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I got a hold of the guys at Matthews Bait and Tackle to get a report for everyone
PERCH SEASON HAS BEGUN!!!
Allot of nice catches are being brought in from the E bouy, Turn Around Bouy
and McDonalds bouy on a regular basis. We have fish cutters on hand daily to clean everyones catches. Spreaders and Shiners seem to be working best. 7 to 9″ fish are common with a few over 10″ mixed in.
Sounds like the perch are coming on just as I m taking off for the Upper.
Take care, good luck
Vacation Time, will be off the computer for at least 7 days, maybe a few more than that. Good luck fishing yourselves.
Whenever I get ready to take a trip, I make a list of things to take. Course I tend to focus more on the rods and reels, then tackle, then accessories first, clothes…etc a distant second. Unless you count rainwear, which really is an accessory when you think about it.
Where to, the cabin, location: somewhere in the middle of the Upper Peninsula. What am I going to be fishing for, primarily muskie, some pike, some walleye and going to try my hand at some smallie fishing. Might have some time for a little crappie fishing, just for kicks and dinner. Total rod combo’s come to sixteen, might whittle it down to 15, but sixteen sounds right. Then tackle. Am only going to throw tubes and drop shot for the smallies. Have to stuff for Big Bay de Noc and the walleye, pike and smallmouth bass that can be found.
The list just keeps getting bigger and bigger lol. Point is, make a list whenever you go on vacation. Check the items off as you pile them in the corner, or in the truck and boat. Making my list, then 7 days of Upper Peninsula bliss.
Well it turns out, its a good thing there was just a piece on perch fishing, here is the weekend from Captain Mike from Matthews Bait & Tackle:
The perch run has started. We ahve seen allot of fish caught the last 2 weeks
and it should only get better from here. Places like E bouy, Toledo Harbor
Light and the McDonalds bouy have been yielding the highest catch rates. There
have also been some 10 to 12″ fish taken in 12 to 14′ of water near Luna Pier.
Minnows and Perch rigs seem to be taking the most fish!!
Good Luck & Tight Lines,
Capt. Mike
Matthews Bait & Tackle
Thats not a bad days work right there, and running shallow too. good luck this weekend, I ll be out of town from the 31st through the 8th of August. Time to kick back, see the extended family again, do a lil pike and muskie fishing and just plain enjoy the Upper Peninsula! Should have a couple of more posts before then. good luck!
With the state’s unusually cool weather this summer (got to love global warming) salmon fisherman are using a tactic usually reserved later during the fall. The dog days of summer usually mean fishing deeper water for Lake Michigan’s salmon and trout populations. This year reports are coming in of fish being taken in water as shallow as 25 foot.
Fishing this shallow is unusual because it is normally a fall trend, when salmon are staging to make their runs into the rivers on state’s west coast to spawn. To take advantage of this bite, anglers are breaking out their Penn’s and Daiwa’s spooled with lead core. Lead core differs from normal mono and braids in that it is a uniformally weighted line.
Broken up by differing colors every ten yards, a linecounter reel is not neccessary to guage how far back your line is running. Without the use of Dipsey Divers and downriggers, anglers can get their lures down deeper, without the risk of spooking fish in the shallower water. Favorite rigs to use with lead core include running J-plugs and baits like Bombers, Rapalas and Flatfish.
The lead core allows the baits to be run further back from the boat, but near as far as using say 20 to 30 lb monofilament. From the lure to the brightly colored line use a length of flourocarbon line, usually 20 or 30 yeards in length. Spool your reel first with a pass or two of mono for backing, then commonly used is 30 lb Power Pro before attaching the lead core. A commonly used weight for the line is #27.
Take advantage of this shallow bite while you can. August is just around the corner, and hotter days ahead could drive the fish down deeper. For further information consult local shops on Lake Michigan in towns like Ludington and Muskegon, or stop into Cabela’s in Dundee. You can send me an email, and I’ll be glad to give you some names of reliable people who work there and will be of the most help.
