Perching 95th St. 7/16

Rich Komar and I got out on the south side of Lake Michigan today. We launched out of 95th Street. New docks on the north end. Now its two ramps with a new dock in the center instead of three narrow ramps.

Perch fishing was very good. We used Mini Mite IIs and minnows. We stayed relatively close to the rock wall and fished the weed bed that's between the ramps and the point going toward the river.

All in all, we probably caught 40 to 50 perch. Many were let go but we each kept an IN limit of 15. Many of the perch were 10 and 11 inches but we did keep a good amount of 12s, 13s and 14 inchers.

Surface temp was 69 degrees. Started at 9 AM and fished till 2 PM. Consistant action all day, even with the loud explosive blasts that were coming from just north of the Park. The noise didn't bother the fish at all.
Good news... No Gobies.

We had to keep the baits above the weeds. Lots of those long stringy weeds out there. Weeds came up 3 to 6 feet of the bottom. Had to keep an eye on the depth finder to ensure we were fishing over weeds.

This is a reciprocol area where you can fish with an IL or IN license. in that Illinois is closed for July, we fished using our Indiana licenses. IL perching opens Aug 1 but kids under 16 can fish and keep fish here in Illinois. Their limit is only 10 perch.

Thanks for the report Don, I posted a report from the 5th of July, it's a reply to an original post. Are the perch hit or miss, or do they have a certain pattern? I've never used mini mites, basically use a river style rig and bottom bounced with medium roaches instead of baby roaches, had good results.

If I were able to fish for perch often enough, I'd be able to provide you with a relitively solid pattern.

Rich gets out there more often than I do. From his past experience, it was known that the presentation had to be above the weed tops as the perch (now) are in the weeds. We found most and larger perch in 15 feet of water.

There were a dozen or so boats out there when we arrived and we just went alond side them. So one good pattern, I guess, is look for the crowd becaue they are most likely there because the perch are as well.

Don,

Wonderful write up above. Hey, I am going out today 7-17-09, but it sure looks windy!! I don't know if that will help or hinder. I'll try to REMEMBER to post results.

Got around to downloading a couple photos for yesterday..

http://i26.tinypic.com/2w5un41.jpg


http://i29.tinypic.com/e1880o.jpg