Friday bite.

Friday afternoon JJ and myself set out to locate hungry fish.The auger got a good workout,30-35 holes drilled.

We jumped hole to hole marking fish all over from bottom to 12’up suspended.

With a tip up each out with small suckers minnows and jiggn fatheads, jiggn raps and small moon glow tipped with crappie minnows going the bite was slow!

JJ hooked a large white bass not only break his line and swimm away with a jign rap stuck to him.

Hre’s a pic of a sumo perch i caught and JJ with a crappie.Went home three fish and a dozen or so missed bites.

Once the sun set over the tree line was when the bite started..Sunday we will be out and on ice by 6am. Maybe morning bite will be better. Like the highlines have been!!

NICE PERCH

nice report and dang that’s a sumo perch congrats!

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Maybe morning bite will be better. Like the highlines have been!!

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Please let us know how you did!

Here’s another look at the fat 11in crappie

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Here’s another look at the fat 11in crappie

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Do you super-inpose that bridge into the background of every fishing picture

Good report, nice fish….but butt ugly mug.

Just thinking…I’ve only heard/seen perch like that on the Croix over the last couple three years. Have they been around long and just super secret or just a year class that did very well?

That was a surprise to see a perch of this size!
Last winter we did get a few but they were maybe 9-10″ ,this one was 11 1/2″.

I’ve pulled some nice 11-12 inch perch jigging on the open water bite as well and boy were they fat

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Have they been around long and just super secret or just a year class that did very well?

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The Bayport area has the best perch population on the croix. That said it is not a perch fishery, in terms of numbers or consistancy. To answer your question BK -they are always in the system, but with flatheads, muskie and walleye they don’t last long as young of the year (I blame the catfish!).

Merry Christmas!
Turk

I bought a video on drifting for cats on Santee Cooper Reservoir. One of their primary baits is perch. The cats love them – channel cats, blues and flatheads. The way they hook the perch is pretty interesting – they run the hook in the mouth and out the side of the perch, then thread the hook in that hole again and out the side of the fish farther down, then thread it back in the hole and out by the tail. They snug up the hook so it rides in the back of the perch. They drift that bait and the cats chase it from behind and just engulf it.
I used that bait technique last summer using a 5/0 octopus circle hook on small bullheads and suckers. I caught a bunch of nice channel cats – they really hammer the bait. It is a pretty cool way to present a bait and you don’t have to wonder if you still have bait or not after a hit.

Unfortunately in Minnesota we cannot use perch. I think you Wisconsin guys can. I would love to be able to use them for bait.

hey JJ… are you finding that most of the crappies are running about that size? last winter, I probably would have thrown that back…

11 inches small crappie?….

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11 inches small crappie?….

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yeah… last year I was keeping fish that were 12″ to 14″. Anything under 10″ went back…