09-04-2003, 02:29 PM
8a to 6p. Conditions were great (except for the water skiers). No wind, not too hot, and nonstop action. Fished the bays north of the marina using small tubes, cranks, spinners, flatfish, pulseworms, and even tried powerbait to try and get away from the perch. perch were everywhere even trolling cranks in 70+ ft. of water. These fish definitely need to be thinned out. Dad was tossing an f-9 florecence red flat fish w/3 trebles (just for kicks)and caught 3 perch in one cast. We caught our 40 fish limit of fat 9 to 12 in. and threw back another 40 that size along with plethera of little ones. caught 10 smallies using cranks, pulse worms (texas style) and buzz baits, 3 were keepers. The others were 14 to 16 in. Caught 1 18 in. rainbow on jointed perch colored rapala. Had a nice one hit a tube and the way it took off for the surface I thought I'd hooked a nice trout until it was 2 ft above the surface and proved to be a huge smallie that shook the bait. At times the smallmouth would be following and even grabbing perch as you reeled in. The smallmouth were really active. I don't remember seeing the smallmouth this concentrated this time of year, Is this normal. Talked to a DWR guy who takes data and he says a 50 perch limit is pretty much a done deal but people need to start harvesting. He also asked if I thought the bass limit should be increased with the same size restrictions. I find it pretty difficult to catch that many smaller bass so I don't think it would hurt. A guy at the cleaning station had a 22in brown he got on a tube jig at 70 ft.
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