10-06-2024, 08:26 PM
(10-06-2024, 08:08 PM)Freakyfisherman Wrote: Pat,
I think I saw your suv in the parking lot. I went by the south marina on Friday to see if I could catch a cat or two from the bank. I had and hour and a half to try. No luck. Did you guy try looking for perch? I might get out tomorrow in my tube on Willard.
Gabe
We didn't try for perch on that trip...but I did the Tuesday before. I saw a few marks on sonar that looked perchy but didn't get any to open their mouths. When the perch are "in" and active, you catch them on the same stuff you fish for other species...crawler rigs, Gulp, jig and worm, plastics, small crankbaits, etc. But they don't really come in in any numbers...or get very active...until water temps drop below about 55 - 50 degrees. That's when the smallest baby shad start dieing off and the perch swarm in to munch them. Probably going to be close to the end of October before many show up on anglers' lines.
If you wanna give it a shot, try fishing right around the mouth of the marina...as the channel starts going out...and in only 12 - 15 feet of water. That was a good area for perch last year and I saw quite a few smaller fish hanging around there on Tuesday. They could have been small wipers but also possible they were perch.
I'm codgertatin' about tubing it again on either Tuesday or Wednesday. If nothing else I think I can score some more of those junior wipers. They hit hard and pull good. And there are some larger ones mixed in if you can get trough the small ones. I did get an 18" one on Friday. White Gulp Minnows have always worked well for me on those wipers too. Cast out, let sink to the bottom and then burn the retrieve back up through the water column. Wipers just can't ignore something edible dissing them on the way by. But on Friday we were scoring mostly on blue/silver lipless crankbaits...and rattling silver spinners.