Willard Wednesday 10-19-22

[TubeDude]

Great to hear the perch are getting active and hopefully the Fall bite has begun. Good to see your new twily pink tiger jig was working too. Sorry I could not make it up there today but hopefully next week we can figure out something that will work.

Actually, the "fall bite" began almost a month ago.  And a few of the "perch pounders" have been harvesting them in numbers.  But with the murky water the bite has been different than previous clean water years.  The sight feeding perch are not moving very far or very fast to chase down a baited lure.  So fligging has not been very productive.  Almost all the fish...including a couple of 15 inchers...have come to anchored boats (no spot lock in the shallower water) fishing straight down...almost dead sticking...within inches of the bottom.  And unlike the solid strikes we enjoy on the fligs, bites on the vertical presentations are often no more than a slight bit of back pressure.  Even worse than ice fishing sometimes.  I caught one nice perch on a flig yesterday...but it was while moving very slowly...using only a light kick with the fins and not the electric motor. 

The twirly jigs are nothing new.  I used to use them a lot for ice fishing.  I take "horizontal hold" jig heads...like darts, ultra minnow and minnow...pound them a bit flat...paint them and then add a small propeller blade on wire.  The propeller blade spins wildly at the slightest motion and twirls both on the lift and drop.  I also make them in glow so you guys may want to add a few to your ice arsenal this year.