last two days, mixed bag

[The Bait Shop Guy]

Tried fishing perch south of Gladstone yesterday. Even though the winds weren't ideal, I still found a lot of fish stacked along the breakline. Bite was real slow until the wind did a 180 and started blowing out of the south. After that, it was almost as fast a you could get a line down for awhile. Ended that trip catching 24 walleyes (no keepers,) 12 ruffe, 10 perch, and 4 rockbass. The bigger two perch were 11 and 12 inches. Most of the bites were on worms, but a few came on wigglers, too. Smaller might have been better since they were barfing up midge larvae in the livewell.

Tried again today, figuring the fish would be were I put them to bed last night - wrong! Hardly marked any fish at all along that whole breakline. Fished for awhile at the tip of Saunder's Point, but only caught 6 small walleyes and a big sucker. The writing was on the wall, so I went to "Plan B" (always gotta have a back-up.) Packed up the gear and ran to a wind swept shoreline. Flatlined two Bombers in 7 to 10 FOW. Ended up with 3 nice eater walleyes and 8 pike. Would have stuck it out for my walleye limit, but I was getting dangerously low on gas and didn't want to press my luck (could have limited out if I chose to keep a couple of the pike, I guess.)

Long story short, ended up with a couple good meals of fish.

[jerkbait]

nice job chris,

they must have got the word out about what yer boat looks like from undernieth. oh well thats a good couple of meals. never heard of a ruffe. what is it i think that must be the odd fish in the upper left of your pic. what family are they related to?

another question this one about the big toothy muskies up on highway 13. im gonna try dana lake this summer not sure when but what are some good times of season for muskie activity also time of day if any is better. cant wait to try my hand with my new moonshine spinner lil pricey but cool lookin.

thanks for the help...

jerkbait

[fonzypoo]

Hey nice bag of fish! You dont see to many people keeping those but they're find by me too.

[raywriter]

Two of us fished the same general area this evening until after dark with a similar result. We did keep six perch, with an 11" the longest. Lots of small walleyes holding deep. We anchored in 30' and ran 1/8 ounce jigs straight over the side close to bottom with the wave action working the jigs for us. Pieces of crawler worked best. I also like size 3 Swedish Pimples in this situation.

After dark we trolled back in and I briefly hooked a good fish, but lost it within seconds. Not sure what it was. I was pulling a Bagley shad imitator with internal rattles. Note: with numbers of small walleyes holding in deeper water, can big pike be far behind? Possibly time to run some Lindy rigs with four to six inch minnows along the breaklines.

[Mike P]

nice job chris,

they must have got the word out about what yer boat looks like from undernieth. oh well thats a good couple of meals. never heard of a ruffe. what is it i think that must be the odd fish in the upper left of your pic. what family are they related to?

another question this one about the big toothy muskies up on highway 13. im gonna try dana lake this summer not sure when but what are some good times of season for muskie activity also time of day if any is better. cant wait to try my hand with my new moonshine spinner lil pricey but cool lookin.

thanks for the help...

jerkbait
Upper left looks to be a Rock Bass I think

[The Bait Shop Guy]

Never heard of a ruffe. what is it? I think that must be the odd fish in the upper left of your pic. What family are they related to?

That top fish is a rock bass. I left them in the fridge overnight before cleaning, so it's color had faded. Here's a picture and a little info on ruffe I found online -

"The ruffe (pronounced rough) is a small and aggressive fish that is native to Eurasia. It was first introduced into Lake Superior in the 1980s, probably through the ballast water of ocean-going vessels. The ruffe has a rapid reproductive rate, with females producing up to 200,000 eggs in one season. The ruffe can thrive under a wide range of temperatures and habitats. Although the effects of the ruffe on the Great Lakes are unknown, it may compete with native fish for food and may prey on the eggs of other fish, such as lake trout. It can be transported by humans through boats, livewells, and bait."

They're members of the perch family. They have more sharp spines on them than any other fish I've ever seen, especially around the gills. Even the seagulls have a hard time choking them down! This is the only time of year I run into them. Each one that comes aboard my boat is returned to the lake missing large sections of gill arch!