Fishing Michigan

That is what ended up in the cooler the last two days, 47 on Wednesday, and 92 yesterday.  The weather was GREAT yesterday, and Wednesday it was a bit choppy, both days it seemed like the fish were more actively feeding during the late afternoon period.  Looks like my morning is booked cleaning fish.

Wednesday:  Got a late afternoon start and went towards a report in 23/24 fow.  Saying the fishing was slow out there would be an understatement, so about 3:30 we left for our spot just North of the River Raisin channel.  At that spot we put 30 to 35 fish in the cooler, including a nice 11 incher caught by my neighbor.  Pics will be coming after I clean all the fish.

Thursday:  Mid-afternoon we were fishing near that spot from Thursday, having very little luck (20.3 fow).  After an hour we split for the pack of boats near 23 fow.  To be honest I am not sure what drew everyone there except for that pack mentality that creeps in when you aren’t catching fish.  Picked up 20 or so fish there, but very slow going.

We moved a bit later and tried just NE of the last buoys on the channel….yawner.  Finally ended up packing up again to get spot on the spot from Thursday and last Friday.  As the anchor is getting set I dropped down my vertical rig and did a lil drift trolling with my shiners.  Soon after the anchor took hold I took up the slack and a nice fish hits, 10 incher.  Liking this move already.

The action came late in the afternoon, say from 3:30 on.  It came in spurts, just like on the Friday before.  It starts with a few dinkers coming in to sniff, maybe catching a white perch, then its a slamfest for 10 to 15 minutes with the 8 inch or bigger fish.  This is how the bulk of the fish ended up in the cooler.

Played with the spreaders yesterday, and picked up a few fish.  By far the most action came on the vertical perch rigs I tied up with the 4 inch lears and snells  the other week.  Most of the fish came on the #10 Mustad Ultra Point live bait hooks with a single glow 5 mm bead above the knot.  Pearl (white), along with purple, orange and yellow pearl beads also produced some nice fish. Also,  picked up some nice ones on the #8 hooks rigged with two and three beads with a small #00 or #0 klacker blade on top.  The #6 hooks were just too big.  Looks like I am going to need some more hooks and blades!

I much prefer making my own rigs vs. getting the ones rigged with wire and all the blades hanging off the side.  I am sure its just me, but too much junk on the rig just seems like a distraction to the fish.  Worse it might spook off the bigger fish.

Will  have some pics after the sun comes up a bit and warms things up.

Just a quick report before heading out the door.  After getting a late start, we made our way to Jeff’s B&T for some shiners and headed out to the state park.  The winds indicated more than one foot waves they had been calling for, but it wasn’t terrible out there.

We had a hot report that didn’t pan out straight out from the launch in 23 fow.  Word to the wise, if you do not get GPS points, stick with what you know best!  That’s what we ended up doing, going back to our sport North of the River Raisin Channel. 

Action was spotty, but when they did hit, they were pretty good sized perch.  Included in the mix was a fat 11 incher with best color of the bunch.  Very nice fish caught by my neighbor, pic comes later.  Also there were lots of white perch and quite a few middle sized sheephead.  Fun to catch on UL and Light action rods, but not what we were looking for.

Good luck.

Did not get a particularly early start perch fishing yesterday, dropped our lines roughly about 10:30.  It was the shakedown cruise for my neighbor’s boat after some repairs and adjustments. Basically we wanted to make sure she would float.

We had only picked up two scoops of shiners at Jeff’s B&T and a couple dozen crawlers, just in case we never took the boat off the trailer and had to pull out in a hurry. After our inspection, we headed out through the channel, on the way seeing a doe walk through the southern marsh section out onto the lil’ island before you get to the boat club.

We set up North of the River Raisin channel in 20.4 foot of water.  There were few boats about, but nobody was really concentrated too close.  This the pattern we experienced; a dry period for about 10 to 15 minutes, then a couple of five inchers, then slamfest for 10 minutes.  Just could not keep the lines in the water during that period.

Boats came and went, and if they had just stayed put during that short period of not catching fish, they would have experienced those runs that started shortly after the dry spells.  All in all, we had five doubles that day, would have been six, but cannot count the one I had with a rock bass.

We fished with vertical rigs, never breaking the spreaders out.  We kept a few fish that swallowed hooks, but all in all, most of  the fish in the cooler were 8 to 10 inchers, with a few 12 inch kickers. The hot snells seemed to be the ones with 5 mm glow beads rigged up, with or without the flicker blade.

Best hint of the day, when those lil 5 inch buggers came through, best way to entice the big ones was to left and fall your rod tip and then shake.  Give it a rest, and slowly lift the tip to feel for the soft bite.  Sometimes they would hammer it, while other times you would only feel the bite by lifting the rod slowly up to feel that slight resistance.

Well they are out in the cooler, iced up and ready to be cleaned. Time to sharpen some blades and get to work.  Will take some pics, but that is pretty much the story.