Perch Action at the Border

A bit of old news here, as have been too busy to catch up on posting, but this bite is still going on, according to a friend who was out on Thursday. With a closed WI perch season, hit the Big Pond the first and second week of May just across the border to chase some true jumbos. Rigged with 3/4 to 1 oz. sinkers, Lindy style, and 8 lb. braid, 4 lb dia., with gold hooks, we scouted around in 50 to 60 fow to try to mark some schools…seeing a small group of boats helped narrow the search area down. It didn’t take long, and we started boating perch like the ones shown. I’d estimate that half our fish were over 12 inches, with a few in the 14 to 14.75 inch range, and the others in the 10 to 12 inch range. After getting a fish fry’s worth, we re-rigged and chased coho for a couple hours. Managed to go 7 for 10 before calling it a day. Not very many boats out there chasing perch on our two trips. Only 3 others the first time (probably due to rough conditions) and about a dozen the second outing. It was not uncommon to see 50 to 100 boats out there on a nice weekday in years past.

Wow! Those are some giant jumbo’s! Nice work

Nice perch!

Yummy !!!!

Nice Job Mr. Ed
Wefish

Yikes! Reminds me of my younger days catching 16 inchers off the steel mills.

Good eating there!!

Derek

How long does the perch bit typically last?? I have this on my list to do every year, and I just never make it happen. There’s good fishing everywhere in May…it’s tough to decide where to go/which species to target.

I’ve only fished this bite for 4 years now,and only 3 or 4 times a year at most.It typically starts going good in early April, and starts slowing down in May. With the good bite we had in early May this year, I’d guess that this season is not typical. Or, it may be that the bite usually does go well into May, but like many others, I generally start fishing other waters after our WI opener. Good luck if you go, and be sure to let us know how it was.