Perch

[5285]

8/10- 2 miles south of A Can. Started at 9am over good marks, the bite was fast and steady, 2 of us had 42 in the box by 10:30 then they shut down. Spent the next 3 hours catching 4 & 5" perch, sheephead, a 24 inch walleye, and finally our last 18 perch. 23 lbs at Shattos, goldies from Bite Me Bait, and 3 hook crappie rigs.

[daleho10]

8/10- 2 miles south of A Can. Started at 9am over good marks, the bite was fast and steady, 2 of us had 42 in the box by 10:30 then they shut down. Spent the next 3 hours catching 4 & 5" perch, sheephead, a 24 inch walleye, and finally our last 18 perch. 23 lbs at Shattos, goldies from Bite Me Bait, and 3 hook crappie rigs.

Same thing happened to us about 3/4 mile southwest of A. From 9-11 on fire then shut down and only caught a few until quitting around 12:30. Maybe the strong east wind.

[5285]

8/11-12 Something changed Sat and Sun, don't know what it was but the perch bite definitely changed. Went out Sat morning with three buddies. We took my 30' sportcraft perch fishing for the first time. I knew if the fish weren't biting we would be at a disadvantage going from a trolling motor with spotlock, to a manual anchor. But the way the fishing was Friday I didn't think we would be moving much. I was wrong. Got set up south of A can and started catching lots of undersized perch and 3" walleye. Very short windows of keeper perch. They would move in and look great on the screen catch 1 or 2 and they would be gone. Moved to B can about noon same thing about 8 keepers an hour. Around 3 pm moved to Big Pickerel Reef. Tried live golden shiners, frozen shiners, twister tails on jigs, and weighted fly's. Bite was the same on anything we tried. Fish were there just not feeding. Ended up with 85 after 11 hours. Weather was perfect, and we all enjoyed a nice day on the lake. Sunday there were 2 of us so we took my 23' sportcraft. Went to the same areas (after talking with people this morning I should have headed west, or farther east to the islands) and had the same results. 30 perch in 6 hours. 12 pounds at Shattos, and goldies from Bite Me Bait. Yesterday afternoon the sun got fairly warm and for the first time this year I got to enjoy my new addition to the boat. I rigged up a generator, and a room air conditioner from Lowe's. It worked perfect, we were cool and comfortable all day.

[5285]

8/17 Started out south of A can at 10 am. Slow bite 18 in 2 hours.Went to NW corner of Crib Reef, Caught eight 11 & 12 perch in an hour and a half. Headed over to D can found good marks right beside the can. Took 3 hours to finish our limit, 22 lbs at Shatto's. Never got a good bite going, but caught fish all day. caught some 4 & 5" perch (gently released) and a bunch of 3" walleye (quickly released) Used 2 full scoops of goldies from Bite Me Bait to catch our 60 perch. All day the perch just refused to bite double hooked minnows, they had to be single hooked through the belly, and lively to get a bite, and we missed a lot of strikes with the single hook. Headed back to south of A can in the morning. Going to try to get out a little earlier.

[jonk]

Went out Friday out of East Harbor at about 12. i wanted to stay close to land because of the storms (and I got chased in once, put in to West Harbor while a thunderstorm passed at about 1:30). So I worked around mouse island reef and starve island reef.

Tried everything from 12 FOW to 40 FOW. Got some perch in 25 FOW within hearing distance of the bell at Mouse Island Reef. Took home 10. Nothing to write home about, but at least they were all big ones. Smallest was 8 inches, average about 10, had 2 12" ones. Given the slow bite I put out 2 rods. All but 2 had bling on them, small silver spinners. Real light bite. Water was very murky.

Given the slow bite I pulled up and tried for walleye for about an hour too, drifting and casting. Got one dink 8" fish. Sorry to say I got my personal best sheepead too, on a chartreuse and white erie dearie. 34" monster. Didn't have a scale with me but I have my drag set on the casting rod at 8 pounds (10 pound test) and he almost spooled me before I got him under control. I would estimate him at about 15 pounds or so. Normally I curse sheephead but still... getting a fish that big that fights that hard is still fun, whatever it is. Returned to the lake unharmed, minus the fecal matter he left on my deck.

