Fished 7/3

[Eyezcrazy]

We did a little bit of everything yesterday. Started out trolling for walleye NW of North Bass with little luck, only 1 walleye. Saw some decent perch marks so after 3 hours of trolling we went to perch fishing. Started pulling perch as soon as we dropped the lines but only caught 18 yellow perch when the wind died and they shut down. Headed over to South Bass to try our luck with smallmouth and had a blast. I landed a few 4 to 5 pounders and my buddies caught some too.

On a side note, this was my first time fishing for perch and sm with braid line. I have always been a mono guy but thanks to Wakina I made the switch. He said he could feel a perch fart with his setup so I just had to see. Well, as I have learned from before, Wakina was absolutely right. Man, you can feel everything with that braid and a good graphite rod! It took me a little while to get used to not setting the hook as hard due to the lack of stretch in the braid but what an awesome experience feeling every bump, tick or pebble. I out fished my buddies at least 2 to 1 and I attribute that to being able to feel the bite so much better. My only mistake was going to lite with the line, I always use 8 lb test with mono so I bought the same in braid, that might be good for perch but I found it to be finger cutting sharp and so thin it would slip past the eye on the hooks for smallmouth fishing. I always like the idea of going as small as possible for stealth but will definitely be going up in weight with the braid.

Good luck to everyone going out over the Holiday weekend!

Jim aka eyezcrazy

[ChinnAgain]

I am not sure what kind of knot you were using but I have found that a Palomar knot is a must for braid. I had the same problem when setting the hook bass fishing it would come undone but haven't had it happen again since switching knots.

[Eyezcrazy]

I am not sure what kind of knot you were using but I have found that a Palomar knot is a must for braid. I had the same problem when setting the hook bass fishing it would come undone but haven't had it happen again since switching knots.

I also use the palomar knot, it wasn't the knot that failed it was the line actually passing through the gap at the eye because it was so thin.