Cabela’s will be having a Kid’s Fishing Day at the Dundee store next month on the 18th of August. There will be a fishing derby for children 12 and under. Besides the contest there will be some “how to” and instructional seminars for the kids on how to rig their rods, tie knots and on casting. This is going to be located outside near the cabin located on the pond. Sorry, the aquarium and trout stream will be off limits.
Inside the store there will be a lot more action going on for kids and adults. Learn how to use metal dectors, get your face painted and check out the latest in bow tech for 2007. For more information, you can go to the website and get the rest of the details… http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/community/aboutus/retail-detail.jsp?detailedInformationURL=/cabelas/en/content/community/aboutus/retail/retail_stores/dundee/dundee.html&cm_re=home072007*right*retail_dropdown
In this day and age of digital cameras and photo hosting websites, its just plain smart to take advantage of cataloging your fishing gear, or hunting for that matter. Even a good idea to do it for the other valuables around the house. If you aren’t completely secure about posting such things on the world wide web, thinking about downloading them from your computer to a disc, and then taking them to security box at the bank.
I have everything photgraphed, and even documented in a log book. It just makes things simple in case of theft or even fire. You can say there it is, this is what it cost, and no hassle. Here is a pic of just one of my plano trays loaded up with ice jigs. You can say, some jigs are only a buck and half, but when 
you had it all up, there is probably close to $100 in that tray alone. Then you have Jigging Rapalas, and they run 5 bucks a piece on average, and it all adds up.
I use photobucket.com, but there are lots of other options available to online users.
Whats been the latest trend in Perch fishing the last five years, using spoons. Not the Dardevle of your dad’s or grandpa’s generation, where you would cast out for pike and walleye, but a whole line of spoons tailored for jigging up perch. Just going to get into the advantages of using spoons over the tradional spreader and rig designs, and some good names out there to use.
Where did the trend start? Answer is ice fishing, where anglers have been using spoons for crappie all the way up to pike and lakers. The reason was the single lure was easier to control, and designed not to flutter going through the water, but to flash in an up and down jig action. You can use the hook that came with it, or rig a dropper to hang below the spoon.
Northland, has more spoon options available designed for jigging for fish than any other company I can think of. There is the Fire-Eye Minnow, Doodle Bug Spoon, Forage Minnow Spoon, the Buckshot Rattle Spoon and the dropper rig. Lindy has a good selection of spoons available, and has a new twist on the Flyer coming this fall. An old favorite are Swedish Pimples. New on the block, and I mean in the last six years, are the Hali Spoons. The spoon itself is basically straight lead, but its dropper is made of gold chain, with a small hook attached.
You can do an abbreviated lift and fall with your spoons, but I much prefer a subtle shake or wiggle. Sizes vary from 1/16th to 1/4 oz, but dont be shocked if you catch some on 3/8ths of an ounce. Any spoon can be converted from a traditional jigging spoon to a dropper rig, simply by removing the treble or straight hook from the split ring at the bottom. Then use a 6 lb short piece of FC line, utilizing that invisibility factor, snell a hook at one end, and the other attach a quick clip lure fastener or fast snap.
Why a spoon or dropper over a crappie/perch rig and a spreader? You have more direct control of the spoon. Without there being an extremely heavy weight at the end, you can feel the bottom and the bites quicker and easier. Even though it is fun to catch two fish on the same rod, because of the quicker detection of using the spoon, you can get more fishing in the cooler by using the single lure at the end of your line.
good luck
How can I possibly tie in the sport of chasing muskies and the auto guru Henry Ford you might ask? Well back in the early days of the Ford company, to help keep costs down for the consumer, there was only one color option available on the Model T. To paraphrase Mr. Ford, ” You can have any color you want, as long as its black,” The same held true in the world of muskie fishing, long time hunters of this freshwater barracuda said you could have any lure you wanted to catch a ski, but it better be black.
As in the case of the Ford color schemes available today, so is true of the muskie lure. Colors available today range from the traditional black to such names as walleye, firetiger, blue mackerel and clown.
