Fishing with Jim and Gary 10/11-12/2023

The perch bite the week before was pretty darn good, so I was hopeful that it would continue, but east and northeast winds prior to their first day of fishing, made it tough for their first of two days with me.

Day one: 

We started out at the Marblehead lighthouse, where I had been fishing with my previous customers for a couple of days, and did well there. We caught 6 perch in an hour and a half. We decided to take a ride up to the area around South Bass Island to see if we could find a better bite up there.

The wind was blowing out of the SW, so the area by the monument was a bit rough for them, and I moved us around to the north side of Put-n-Bay, and found some good marks near the red can by the entrance to PIB.  We caught one there, which brought our total up to 7. 

After moving around and trying several more spots, we moved back down to the protected side of the mainland, near East Harbor Park. Good marks, but no takers...again. 

With an hour and half to go, I decided to make the run back over to our first spot at the lighthouse, where we picked up two more in the last hour. We didn't see anyone around us bringing any in, and heard over the radio that people were struggling to catch them.  

It was just one of those days, and we ended the day with only 9 in the cooler. :(

I told the guys we would launch out of Catawba the next morning, and try over by the cans. They were in agreement with that plan, and were looking forward to the next morning.

Day two....

I picked my crew up at Hi-Way Bait, since they were staying next door at the Peninsula Motel. I went in and bought the shiners, and ice, and we were off to Catawba to launch.

It was just getting light out when we launched and headed to G Can. We were the first ones there, so I was able to take some time to locate a school of fish, before deploying the Terrova and hitting the Spot-Lock.  We ended up about 25 yards NE of the can, with some good marks showing on the Helix.

"Dollar for the first yellow?", I asked. They both agreed, and it wasn't long before Jim put the first one in the boat. :)  "That's a good sign", I said. And, we proceeded to start catching on a pretty steady basis for the next 2 1/2 hours. By 9:15 we had 60 in the box, and had 30 to go. But, by 10AM the bite had slowed way down, and we would only catch another 16 before it was time to head in, for a total of 76 perch.

Jim was attaching live Emeralds to his hook, by their tails, so they wiggled while they were down there, and had good bites. But, he also fed a lot of perch, because they kept stealing his minnows, since they were only hooked once through the tail. However, when he did hook up, they were a nice size fish.

I was letting them use the live shiners, while I used my frozen ones (frozen in Wintergreen Rubbing Alcohol), and was doing well with them, too. I found that the tail halves, on the bottom hook, worked best, but also caught a few with the head portions on the top hook. The piece of meat couldn't be too big though, or it wouldn't get touched.

They had a good time, even though the catching was less than stellar on day one, and said they would like to come back again in the spring, to try for walleye...and, that makes me happy. :)

My trips for the 13th and 14th have been rescheduled to the 2024 season, and my next scheduled trip is for Wednesday the 18th. But, after this strong NE blow, and rain, this weekend....I may have to cancel that one too.   

A father and mother are visiting the area Monday through Wednesday, and want to take their 8 and 10 year olds perch fishing.  If I think it's too muddy inside, we will not be going. Little kids do not have the patience when it comes to a slow bite. And, if it's muddy...the bite will probably be non-existent inside by the lighthouse or the cans. But, we'll see what the weather does early this week, to see if it cleans up enough.

Stay tuned....

Capt Juls