The Bait Shop Guy
05-06-2013, 09:25 PM
Made the first boat trip on the bay on Saturday. Ran all over the upper bay in 20 to 40 FOW, trying to graph some fish before dropping anchor. Marked very few fish deep, so I assumed they were up shallow, spawning. Moved to the area off the Gladstone campgrounds and marked lots of fish at the base of the drop-off in 29 to 32 FOW. Anchored up and proceeded to catch a limit of big slobs! Of course, those slobs turned out to big rockbass, with no perch in the mix. If you've never tried them, they are just as good as crappies, coming out of this cold water.
Got reports today that the perch were biting good up near the sand point, south of the Days River mouth. I headed out late this afternoon and scouted out some deep water on the east side of the upper bay. Marked a few fish, but no real numbers, so I headed to the west side of the bay. Marked good numbers of fish along the first drop-off in 20 to 23 FOW. Anchored up and started catching fish right away with wigglers on perch rigs. Ended the night landing 36 fish, keeping 14. Best one of the night was a 13 1/2 incher. Hope to run into a few like that on Saturday during the perch derby.
Water temp was in the upper 40's. All but one of the fish I caught today was spawned out, so they should start moving out of the shallows and into the deep mud. Should be good perch fishing well past the walleye opener, this year.
Got reports today that the perch were biting good up near the sand point, south of the Days River mouth. I headed out late this afternoon and scouted out some deep water on the east side of the upper bay. Marked a few fish, but no real numbers, so I headed to the west side of the bay. Marked good numbers of fish along the first drop-off in 20 to 23 FOW. Anchored up and started catching fish right away with wigglers on perch rigs. Ended the night landing 36 fish, keeping 14. Best one of the night was a 13 1/2 incher. Hope to run into a few like that on Saturday during the perch derby.
Water temp was in the upper 40's. All but one of the fish I caught today was spawned out, so they should start moving out of the shallows and into the deep mud. Should be good perch fishing well past the walleye opener, this year.