemed to be the ticket, the schools were holding pretty tight if you were on fish you did well. If you weren't catching fish you needed to move it seemed to me. I talked to one boat that caught 110 fish for 3 people, and another boat with 2 older guys saying they didn't catch much, while a boat 10 yards away pulled them in.

Morning launching was a mess, docks were being pulled and workers at sturgeon closed down all but one launching zone, and then when they pulled a dock out with the front end loader nobody could launch, boats were backed up to launch including me. If I had launched early probably would have been fine.

On top of that, boats were getting stuck in the sand bar left and right. Apparently the marina was even telling people not to launch at one point but I never heard it. I think there were a good 40 boats out there fishing today.

If you launch, keep your motor up high, and stay to the right side coming out, and then go parallel to the shore for a while before turning left. 60 yds? If you immediately head for the city buildings you will get stuck. When leaving you can see the sand bar, but I couldn't see it coming back in. We were down to about 1 and 1/2 feet, but I never touched with my IO. If we ever get a high easterly wind things will be really REALLY low there temporarily.

Overall a frustrating day, but beats working I guess. I'm sure 10 posts after this will say how they all caught their limits.

[wnyguy]

By the way forgot to add, the bathrooms at sturgeon are closed.

Except of course for the big one accessible by boat.

[lineman49]

Knew I should have gone perching, but had a nice day on the lower river. Wny, sounds like one of those days. Fishkiller, I fished the summer I broke my leg & I never had a cast on it, just have to figure out how to get in & out of the boat, so get out there. You are probably still recovering from catching all those "eyes" all summer.

[bailey]

Lineman i broke a leg before they put a rod in the tibia, it hurt like hell but in 2 wks i was walkin when i wasn't checking groung hardness with my face. Remind me to never tick you off you gots to be one tough sob for sure LOL.

[lineman49]

Not tough it was broke vertically & a cast would have done nothing for it.I could not put any weight on it for 5-6 months. used crutches & wheel chair to get around. It did hurt like hell when it happend. (be careful cutting trees)

[lineman49]

Fished SP today,kept 70-80 good size fish. Had eight 12-14"ers. The rest were all 9-11"ers. One dock still in , good water in the harbor but sand bar across mouth is getting bad , 1.5 fow in spots then 2-3, saw 2 boats on it & we scraped it a bit. Fished 52fow alittle to the west.

[wnyguy]

I was out there myself yesterday, did not do as good as you ended up with 12 nice sized fish, one was a big 13" pig. I didn't start until close to noon and they seemed to shut down some after 1:30 ish with boats moving around then.

Just out of curiousity are you fishing right on top of a school of fish, where they are constantly on your sonar? Are they holding tight like that and not roaming around?

The lake is not any deeper with the rain we have had, and the sand bar is getting bigger. I made it out just fine, but coming back in I did not have my outdrive raised enough and did get stuck briefly but was able to oar myself off. I did however chip off the end of a prop blade, not sure if it was there or in the docking area because I felt a bump.