8/17/23, Good Day Perch Fishing

Started the day out of Cooley Canal around 7:30. As soon as we hit open water the waves were coming out of the northwest. Most were 2's with an occasional 3. Set up in 17 fow and caught 6 in about an hour before we decided to make a move. Headed to within a mile and a half of the water intake to 19 fow. It was hard to feel the bite because it was still bumpy till around 10. Then the wind started to die down. By the time we finished it was close to calm. Most of the fish came on spreaders laying on the bottom or a snelled hook off the sinker. We'd just let the minnows lay on the bottom and slowly lift until feeling a slight pressure and set the hook. Instead of moving a lot to find the fish we waited them out in our second spot and got our 60 perch (17 lbs.) by 12:30. It was a great day on the water with my good friend John.

Correction on my last post. The date should be 8/16/23

Neighbor and I also went out on the 16th out of wards, nice perch chop, but few active perch. Made a couple moves, but still slow and a very small avg size. Finally headed out after the wind died down out to 22-23' ft of water, no one around, we were between light house and intake but farther to the north. Start slow with lots of dinks, then the wind quit completely and it got Hot...real hot, no breeze, by 1 we were ready to call it a day and started reeling in our gear and bam...game on..nice perch were grabbing our minnows on the way up. Rebaited and they were attacking the bait on the way down!! Up and down for the next hour, went from 8 small perch to 36 really nice perch in less than an hour! Finally called it quits as it was just to hot with no breeze ! Lake was smooth as glass for the ride in and the breeze at 30 mph felt really good. Don't remember a bite frenzy like that in calm flat waters before but it was fun....