Also got about half a dozen cats in the 12-20" range. Kept a few.

In short, fish were biting, just not the ones I wanted.

Around 7, with another front closing in, I went back in and took the boat off to the side of the channel in east harbor, and cast a weedless rubber worm for awhile (lots of eel grass floating). Got a few unremarkable largemouth in the 8-12" range.

[5285]

8/18-19 Reading and hearing about other perch reports from this weekend, and preparing to write about my trips Saturday and Sunday it occurred to me this weekend was more like last August, than so far this August. When I looked back at posts I wrote here and on some other forums last August, most days were 8 plus hours to catch a limit and the fish were smaller. I first noticed that 7/29/18 when 3 of us overfilled a Catch Counter Bucket when we got to 80 perch, last August we were regularly putting 90 perch in the same bucket. So far this year the fishing has been like last year's late September, and October. Big fish caught quickly. Kind of sad that it took a slow weekend to make me appreciate how fantastic the fishing has been this summer.
Yesterday 2 of us left the marina at 8:30, anchored up a half mile south of A can, and moved 5 times until we caught our limit at 1:45. 60 fish weighed 18 lbs at Shatto's, (smallest so far this year) we caught them on goldies from Bite Me Bait. Today also brought back memories of last August. Left the harbor at 7:30, anchored the same spot south of A can. Moved 4 times, ended up north of A can, headed in at 1:30 with 17 perch. There were plenty of marks but the groups were much smaller and spread out more than they have been. It will be interesting to see if next weekend the schools tighten back up or stay small and scattered.

[5285]

Catching and landing a 15 pound fish is a big deal. Most folks never get to accomplish that. Congradulations.

[5285]

Fished Fri Sat Sun. Spent a lot of hours around A can, fished B can, picket fence, Big Pick Reef, Crib Reef, K Can. Marked fish everywhere I fished, never got a good bite going all weekend. Friday was the best, worked on the boat all day, left the dock at 5:30 and back to the dock by 9pm. 2 of us caught 42 fish with 2 moves North and South of A can. Saturday headed to A can at 8:30, rode out the storm caught 18 perch and came in at noon. Went to K can Sat evening 2 hours 16 more perch. Suday 4 of us Fished the reefs and Picket fence. Same thing every spot, anchor up, pull 2-5 then 1 or 2 fish an hour. Came in at 1pm with 39. Every perch was full of small shad, and bugs. Warm water and plenty of forage makes for Dog Days of August. If your like me and don't have anything better to do it ain't a bad way to kill time. If you are dissappointed with less than limit trips, you may want to find something else to do for a while.

[5285]

fished 8/31-9/3 Started out Fri by myself south of A can. Caught as many doubles and triples as I did singles, that was the good news, and it was the same all weekend. The bad news was it only happened every 15 to 45 minutes. By Saturday I was noticing a distinct pattern. 15 to 45 minute wait, catch a sheep head or white perch. then 1, 2, or 3 yellow perch. I was running 2 rods, one spreader with an extra hook on the swivel. The other was a 2 drop crappie rig with a third hook tied to the weight. caught fish about equal on both rigs. Friday Saturday and Sunday fished 3 hours. caught 17, 16, and 17 perch. Monday 3 of us went out for 5 hours and caught 72. All 4 days started at A can then moved to the picket fence. The bite and fish size seemed to be identical at both locations. Weather was perfect all 4 days.

[5285]

9\7-8-9 Got up to the lake Thursday evening to change the starter on the boat, and figure out why the engine temperature was running a little warm. Didn't go well, ended up taking 14 hours and close to a thousand in parts to get everything back together finaly by Friday evening. The joys of running a 34 year old boat. The 8 foot waves Saturday and Sunday made watching football on TV a much better option than fishing. Anyway should be good to go next weekend.