Fishing Forum

[font "Calibri"][size 3]I arrived at the PWC ramp about 6:20 and was fishing by 6:45. I headed east of the ramp and immediately started hooking up with tiny perch. I made my way over to where I had caught the larger perch last time, but kept catching the small ones. At one point, I caught one that looked to be in the 10 inch range; but it unhooked itself just as I was reaching into the water to grab it (should have used the net I guess). After continuing to only catch little prechlets I headed to the west side of the ramp. There I caught a 13 inch and 14 inch smallmouth and several smaller ones. I still couldn’t find larger perch, so I slowly made my way back to the east side of the ramp. Once I got back to the east side, I caught another larger perch; but again, it got off before I could get it all the way to my tube. I pounded the area where I had caught the 2 large perch but couldn’t catch anything else with any size. At 11:00 I had to call it quits and headed back to the ramp.[/size][/font]
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[font "Calibri"][size 3]I spend most of my time in water 12-20ft deep vertical jigging. Casting towards shore would result in instantaneous hits, but they were all tiny smallies or tiny perch. I am wondering if I should have ventured out into even deeper water in search of larger perch? This perch thing is new to me, so I’m not sure. After a few trips of watching TubeBabe’s expertise at setting the hook on perch, and lesson or two from TubeDude; I can say I am getting better at catching them.[/size][/font]

[font "Calibri"][size 3]I had a fun morning fishing with my newly repaired rod and my new Okuma Epixor reel. It is a very nice reel - super smooth and casts a mile. The reel I was using previously on the rod was too heavy for it, and the size 15 Epixor fits it nicely. It feels like an entirely different rod now. Even though they were only 13 and 14 inches, the 2 smallies were a blast to catch with the new equipment.[/size][/font]
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[cool][#0000ff]Good report. Glad the "patient" performed well and accepted the reel transplant without rejection.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Just for the record: [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]1. Big perch are seldom plentiful. Finding more than a few per trip is not common.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]2. Finding them does not always equate to catching them. They can be moody little cusses.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]3. Most of the larger fish in the area of those dinky perch are probably not too hungry. They hang out in water just a bit deeper than their groceries and raid the pantry whenever they digest their previous meal and get hungry. When they are dining on the 4" perch, one of those might last a couple of days, so feeding is not going on all the time.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are some other spots you can reach off the PWC ramp, that are not hit as hard and which hold numbers of larger perch...as well as some good smallies. There are also a couple of spots that are good for trout as the water cools and the slimers get more active in shallower water. We will have to join up some morning and I can guide you to some of those other spots. [/#0000ff]
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Nice report and nice catching. I'm glad to see that you are using some quality equipment too.[cool]
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