Gotta love this website! Hi PJ – I’ll reach out!

Hello! Look forward to talking with you soon Sir!

G_Smitty wrote:

Going to be heading to the Lorraine/Avon Lake area in Ohio for Labor Day weekend and am thinking about hiring a guide to take me, my son, and my grandson out for some Lake Erie walleye. Looks like a fair number of guides out of that area but wondered if anyone on here has any recommendations?

Good morning sir! I am currently guiding over here fishing from Lorain down to Ashtabula until October first. The fishing has been fantastic all summer long! If you would like to talk about dates and details feel free to give me a call. 6083938077

I think what we need to see is PJ, wearing short, rocking the bunny boots. That would be worth posting.
[/quote]

Now that would be a look lol.

Rick Janssen wrote:

We got to see PJ’s WHITE LEGS – when does James show his

We were joking about my ghostly white legs in the boat. First time in two years i had worn shorts in the boat…..i paid for that decision lol.

Well if guy is brave enough to lip a lake trout, just assumed the net man might dive in after that slap. Just sayin. Hah!

So what I’m hearing is it was PJ’s fault?

I can get onboard with that… lol

Jumping in the water is where i draw the line guys lol. Jakob Hals our videographer on the other hand. I watched him do a face first dive into the Mississippi river to save a rod.He is our guy! Lol

Hangs head in equal portions of disbelief and shame… “So sad!” LOL
[/quote]

I felt your pain bud! Lol

shockers wrote:

What a cool show and great way to end the season.

What was your line and rod set up, James/PJ?

Also, it was nice to see actual footage of James losing a fish! Like us mere mortals. Hah!

Thanks Shockers! We really enjoyed ending the season with some fast action pan fishing.

James and i were spooled up with six pound suffix advance. We both used the 7’1″ medium light okuma helios sx rod paired with a helios spinning reel.

Both of us lose our fair share behind the scenes. That crappie in particular was a slab! The nick name paper mouths is very fitting.

Outdraft wrote:

Great show, it was almost like I was there. I really want to thank you guys for helping us out with the SI settings when I talked to you on the river, we put it to good use. I also greatly appreciate all the info you guys shared at the landing, especially all the $ you saved us on other types of watercraft. It was so nice of you guys to take the time to do so !

It was really great meeting you out there and talking fishing outdraft! Glad we could help. Congratulations to you and your wife on the beautiful fish!

Thanks Shockers!She was 29 on the head and still holding some eggs. Made my day

One of the more odd bites of the year. Average size was really good, when the fish hit they crushed it…but to get them to hit was painful at times. Definitely one of those days on the water that add precious material to the memory banks.
[/quote]

I agree bud.Their was some time where I believe both of us were scratching our heads.Typically when fish hit that hard it is snap jigging for the win. Definitely some great learning and lessons took from thos one. As always, had a blast figuring out with you👊🏼👊🏼

shockers wrote:

Dang that was cool.

I was hoping PJ was gunna put that big mama at the end on the bunk board. Oh well.

Great show.

Thanks Shockers!She was 29 on the head and still holding some eggs. Made my day

Yea, I’m in Racine and spent a lot of time trying to figure out where water was available like the show you and James did in Madison last year….

I’ll be busting my kayak out a couple tunes next summer to explore more on the big river. Had some great help this summer from an IDO regular – I’m firmly hooked on it now.
[/quote] It is definitely a bit tricky in our neck of the woods down south to find a good bite that doesn’t have a bunch of fishing pressure.

I like the kayak idea! You’ll be able to explore all the nooks and crannies that are tough to get to. When I lived up on the Mississippi I would take my jon boat all throughout the backwaters scouting for potential ice spots while fishing along the way.Those scouting missions paid off big in the long run.

chuck100 wrote:

Good job Mr.Vick those are some damn nice perch.
I wish i could find a few of those on pool 10,at least more than 1 at a time.
Once again good job PJ.

Thank you Chuck! Those jumbos bring out the kid in me every time we are lucky enough to get on them. I have a feeling this winter it is going to be a bit easier than on a typical year for all of us.With the low water many of the backwaters they are spread out through are dry or just not deep enough. If a guy can find 3-4 fow with weed growth near the main channel without flow it should be holding fish!

WTG PJ. Those are just beautiful perch.
Wish you were here i could have the fish fryer going in 3 minutes.

Thank you very much! If I was there I would happily share! I might even be impressed with you whipping up dinner in record timing lol.

Ron Burgundy wrote:

How many holes did you drill to find them? My brother caught a 15.5 at the public hole down there. Not surprised they are there.

Good afternoon Ron. We found them on our second stop and only had to drill around 30 holes. Some days it definitely doesn’t come that easy lol. 15.5 is a slob of a perch,congratulations to your brother!

leinieman wrote:

Those are some nice perch. Were you using minnows as well as jigging?

Thank you! We used medium shiners on a #14 gold o’shaughnessy treble hook with I fish pros as well.That combination caught a good share of jumbos.

curleytail wrote:

Wow, very impressive fish. I hadn’t really had doing this on my radar but see I’m only about 2.5 hours from the general pool 8 area.

