7/29 Perch

A-N-J was NOT open at 5am even though they confirmed that on the phone yesterday. So we couldn't watch the sun rise from A Can as planned. Instead, we went to Jeanette's and then to Green. It was almost 7am by the time we got our minnows, launched, drove out and set up 1.25 mi SSW of the island.

My wife got a few perch right away. I got a cat and a small drum. Then the clouds dissipated and the bite got even slower for us. We saw a boat about 400' away reeling them in one after the other, but not us. My wife got nibbles all morning and reeled perch all the way up to the boat but then they got off. I was getting about one bite an hour.

We were set up identically: spreaders, no bling, live minnows cut in half.

The sonar was showing a lot of big fish under our boat. Maybe they were chasing the perch away? Several times, we moved to spots without big fish and did get some nibbles. But then big fish would show up and the nibbles stopped.

There were about 50 boats south of Green today. They started leaving at noon, but my solunar chart said there would be a peak from noon to 1 so we stayed almost until 1. I did catch my only perch of the day during that solunar peak. However, that was also the only time my bait drifted under the boat. The sun was pretty brutal by then so perhaps they were only biting in the boat's shade.

For 5 hours with lines in the water, we had 11 perch on, 8 made it into the boat, and we kept 5. Plus we kept a big white perch and the cat. We caught 3 drums, but they were too small to keep.

Back at the dock, one guy commented that it was tough today. There are perch to be had right now but I think the best is yet to come.