On Saturday I decided to head up to Mille Lacs to try my hand at perch. A week ago Tom and I had caught a total of 10 before we headed out to the reef for some walleye trolling. This is the time of year perch come into the shallow water areas to hang out. Isle, Walkon, Cove, and Vineland bays are prime areas. In years past we would head to our favorite spot in Walkon with a small crappie jig 2 1/2 feet below a slip bobber, tipped with a minnow. One would not have to wait long before a 7 to 12 inch perch would pull the bobber under water with authority. Not unlike my fortunes with walleyes, this year the perch have been somewhat elusive as well. As the water cools, the perch bite seems to get better and a week had cooled the water another 5 degrees. I headed right to the "honeyhole" which has produced well in previous years, fishing over an hour with nothing to show. I had noticed a guy at the end of some bulrushes pulling in a fish every so often. Walkon has many scattered bulrushes and I decided to try that pattern. Picking an obscure patch of rushes in the middle of nowhere I pitched my bobber rig up next to the rushes. Within seconds the bobber was down and I had a 9 1/2" fish in the livewell. I rebaited and repeated the scene at least 40 times in the next 20 minutes. By the time 40 minutes had passed there were 20 nice perch in the well including a nice 11 1/2 incher, respectable by any measure. Paying attention to the other boats and adapting to what appeared was a pattern was the key. Having success on the perch I decided to head to Anderson's reef and see if the walleyes were in any better mood. After an hour of dragging raps, I resigned to heading home as I had a bunch of fish to clean.
Althought this picture really doesn't do much for the size of the perch, it was very nice one. I am also getting reports of nice fish catches trolling well after midnight. 10 years ago I would do this, fish to 2:00AM then drive home. Although I might be missing some fish, the old body can't handle that schedule anymore. Oh well!
Althought this picture really doesn't do much for the size of the perch, it was very nice one. I am also getting reports of nice fish catches trolling well after midnight. 10 years ago I would do this, fish to 2:00AM then drive home. Although I might be missing some fish, the old body can't handle that schedule anymore. Oh well!
1 comment:
Oh yeah
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