Perch'n with Kelly and Avery McFall 7/19/14

It was a wet day, but we had fun chasing down some perch this morning. Kelly and Avery McFall had walleye fished with me on my birthday back in June, and tomorrow is Kelly's birthday, so she asked to do some perch fishing, to which her husband obliged. :)

After picking up some really nice shiners from Hi Way Bait, I met my crew at Mazurik's at 5:45. We waited for a small bass tournament to launch and head out before we launched. I also wanted to wait till it got a little lighter out, because I didn't feel like making the small effort to put the running lights in. (Okay...I admit it, that was lazy, lazy, lazy!) So, we ended up launching just before 6:30.

Another Captain friend of mine was headed out perch'n too, and said he would head up towards Middle Island to check it out, while we hit Carpenter's Point on Kelly's NW corner. If he found them up there we would join him. I just didn't have the confidence in that spot to make the run up there.
We only had a couple perch at Carpenter's when I decided to pull up anchor (okay, so it's not really pulling up an anchor using the Terrova's "Spot Lock", but you get the gist)..

As I was about to put the Ranger on plane, I looked back to make sure everyone was ready, and saw my friend coming up behind us. I turned the boat around to tell him I was headed to Green, where I had gotten reports of a decent bite. He said, "Let's go".

I stopped short at the deep hole in front of Starve when I marked some fish that looked like they could have been perch, and we tried it for about 15 minutes. We didn't get bit. With the marks that were there, if they were perch we would have gotten bit. I figured they were something else, and left there, headed to Green.

When we got to green we started picking up yellows, whites, and sheephead. My friend stopped by to tell us he was headed in. He hadn't grabbed his rain gear before leaving this morning and was only wearing a short sleeve shirt. It was a constant sprinkle most of the morning, so I couldn't blame him....with the wind it was chilly. (My customers also realized the benefits of buying quality rain gear too, as their gear wasn't up to the task either, but they stuck it out like troopers).

We lost patience with Green, as the perch were far and few between the white perch bites, so we picked up and headed more towards Rattlesnake. I saw some good marks on the Humminbird and hit the "Spot Lock". I was stunned at the amount of fish on the screen and wished they had been yellow perch instead of white perch. It would have been one of those knock your socks off, up and down kind of bites, that we all hope for when perch fishing...It was disappointing to find double and triple white perch and white bass hanging on the crappie rigs....sigh

We picked up "anchor" again, and headed towards the center area between Middle Bass, South Bass, Green, and Rattlesnake. We didn't catch any yellows there, so we moved again. This time the clock was running out, so I decided to take them back in the South Passage to try and find a spot there. We stopped off near Mouse Island, but it was all sheephead. Then, we moved towards Mazurik's, but we were mid channel, so a couple miles out.
When I sat the boat down, we marked some fish. I lowered the "anchor" and then all the marks on the screen were gone. I gave it 10 minutes and said, "We're moving". I disengaged the "Spot Lock" and Avery says, "I got one!" lol
So, we stayed for a little longer, but after realizing he had caught the only yellow perch below us, we moved one last time.

The last spot we hit was less than a mile straight out of Mazurik's, and we finally found a good school of fish willing to entertain us. It figures that it would be so close to the launch after using up so much gas searching for them...ugh.
Anyway, they ended up with their 60 perch with one bonus walleye I had caught in that last spot too. woot! woot!

On a side note...I am very happy with the new "Catch Counter" cooler we used to keep count of our catch. What a nice reprieve from having to keep track, and always wondering if I had hit the counter or not. :)

Tomorrow is a trip back over to Huron for some walleye with the Morrison family from South Dakota. Dan, his wife, and two little boys are going to give it a try. Let's hope the walleye know they are supposed to cooperate tomorrow.

Stay tuned....

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