Perch report: Thurs. 6-28-12

A friend and I caught a dozen keeper perch this morning, working the west side breaklines in 25 feet, south of Gladstone. The heat drove us off the bay, but we could have landed more fish. The bite was fairly steady. We also caught small walleyes and gobies of course. Slip float rigs with minnows took the largest fish, but fishing straight over the side of the boat also worked. Here my best rig was a size 3 Swedish Pimple, modified as a perch fishing set up. To make this rig I remove the treble hook and tie on a short leader to the lure. I use about eight inches of clear, 8 or 10 pound test abrasion resistant monofilament. One end is tied to the Pimple. The other end is tied to the hook of your choice. I start with eight inches of line so I have something to work with. The finished leader is from 2 to 3 inches long. There are many advantages to this short leader and I won't go into them here. The Swedish Pimple acts as a weight and an attractor. It is jigged, followed by holding it still to watch or feel for a bite. This rig is tipped with a piece of nightcrawler.

One major challenge we faced was marking huge schools of shad or alewife. We watched for fish close to bottom and that let us find some perch. Still, we fished a number of spots that looked good but produced no perch.

Thanks for the report , i went out yesterday as well and fished from 6pm til 10pm and kept 14 perch and probly caught easily 50 . anchored along the break in 15fow behind butlers island. all caught on crawler peices and plain hooks w/small splitshot.