Arived at cemetery pt. at 7:15, not being familiar with the area I parked in the lot by the potty’s. dragged my ice hut and gear up the hill and over the road and through the trees next to the fence. (looked like a good trail that others have used). Soon found out, this was a mistake with my hut. (solid bottom frabil). Nothing but huge rocks between me and the ice[crazy]. Back tracked a little and found a chute that only had one large rock to get over. On the ice and headed NW about 100 yards. I have never seen so many “holes” drilled in the ice at one location before. Drilled 4-5 holes before I found the right depth and fish. 32’. Set up hut and dropped a line down. Immedeatly got a bite, fish on! [sly]6" dinkster, dropped down again, same thing, as soon as it hit bottom and I reeled up 6", another 6"er. Needless to say it took about 30 min. to get my 2nd. pole rigged and down and another 30 min. to get my camera down to see whats going on. There were perch stacked all over the bottom, at least 10-12 on the screen at one time. I could allways tell when my bait was getting close to the bottom, all the perch would look up at the same time as if to say here comes breakfast[;)]! Ended the day at 2:30, had i caught every bite, i would have had well over 100 fish. However, landed about 30, all small 5" - 7" youngsters. There were some big ones with them, just could not get them to bite. Tried larger jigs etc. nada. One final note, after 2 hours i decided to cut up a small one for bait, should have done that right away. Action picked up at once, they could not get the meat off the hook, and hit it every time it got down. If I did’nt get a bite within 5 min. I just pick my pole up about 6’ and dropped it back down. Bang, here we go again.
Overall a great day on the ice, got roasted out of my hut, spent the last 3 hours outside getting a sunburn on my face. I was hoping for at least a few bigger keepers for dinner[frown]. I did find a better way to get on/off the ice. Just east of the turn to the parking lot (100 yards) there was a gradual slope with no rocks. Oh well, next time will be easier.
Sounds like a good time. Too bad you didn’t get into any larger fish for eating.
Sounds like the “bite” is still on
Nice report.
I like that you added what you saw on your camera.
I was wondering if the larger Perch hang with the smaller Perch.
Now it appears that they do.
The size that you were catching is exactly what I have been catching in my 3 trips to PV.
I read some reports that say their Perch are 8" to 9" in size and I have my doubts.
Next trip to PV, stop on the road before you pull into the parking lot and unload the sled-shelter on the side of the road. This will make getting on the ice a lot easier.
More to the East of where you went down to the ice, there is a great trail with no rocks and it’s not steep.
I was thinking of taking my boy up there soon. Are the restrooms open. That is a big deal for one with little kids that will be there all day.
In my opinion that is not the case, most of the time perch school up in there age classes or close to it. bigger perch have a hard time trying to get the grub from the small perch.
If you can find a school of bigger fish like some of these people have that’s what you will catch. just have to find them.
Here’s a good article on Perch even though its dated and from WI we’ve found it very applicable to Perch fish’n anywhere.
Enjoy the read…
http://dnr.wi.gov/fish/lakemich/yellowperch.pdf
Thanks Kim, a good read.
Thanks for the info. I might have found where you are talking about when I came off the ice. About 100 yards east of the parking lot entrance through a few trees? Or are you going further east?
Yes, the restrooms are open! Nothing fancy just a toilet.
I agree with you for the most part. However, I did see what I would say to be two different age classes together.
5" - 7" and 6" - 8". I suppose this could be one age class where some are just little piggies that keep eating[;)]? What I saw on my camera was that the bigger ones were more picky/cautious when approaching the bait. They would get their mouth/nose right next to it, and wait…then they would move off or a smaller one would come and play with it.
That was a nice article by the way, thanks for posting it.
You must have been straight across from me, I was the old guy out from Browning Point … I liked the article that K2 posted … I too, was looking at the fish coming up to meet the bait going down, as I mentioned in Utcatman’s thread … Every once in a while the whole screen would be filled with blips … I didn’t know if they were crappie or perch … I moved the bait up but I only caught perch … Wish I could find the crappie … I need to rig a second pole with a killer crappie lure, and let it deadstick about halfway down.
Too much wind and snow for the next couple of days.
By the way, I just finished lunch and 4 perch filets fried in panko make a delightful fish taco.
Thanks for the info. I might have found where you are talking about when I came off the ice. About 100 yards east of the parking lot entrance through a few trees? Or are you going further east?
I think we are talking about the same place to enter the ice.
It’s an easy walk to and from the ice there.
Something that I have observed.
The male perch seem to be a couple of inches smaller than the females in the same year class.
This could be why you see the 2 different sizes.
It’s pretty easy to figure out why the bigger perch are reluctant or more cautious to take your hook. Simple cliche, the older you get the wiser you get. Likely last year these bigger perch were the smaller size back then. A kidnapper dropped down a chocolate truffle with something sharp and barbed embedded in the delicious soft and smooth center. When the gullible child stuffed the truffle into his mouth he felt a sharp hook stick into his mouth and then his entire body was pulled underwater where the hook was then ripped out of the mouth. Finally he was let go and managed to get ashore to get air again. Next christmas when the belgian truffles appeared, he didn’t feel like putting it in his mouth anymore. LOL. Some children are faster learners but others make more mistakes. Those that keep making mistakes pay their price the hard way.