Perch'n with Duke, Lenny, and Buz 9/17/14
Duke Benevento's wife bid on a trip that was donated to the Island Safe Harbor Animal Sanctuary Charity Benefit a few months ago, and won it for her husband, Duke. Duke brought along his two friends, Lenny and Buz for a day of perch'n on Lake Erie.
The morning was beautiful, and the day's weather was expected to remain that way. The lake was calm as we left Mazurik's at 8am. I found out my guys had their Canadian licensees, so since I hadn't had the opportunity to fish up there lately, we set a course for Sheridan Point. The bite was slow, but we were picking up some perch. Not the the size that is usually expected up there though. After moving around a couple times, we decided it was best to head back to US waters to try some of my spots that have been productive the past two weeks.
We stopped at the NE corner of Gull Island shoal, but other than a perch here and there, we were only getting sheephead and whites. So, we moved to another spot in that area with the same results. Then, Lenny suggested we try a spot he was fishing the Sunday prior, which was on the east side of Kelly's...and, off we went.
There were a lot of boats over there, but we didn't see a lot of people looking busy pulling up perch, and the first spot we tried wasn't producing either, so we moved a little and tried again. Same results...sigh.
Again, we moved, but after making a phone call to my buddy Capt Keith of Pooh Bear Charters, I found out he was another 6 miles ENE of where we were and he and his crew had just finished up with 150 perch. He gave me his location and we headed out there. There were about a dozen boats fishing that spot, so we set up and gave it a shot. Same results....ugh. By now, I'm suspecting one of my three fellas was a bad luck charm and told them so. (They all blamed each other...LOL)
Larry from Hi Way Bait was out there and called me on my cell, and asked how we were doing. I said, "Not good!" He said, "We just finished up, and they were biting good towards the end, so if you want this spot, I'm pulling up anchor...come on over and take this spot". So, after figuring out which boat he was, we headed over and set up directly over his spot. Guess what....same results...just a couple perch and a lot of whites. Aaarrggh! LOL Seriously??
We only caught 37 keeper perch yesterday after all that work, but we still had a good time. Everyone stayed positive, even though the results were dismal.
The wind started to pick up and, since we had already gone "over time", and I had just gotten a deep gash on my thumb from throwing a giant white bass back in (cut by the gill plate) I decided to call it a day, and we headed back in.
They said they had a good time, even though the bite was off for us. It definitely wasn't for a lack of trying. These guys never gave up and fished hard. In hindsight we all agreed that we should have stayed put up in Canada and waited for them to turn on. Oh well....
Maybe next time....
Today is "clean the boat" day again, to get it ready for a 10 hour perch and walleye trip tomorrow. Hopefully, tomorrow's forecast will hold for us. It's looking pretty good.
Stay tuned....
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