10/4/24 Report

[gb1234]

Perch - There were eventually about 75 boats perching from A can to Big Pickerel reef this morning. We started east of A can at sunrise. Emeralds from A-N-J on spreaders with no bling. Drifting. We tried several spots up to a mile east of A can. We got a few, but threw back twice as many as we kept. Lots of white perch and tiny yellow perch. By the time we moved up to B can, the crowd there was dwindling. We got nothing there, so moved down to Big Pickerel. By this time, that's where most of the boats remained. We did better there, but that's not saying much. After 5.5 hours of fishing, we had 13 keeper yellow perch, 2 cats, and 1 tasty drum. It seems to me they liked 24-26 feet of water a lot more than they liked 23, or 27 or 28 or 29.

Walleye - We pulled the boat out, cleaned our morning catch, got some lunch and drove to Huron. It was 4pm by the time we were back in the water. A guy at the ramp said he had done well in 48' which was about 8 miles out. The stiff NW wind made our journey very slow so we stopped before we got that far. We did get past the dump to 43 fow and started seeing steady marks there. We put out 4 bandits with 1oz weights, and 2 stinger spoons. I don't have dipsies, so just added a 1oz snap weight to the spoons. They were 30/70 back. We trolled until after sundown, which totalled about 90 minutes. Only about 2mph on the GPS - going with the waves. Ended up with 5 keeper walleye and 1 striped bass. Bandits caught 2 and spoons (that couldn't have been very deep) caught the other 4.

[itsbob]

Thanks for the thorough report.Long day fishing for both perch and and walleye for sure.But had good conditions to fish until later in day when wind picked up.

[gb1234]

A long day, indeed. Plus 3 hours' drive to get to the lake and 3 hours to get home. Erie is always a 22-hour day for me. Totally worth it!
It would be impossible to figure out when, where and how without so much help and encouragement from you, itsbob, and everyone else who posts their advice and reports here.
I should add that we used the 3-3/4" spoons (not including the hook) as opposed to those smaller spoons you see in the stores.

[West Basin]

Striped Bass?

[gb1234]

Well, it's definitely a bass and it definitely had stripes. However, I've learned that white bass can also have stripes and I know there is a big white bass run in the Portage River. I haven't caught striped bass or white bass before but according to the internet, striped bass are long and skinny whereas white bass are more round. This one was more round.