Based on the last two trips perch fishing, I am begining to question why wake up early at all. Why bother to hear the dogs bark at the moon, or the neighbors lil’ dog for that matter.
We start out, and run to Matthew’s for shiners. I am done messing around with the other shops. First place last week, I was given walleye shiners, no kidding 3 to 4 inchers. No wonder they wanted 4 bucks a dozen. The second place I tried gave me pin minnows, teeny tiny lil’ shiners. I had to thread the darn things on the hook two or three times so they weren’t just ripped off. No more, from now on its well worth the trip to Bolles Harbour, jump on -75 and go to the State Park. The shiners were the perfect size, a solid 2 to 2.5 inches long, perfect baits.
Bait delimina solved, we go fishing….gorgeous morning, got some waves, good wind out of the North, fishing should be good. Go to the channel for the River Raisin, some boats there already, we anchor down. 20 minutes later, we pull anchor and head to where we nailed some good sized perch three weeks ago. Finally get fish in 21 foot of water between the channel and Stoney. Nothing big and nothing steady, but we farted around for a while and picked up 17 keepers.
I call Mike at Matthew’s, not much going on and no really good reports back at the shop yet. We move to 23 fow, and not much going on there either, pick up a few there, nothing steady. We go deeper and hit 25 fow of water, two other boats there, and we are marking fish. Wind still out of the North.
2:30 rolls around, and we have like 23 fish in the cooler, been fishing since morning…yawn. Just about ready to leave this hot spot, when a flurry occurs. That’s what me and the neighbor were joking about, when we would get three or so fish in a row. Like you can tell, slow morning.
This flurry lasts for about 40 to 45 minutes, and we average about a fish a minute worth keeping. Think I had two, maybe three doubles of keeper sized perch during that time. I slow my decent down on the rig after a catch to give the shop a call, and Jason answers. Fish a minute Jay, gotta go after telling him where we were, have another fish on. By this time we have about 65 in the cooler, and we fish until 5:30 and add another 35 perch to make it an even 100 for the day.
If you are on fish, just about everyone and their brother has a cell these days, give the shop a call and give them an action report while it is all taking place. Those two guys have busted their tails to make that shop run, in some pretty hard economic times. They have what us anglers need, they treat us fair, so throw them a bone once in a while, let them know where the fish are at while you are fishing, or after you come in. Keep the shop going and make their effort pay off for them. Matthew’s is an excellent resource for us anglers, lets reciprocate.
Tomorrow pics of the fish and me filling in the other half of a garden box full of leftovers lol.