Perch You Say, I Say Jackpot!

I hit Starvation this morning and launched from Juniper Point at 6:45 am and had my first taker in 25 fow within the first 15 minutes a Walleye around 15 inches. Over the next hour I caught just one more Walleye a 13 incher and around half a dozen smb that were running bigger than I normally catch. I decided to head toward the Dam bottom bouncing but that didn’t last long because I kept on getting snagged so I started trolling 3/8 jig tipped with a crawler on one pole and a gulp leach on the other at .3 to .5 mph. Something a little different was hitting my crawler pretty much constantly but I couldn’t hook them. Finally my pole with the leach bent over and the tip almost touched the water and I was on for about 3 seconds and then it bit me off, no doubt a good Walleye. By the time I got to the pump house I had no other takers but my jig with the crawler was still getting harassed. I started thinking I had to find out what was harassing my crawler even though I had my suspicions.

I had been marking large schools of fish from 20 to 26 fow so I went on the search for one of those schools and when I found it I dropped anchor and changed to a 1/16 oz jig and over the next 2 hours totally killed the Perch they were not monsters but I caught a boat load keeping a bunch of 10 to 11 inchers. I figured I must of caught close to triple digits keeping around 40 of the biggest before my crawlers ran dry.

After getting on the Perch I never thought much more about finding the eyes but this being opening day of the classic I talked to many guys that were struggling. Out of the 5 teams that I spoke to no one had a limit the one that had the most was a buddy of perchinski Brandon that had 4 but he caught those early and after the sun came up was battling perch that were harrassing his crawler.

I was quite content catching a grundle of Perch especially since this is the best I have got into them on Starvation in a long long time. Sorry for the lack of pictures I was too busy catching fish which is nice problem to have.

Thanks for the report, those perch look healthy

We were up there on Saturday as well. Only caught two perch, but one was a hog. We were targeting walleye and only caught a couple little ones. Lot’s little smallies as well. Too bad we didn’t get into the perch like you did. Sounds like a blast.

It was a blast and from everyone that I talked to that were fishing in the classic said it was a tough bite. After I got into the Perch I pretty much stoped targeting the Walleye. I did catch a couple of Walleye early.

Thanks for the report! That is a positive sign that maybe, just maybe I hope, they are on the rebound!