raywriter
06-13-2011, 04:21 PM
A friend and I fished 6-6,6-9,and today 6-13, mostly looking for perch. On the 6th we landed 53 perch, keeping 22. The best presentation that day was a slip float rig two feet off bottom, drifted past the perch in 13 feet. Crawler pieces were best.
On the 9th, the weather was cold and windy. We stayed in the Escanaba River and jigged minnows and crawler halves. The catch was 6 walleye (3 keepers), 3 perch, 4 sheepheads, several rock bass, an 18" smallie, a sucker, and 2 pike.
Today (the 13th) we caught 85 perch (41 keepers from 8" to 12"). We found them moving in toward new weed growth in 8 to 12 feet. We anchored in slightly deeper water and cast both shallower and deeper. The best rig was a #3 Swedish Pimple with a two-inch leader followed by a #8 Gamagatsu Octopus hook. This is a very sharp, short shanked hook that is easily buried in a piece of crawler. This is one of my standard ice fishing rigs except that I use minnows or wigglers during the winter. Also very good for open water as today (and many other trips) proved. This rig is cast out, allowed to sink to bottom, and reeled in very slowly while shaking the rod tip slightly. In effect, I am "swimming" the lure and bait combo along just above bottom. We also tipped with perch minnows today and some of the larger perch came aboard that way. A one-eighth ounce jig can be used in this way as well, but is not as flashy as the small spoon.
We have found that we catch more and bigger perch fishing out away from the boat which is the reason for casting and using slip floats so often. We had rods with standard perch rigs in rod holders straight down over the side of the boat today, but caught very few fish on them. We also hang light jigs, or split shot and plain hook rigs straight down, but better fish are found away from the boat.
Watch for the massive weed edges off Kipling to start attracting movements of perch this week, but there are many spots on the bay with great potential now.
On the 9th, the weather was cold and windy. We stayed in the Escanaba River and jigged minnows and crawler halves. The catch was 6 walleye (3 keepers), 3 perch, 4 sheepheads, several rock bass, an 18" smallie, a sucker, and 2 pike.
Today (the 13th) we caught 85 perch (41 keepers from 8" to 12"). We found them moving in toward new weed growth in 8 to 12 feet. We anchored in slightly deeper water and cast both shallower and deeper. The best rig was a #3 Swedish Pimple with a two-inch leader followed by a #8 Gamagatsu Octopus hook. This is a very sharp, short shanked hook that is easily buried in a piece of crawler. This is one of my standard ice fishing rigs except that I use minnows or wigglers during the winter. Also very good for open water as today (and many other trips) proved. This rig is cast out, allowed to sink to bottom, and reeled in very slowly while shaking the rod tip slightly. In effect, I am "swimming" the lure and bait combo along just above bottom. We also tipped with perch minnows today and some of the larger perch came aboard that way. A one-eighth ounce jig can be used in this way as well, but is not as flashy as the small spoon.
We have found that we catch more and bigger perch fishing out away from the boat which is the reason for casting and using slip floats so often. We had rods with standard perch rigs in rod holders straight down over the side of the boat today, but caught very few fish on them. We also hang light jigs, or split shot and plain hook rigs straight down, but better fish are found away from the boat.
Watch for the massive weed edges off Kipling to start attracting movements of perch this week, but there are many spots on the bay with great potential now.