Perch

[5285]

7/27 300 yards west of D can, lots of boats found some good marks away from everyone. Started fishing at noon limit at 4; 12.5 lbs at the cleaners. Sat in one spot and waited them out, longest wait was about 15 minutes between fish. Golden shiners(pretty sure that's why it took 4 hours), 3 hook crappie rig, and spreader(they liked the crappie rig better today). Only one double. Lots of boats on Big Pickerel, heard some good reports from there also. Beautiful day to be on the lake.

Spent the last two weekends fishing off Ward's in 22 FOW. Had to move around a lot to keep catching fish, and it was 6 and 8 hour days even with shiners. Glad i went east today. Be back out Sat and Sun.

[5285]

7/28-29 Back to D Can Saturday had to move around a little. Marked lots of perch but they weren't biting, once they started got a 2 man limit in 2 hours. 22lbs at Shatto's Fish Cleaning, 3 hook crappie rigs with goldies from Bite Me Bait.
Sunday went out to D can a little earlier 8:30 fished in one spot two and a half hours. 3 man limit 34 lbs at Shatto's, 3 hook crappie rigs with goldies. Got a bonus 16" walleye, that tangled up a couple of lines, weather was awsome all weekend.

[5285]

8/3 Tried A can this morning, about 300 yards due south of the can, found some nice marks. Lots of boats north of the can, but only 3 of us south. I was by myself and caught my 30 perch in 2 hours. Decent size 13 lbs at Shattos fish cleaning. 3 hook crappie rig with goldies from Bite Me Bait

[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]

8/4 south of A can 2 man limit 9 to noon, was catching lots of 11 inch fish on the top hooks 9 and 10s on the bottom. 3 hook crappie rigs with goldies 25 lbs at Shattos. Eric from Bite Me Bait said he will have goldies in the morning.

[Justretired]

8/4 south of A can 2 man limit 9 to noon, was catching lots of 11 inch fish on the top hooks 9 and 10s on the bottom. 3 hook crappie rigs with goldies 35 lbs at Shattos. Eric from Bite Me Bait said he will have goldies in the morning.

Boy you must of had big fish!

[LEfriend]

Boy you must of had big fish!

Yea...assume he meant 3 man limit...Guess it is not impossible, and if not, wow, I want to catch some of those! Was in that same area Sat and ours went 31# for 88, and were real nice fish. We did keep a few down to 8 in to fill the 3 man limit.

[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]

9/22-23 Waited for the wind to die down Sat. went out about 3 pm Stopped at L can found some marks water was muddy about 6 inches visibility. Fished for an hour, no bites. Moved to A can made 3 stops on decent marks, half hour each, no perch, water was still muddy. Called it a day. Sunday went out at 9 am. Stopped at L can because there were a bunch of boats there and wasted hour, no perch. Went up to the west side West Sister to get out of the wind. Found some marks in 28 fow. Fished 2 hours and got 43 perch. (Buddy needed to get home early) Bite was steady on crappie rig and Swedish pimple about a foot off the bottom, with goldies.

[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.