Hot perch bite Wednesday 10/9

Two of us caught 60 nice perch in 2 1/2 hours Wednesday. Went 17 pounds at the cleaner. We were about 100 yards off the cliffs on the north end of Catawba Island in 20 feet of water. Yea, we were in real close! We caught at least twice that many that were too small. We used spreaders with no bling and whole emerald shiners from Rickards. Had to lay the spreader on the bottom for 30 seconds or so then raise slowly. We caught many doubles and it was up down for quite awhile. Caught only a couple trash fish. The fish were very aggressive, it wasn't a subtle bite. The wind picked up about 11 and the bite turned off about noon.
Went back to the same location Thursday morning and very slow bite. Most were 6 inches or so. Kept only 12. What a difference a day makes!

PatSea,

Thanks for the honest report. I was there Thursday and it was exactly as you say. Same catch method, same slow bite.

I cleaned a couple of Jumbos by hand. Did not notice any stomach contents so hopefully the abundant forage these perch have been on is slowing down.

I did notice these female fish very full of eggs. Here's hoping for a good hatch in 2020!

CaptKen, any theory as to why the bite was so different between Wednesday and Thursday. It seemed like the conditions were the same. There was no frontal passage overnight. The bite on Thursday was very subtle. Wind about the same out of the east to SE. I can't explain it.

My guess is that the shallow water and the area with a lot of boat traffic would move those perch out of there.There are other variables too,that changes the bite from one day to another.We have all seen the bite change on consecutive days fishing.

You may be right on the boat traffic pressure moving the fish out of there. There was a constant parade of boats going around the point to the area NW of Catawba.

Went out on a head boat Wednesday 10/9 8 am to 2 pm very few fish caught not my best fishing experience but at least we had a day out of the shop, unfortunately we did not have shiners and not sure what they sold us for bait.
I watched a more experienced angler catching more than any one else and noticed he had bait in a ziplock bag that looked like shiners poss he had them salted or frozen , having good bait was a definite issue for us the big fish on the boat was almost a 12 inch perch not done for the season yet will try again soon
Question any one have a trick to preserving shiners ?

MLBMIKE, some days emerald shiners work much better than "goldies". Some days it doesn't matter which type you use. Sounds like the individual on the boat may have salted shiners in the baggie. I have not tried to preserve shiners by salting them but I know some guys on here have done it with good results. If you do a search on here you can find detailed information on how to do it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MBLMIKE

Question any one have a trick to preserving shiners ?

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Step 1: Lay out shiners on newspaper (get most of the moisture off of them)
Step 2: Put shiners in a ziploc, and add salt. Shake up the bag and ensure that the salt is covering the minnows. Use a fair amount of salt, more is better. The salt keeps the minnows from freezing hard in the freezer, and it also pulls the moisture from the minnows and they tend to stay on the hook better and not get "mushy" as they can without salt.

The second method is to use wintergreen rubbing alcohol. Same idea, different product. The idea is to lower the freezing point, and pull moisture from the bait. Some people swear by using the salt method (Me), some like the alcohol method. (It doesn't have to be wintergreen, but some people like it for some reason and it's available at the dollar store so I'm told).

When we go fishing, we take a small cooler to keep the frozen shiners in. We just keep the bag on ice, and grab the bait out of the little cooler while we're fishing.

Keep a towel or rag handy to wipe the salt off of your fingers. I can tell you from experience that it CAN ruin some parts of a fishing reel. I have 2 Pfleugers that are all corroded from the salt. Live and learn.

cheap Vodka works great

That's what I love about this site the great wealth of info but I have another question, Hammerhead you raise a interesting dilemma what is the ratio of vodka to minnow and myself ?

put drained minnows in a zip lock bag. pour enough CHEAP vodka in to cover minnows. press air out of bag and lay flat in freezer. Then pour some GOOD vodka in a glass of your favorite mix and enjoy. :D

Great I hate to drink alone