You have as many options today for the type of lure you want, as you do a sedan, stepside, mini-van, coupe, crew cab, and sports car. Although, a plain jane Mustang GT 500 in black would be sweet, on a personal note. You have jerkbaits, swimbaits, shallow and deep cranks, chickens, topwater and flies. Then there are the cross-over baits, see….still keeping that auto theme going.
Something growing in popularity, specially on Lake St. Clair and inland lakes in the spring are the use of flies. As the fish come shallow to spawn, the use of flies becomes more pratical for the fly fishing enthusiast. Sure you can use a sinking line to get deeper, but how practical really is that concept when you are fishing in 30 ft of water later in the summer? There are poppers, streamers, dry and wet flies available on the market to choose from.
Topwater baits are just plain fun to fish with for any species, and even more so, when it comes to muskie fishing. They are effective in the spring or fall, and even mid summer over structure. Morning or evening, and over weedbeds during the heat of the day. In the pic there are several black lures, they do creep in, but with topwater lures, its not the overall color scheme that is important. Look at the belly of the lure. Blacks, flat yellows, dark greens and browns are good on clear days where the sun provides a good contrast. On overcast days, or in stained water, give me some whites, bright orange and yellow, and even some neon colors. In keeping with the auto theme, there are even hybrids available, the bottom two lures are examples of a topwater and bucktail mix.
Love the big splash of big spoon, and the side to side wobble on the retrieve. For working weedy areas there are Johnson Silver Minnows, Weedless Dardevles and Northland makes a 3/4 oz trailer bodied spoon too. The Dardevle’s cousin, the Red-Eye is another good choice. Spoon weight go as high as 3 oz to as low as 3/4’s of an ounce. This is one case where black wont be seen in my spoon tray. Give me blues and whites, coppers, silvers and golds, red/white, greens and yellows. Think I even have a pink or two in there.
Shallow cranks are used mainly for casting, but they can be trolled and jerked as well. Thats the cross-over. Lots of baits can be used for another tactic. Look at the big Original Floating Rapala, it makes an excellent jerkbait in shallow conditions. Perch and bass colors work here, brighter colors can be seen or noticed at long distances. Holographic scale stickers have been applied to lots of crankbaits lately for that extra flash in the water.
Jerkbaits are a fav of many muskie anglers, with good reason, they catch fish. I have more Suick Muskie Thrillers than any other brand. Some are weighted so they suspend in deeper water, but all come in sucker, black, perch, cisco and firetiger. There is a Mania Burt that is another example of a crossover bait, it has that large twister tail attached to the end . That blue mackerel Mag Rapala is an example of a shallow crank being used as a jerk.
These two all plastic baits are the next generation it seems in muskie baits. You can also employ large swimbaits that are available in suspending models. The Witch on top, and the Eel on the bottom come in many colors, can be retrieved or jerked. Go for natural colors in bright days, and brighter colors in stained water as well as overcast days.
Large crankbaits range in size from 8 inches all the way up to 14″. Some like the Believers (made in Toledo, OH) have dual eyes, one for running shallow, and the other for deeper waters. I like natural colors that reflect baitfish like perch, pike, bullfrog, ciscos and walleye. On the other end of the spectrum, metallic finishes really do catch the fish’s attention from a long way off. In the middle you have redheads, clowns and other colors that dont look like much of anything, but still produce fish on a regular basis.
The chicken, bucktail or spinnerbait, whatever name you want to give them, just call them one thing in your tackle, you cannot do without. To be so versitile and effective, while coming in such a wide range of colors and styles, is really amazing. You can retrieve slow or burn ‘em, churn them just under the surface or let them sink to reach the depth of the fish. Favorite color combinations with blades are white and silver, black and silver, or black with gold blades. Bionic Bucktails with their holographic baitfish image blades like those on colorado’s made for walleye fishing really flash. Then you have your bright colors, greens, yellows and oranges that highlight the lure.
Just like a Ford, although black is a classic no matter how you twist it, those other colors work!
For all the details of FLW’s last stop in Detroit, click here. On the top of the page you can navigate through results, details, news, big fish…etc.
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