Perch'n With Some MI Guys 10/10/15

[Capt Juls]

Sorry this is late, but due to a new iMac, and my lack of knowledge of it's operating system, I had to figure out a photo uploading problem.

Here we go.....

Jeff, Don, and Ken met me at my house at 6:40am, and we loaded them in the Excursion and headed to the bait shop to get some fresh emerald shiners for a day of perch fishing. However, I was disappointed in the scoop count, and doubly disappointed with the price for the short scoop count, so I scrambled to get some frozen shiners from a friend's boat, at "Anchors Away Marina", in case we needed them, because I didn't grab any out of my freezer. Luckily, I was able to catch him before he got out fishing, and I traded some brownies for some frozen shiners, so everyone was happy. lol


We headed to the last place I had caught some nice perch a couple days before, which was up at the red buoy at North Bass. My friends, who run "Eagle Eye Charters", "Pooh Bear Charters", and "Eye Catcher Charters" were all up there too. But, the bite was slow. Nice fish...but, slow. So, I made a move south to the green can at North Bass, and didn't find any there, so we moved again. This time we traveled down between North Bass and Middle Bass to head towards Rattle Snake Island, where we all know there is still a decent bite going on. They are smaller fish, on average, but still good eaters.


The Onix marked some fish in that passage, so we stopped to drop some lines down and see if we could find out what they were, but there were no takers. We didn't stay long, because I didn't think they were perch. So, we moved further west over to the pack of boats that were sitting on West Reef, on the SW corner of North Bass.


I marked some good fish south of the pack, and SW of the red can that marks the reef, so we hit the Spot Lock on the Ulterra and started fishing. Immediately, we got bites. The first fish up was a small yellow perch, so I was confident the marks below us were a school of perch.


We caught a lot of fish there, with a lot of throw backs, but the longer we fished the bigger the perch got. When we hit 102 the bite slowed down, and we ground it out until we had 108...just 12 more to go until we hit a four person limit. But, Ken said, "Now would be a good time to go try for some walleye", and everyone agreed. So, I kept them fishing for perch while I readied everything for trolling walleye. We got all the perch stuff put away, and I got on the radio with Capt. Nate, who runs the "Chelsea IV" boat. He had gotten all of his perch at Green Island and was going to go try trolling the "picket fence" (firing range cans) for walleye.


After a quick, "what are you going to do?" conversation, he headed to "E" can, and I headed to the ''Niagra" and "D" can area. I had some great marks, that looked to be walleye, from 15-30 foot down, so we ran something in all depths of the water column. We ran Bandits, Reef Runners, and Deep Husky Jerks off of the Off Shore Boards with 2 and 3oz snap weights, and two dispsey, with the #3 setting at 35 & 41 back, off the corners of the boat with big spoons.


I wish I had a report for walleye, but those buggers will not bite anything right now. Seems to be that way all over, from what I'm hearing. Huron is a mud hole and there are a ton of marks, but no biting fish. It's a VERY strange year in that regard, but I'm hoping that after the mud, that the last blow created over in that area cleans up, the fish will put the feed bag on again. If it weren't for the little baby walleye hatchlings from this spring, I wouldn't remember what a walleye looks like! We have caught a ton of them while perch'n.


We only had one big pull back on a Deep Husky Jerk, but it was off as fast as it pulled that Off Shore board back! And, we had one 6 inch walleye caught on a big spoon off the dipsey. That spoon was almost the same size as the walleye! What was that little guy thinking? "I'm a big fish! Look at me!", he probably told himself.


Anyway, it was a beautiful day on the water, with a very fun crew of gentlemen who have plenty of experience fishing the way I do, so it was easy work for me. I got to enjoy the day like I was just out fishing with my fishing friends. No instruction necessary. And, days like those are far and few between. Don't get me wrong...I like to teach people how to fish like I do, but it's always a pleasure to fish with folks who already know how to do it!


I had the day off today, (Sunday), and I have tomorrow off too. I will be back at it Tuesday through Sunday, for both walleye and perch, so please pray for good winds. We need that dirty water to clean up, so we have a chance to figure out what those finicky walleye want to eat right now.


Oh, and before I forget to mention...the bigger perch seemed to like those frozen shiners in Wintergreen rubbing alcohol over the fresh ones. Some days are like that, and other days, it's the other way around. We were also using the "Skipper 9" rigs.


Stay tuned....I'll try to keep you posted in a more timely fashion.


Capt Juls