](WILLARD LAUNCH 12 21 23 — Postimages) ** **Met a couple of other jolly old elves…Ira and Alan…who were launching their “sleigh” a bit before I got my “red-nosed” ride on the water. They got out to “the spot” and had already caught a couple of perch before I got there. And I got one fairly quickly too. It was still getting light. Figured it was gonna be a bananner day. Figured wrong. ** ** ** Actually, I didn’t get another fish for about 2 hours. Wasn’t seeing much on TV and kept moving around searching. Didn’t see the guys in the three boats doing much either. So I motored over to my old fave spot I call the “Kitty Condo” out off Eagle Beach. It is an area of humps and bumps (old road bed) that almost always produces at least some catfish. And this time of year the perch sometimes hang out there too. Thankfully, there were some there to catch on this trip. But no cats. ** ** Over the next hour and a half I managed to coax several more perch to join me in my red nosed ride. Two small ones went back in the water to grow bigger for next year. But I ended up with 9 in the basket. Good quality too. The biggest was right at 14” but there were three others that nosed the 13” mark. Smallest was still over 11”. I got them on 3 different “ornaments”. All were on small chub minnows…pinned on 1/4 oz. “ultra minnow” jigs in pink-silver, blue-silver or holo gold with orange spots. Most of my fish came from 20-21 foot depth. But my two biggest came from under a school of shad I found in about 18 feet of water. ** **As a final note, I did a little more CSI examining of the “Christmas cookies” I filleted this trip. I expected to find nothing but a few of the tiniest dying shad in them. Some had only soupy remnants of meals past. A couple did have two or three of the newly consumed shadlets. But others had larger shad…one had a single 5-6 inch shad that had just been eaten. Guess that fish decided he needed to “floss” with my lure. Bottom line: the perch are actively feeding…not only on dead and dying shadlets but on larger schooling shad as well.
Nice Christmas tale with many presents. Many sweet treats.
Glad to see the lakes full of treasures and delights.
It seams the fishing was good early but if you can find their hideouts you can get good action through most of the day. Did the other elves catch as many good presents.? Were there lots of floating shad on the water?
Hey Pat, that’s a great report… Glad you made it out again… Think I may be there again tomorrow morning… I’ve been too lucky there I’m afraid my wake up skunking is on the way… Hope not, maybe it’s just pay back for the Bear Lake skunk… Sure hope I can get into them tomorrow… Afraid the weather window may be over tomorrow though… thanks for all the info and great report… Later Jeff
Hey Steve glad you joined me and showed me how to catch them. Rough day for waves though. I think there was a reason no one else was out today. They were all smart enough to avoid the wind. Later J
** Actually, I didn’t get another fish for about 2 hours. Wasn’t seeing much on TV and kept moving around searching. Didn’t see the guys in the three boats doing much either. So I motored over to my old fave spot I call the “Kitty Condo” out off Eagle Beach. It is an area of humps and bumps (old road bed) that almost always produces at least some catfish. And this time of year the perch sometimes hang out there too. Thankfully, there were some there to catch on this trip. But no cats. ** ** Over the next hour and a half I managed to coax several more perch to join me in my red nosed ride. Two small ones went back in the water to grow bigger for next year. But I ended up with 9 in the basket. Good quality too. The biggest was right at 14” but there were three others that nosed the 13” mark. Smallest was still over 11”. I got them on 3 different “ornaments”. All were on small chub minnows…pinned on 1/4 oz. “ultra minnow” jigs in pink-silver, blue-silver or holo gold with orange spots. Most of my fish came from 20-21 foot depth. But my two biggest came from under a school of shad I found in about 18 feet of water. ** 
**As a final note, I did a little more CSI examining of the “Christmas cookies” I filleted this trip. I expected to find nothing but a few of the tiniest dying shad in them. Some had only soupy remnants of meals past. A couple did have two or three of the newly consumed shadlets. But others had larger shad…one had a single 5-6 inch shad that had just been eaten. Guess that fish decided he needed to “floss” with my lure. Bottom line: the perch are actively feeding…not only on dead and dying shadlets but on larger schooling shad as well.