Does this tend to be an early ice thing only, or will a fair bite remain for a while? Is this backwater fishing (based on the pics it doesn’t look like it to me but I have 0 experience with this type of thing).

Pretty interesting!

Hey tucker! This bite is typically best early and later in the ice season. That being said their’s still plenty of fish to find all ice season long. I would consider backwaters to be any water off of the main channel.We target backwater lakes,bays and sloughs.The best areas have weed growth and water depth of three plus foot with no current flow. You can find fish in less than three foot as well,early ice as shallow as a foot and a half. Some excellent opportunities on the river and great quality fish.Hope this helps and good luck this winter!

KwickStick wrote:

Good going, guys! What a great day!

Thank you KwickStick!

vinella wrote:

Absolute slobs! That had to be a blast! 🎣

Those perch had us giggling like school girls😂

Pailofperch wrote:

Great job guys! Wow!!!!

Thank you,days like yesterday are the ones we live for!

Chuck Melcher wrote:

I really wish I was closer to the big river…. I know the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but I sure love the 2-3 summer trips I make there each year.

My ice gear isn’t even out of the rafters yet… SE WI, it may be a while

I live in SE Wisconsin as well Chuck. It has been a struggle to find safe ice near home but this cold snap is definitely helping! Good luck this winter.

Could be the pics were taken on pool 4 and they only said pool 8?

Maybe the fish came from ND and it was an opportunity for an advertisement? All kinds of things can happen. If you seen it on the internet it happened.
[/quote]

We definitely fished pool 8!

eyeguy507 wrote:

no kidding! I don’t think I ever seen a perch like that out of pool 4! why you guys drivin all the way to ND????

We will definitely be on the river this winter chasing some of these Jumbos with the camera.North Dakota was a great change of pace and added some variety in bites.

shockers wrote:

Wow! Those look WAY nicer than the pool 4 <em class=”ido-tag-em”>perch I caught yesterday. Nice work fellas!

That one on the bottom is an absolute pig.

Thank you shockers! Their was a bunch of smaller perch here as well . We upsized our baits to specifically target the larger fish.

Deuces wrote:

Good grief that’s alot of deliciousness right there [/quot

Perch is what’s for dinner tonight!

WalleyeChaserMN wrote:

Another great show guy’s i like how PJ wasn’t afraid to rub it in a little to James. Keep up the good work.

We love a little friendly banter out on the ice. Thank you for the kind words and for watching!

tom_gursky wrote:

Great show and fun to watch your Episodes PJ!

I have spent several (30) years traveling from Iron Mountain to DePere in the early spring and late fall and its always very productive. In my older years now I tend to avoid night fishing, especially by myself (during Covid). No doubt the bigger fish move up to their preferred thermal spots then…as do the Shad
Lately I’m trying tying more bouyant hair jigs to mimic those Shad with some success…Looking for forage on the Sonar, not walleyes, and avoiding the crush of boats below the Dam.

Thank you Tom,we really appreciate the kind words! The Bay of Green bay and all its tributaries are a special place and well worth the drive.I definitely understand where you’re coming from fishing day over night. It’s a shock to the system staying up all night, still trying to get back to normal lol. I like your approach with the larger hair jigs,sounds like a perfect match the hatch scenario! Good luck out on the water and keep them walleyes coming topside

grizzly wrote:

Pj are you a guide up there

I do not guide at all but I have friends that guide the area. If you’re interested I can message you some information.

grizzly wrote:

Is there a daytime bite also just deeper or not at all this time of year where ur at? By the way great show

Thank you Grizzly,we appreciate it! Their is a daytime bite this time of year. Blade baits,hair jigs,jig plastic combos fished in deeper water on the channel edges within the first few miles below the dam,also up by the dam.The fish during the day tend to run a bit smaller with the occasional larger fish.

Deuces wrote:

Call it strange but I like to bank these type episodes that are of particular interest of me until deep winter and gives me a slight break from the ice.

With that said if this is covered in the vid my bad. But with the many dynamics of night fishing, which I love to do, figuring out where those current breaks are, and the changing currents gets to be real tough when ambient light isn’t that abundant. Often times I’m relying on the feel of my bait in the water instead of visual cues.

How do you feel that BX pulls at slow speeds compared to other stick style baits? Looks quite appealing.

I don’t find that strange,we all have the winter blues at some point. A couple weeks back I ran the BX on the Mississippi where heavy current and different seams are more prevalent than the fox. My findings were a noticeable difference when I was pulling over the top of a wing dam versus the face,or on the heavy flow side of a current seam. The bait pulls a bit harder in the heavy flow but still not as hard as some larger billed stick baits. When I was slowly reeling and felt little to no resistance I knew I was in the zone. Fyi the BX works very well on the Mississippi also!

Jon Jordan wrote:

We used to keep a good supply of countdown lures when we fished lakes standing on shore. Think I might have one left. Looks like I need to check out a few of the BX minnows.

Just what I need – more crankbaits!! <img src=”//www.in-depthoutdoors.com/wp-content/smilies/icon_tongue.gif” alt=”tongue”

You can never have to many crank baits Jon lol