Little Bay Perch, Sat. 4-21-12
A friend and I stopped at Bay View to talk to Chris about 9:30 this morning, and to get some bait. He suggested heading out off Saunders Point to chase some perch, and we had been thinking about that area since we did well there last year at this time. The advice was dead on, and we made a very nice catch, consisting of 30 keepers including some real footballs up to 13 1/2 inches. Most of our action was from noon to 2 pm, and we left about 2:30 pm. Minnows, crawlers, and wigglers all worked. We bought two-inch minnows specifically because they can attract larger perch. Perch rigs straight over the side of the boat produced well, and slip float rigs out farther away from the boat produced good action. Our best depth was 46 feet. Some of the big perch were so slabsided that they had a profile that reminded me of smallmouth bass. All in all, it was another great day on the bay! As a side note, we also caught a few walleyes which were released.
Here is something to consider: When we set the hook on a fish that was obviously larger and felt heavier, we brought them up more slowly so they could recover better and could be successfully released. That's what we did when we thought we had walleyes on. The water was so deep, we had to think about that. In a couple cases we were surprised to find that they were actually jumbo perch.
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