Perch

[5285]

7/24-25-26
After the way the perch bite went last July I expected Thursday to be a one and out. Really glad I was wrong. Friday 3 of us got started at 9am at the same spot as Thursday. A mile south of B can right on the north side of the pack of boats drifting and trolling over Big Pickerel for walleye. It took a little longer but we had our 90 in just over 3 hours, 28 lbs at Shatto's. I attribute the slower bite to the 50\50 mix of shiners and goldies that was available at A and Js. I got to do some experimenting rotating 2 goldies and 1 shiner up and down the 3 hook crappie rig. 90% of the bites came on the shiners. I hear the arguments that one is just as good as the other, but I ain't buying it. That's not to say you can't catch limits of perch on goldies (keep reading) I am just saying for my 5 dollars a scoop I'll take shiners any time their available. Saturday 4 of us went to the same spot and it took 5 hours to catch a limit, 38 lbs at Shatto's, on 100% goldies. Again the marks looked exactly the same as the 2 days before. Since there was hardly any wind I did cut the spot lock on the trolling motor and drift a little when the action stopped 5 or 6 times. They were short drifts, at the end of the day we were only a hundred yards from the starting point. Today I was by myself. Same spot, goldies from A and Js, 3 hour limit. The fish were bigger 12 lbs at Shatto's. Several observations; I had 4 days of great fishing within a 100 yards of the way point I started on. I found that spot on my way to B can on Thursday because a spark plug wire fell off and when i started up after putting it back on the screen was lit up with perch on the bottom, so I tried there and found a nice school. I am talking to guys fishing the Toledo Light House, Ward's, the intake, B, D and G Can, and the perch are hitting well at all of them. Fingers crossed they don't all disappear again.