Unexpected Perch Trip Yesterday

While in the store, an employee walked up to me and said, "Juls, there's a couple in here looking for a charter captain to take them fishing. Do you want to talk to them?"  I followed him down the isle, and as we rounded the second corner, there they were. He introduced me and said, "You'll have fun with this Captain", and we talked a bit.  They were in town for the week, and wanted to go one day this week, but I said I was booked Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The wind/rain forecast was unfavorable for today (Tues) and Wednesday, so I said, "Are you free in an hour?" They looked surprised, but said, they were.

I drove home to put the dogs in the house and change vehicles. The boat was already hooked up to the boat, so it was just a matter of taking the cover off, and putting the big cooler in the back of the boat.

After stopping to get ice and shiners, I met them at Mazurik's launch. They were there waiting on me.

The first question I asked was, "Do you have your fishing licenses?" And, the answer was, "No. I didn't know we had to have one. Do we really need them?" I said, "Well, it's WAY cheaper than the fine you would pay if you got checked and didn't have one".

I had them drive back to Hi-Way Bait to get their licenses, and I launched the boat, with the help of a friendly guy from Oak Harbor, and waited on them. They were back in 20 minutes and we headed out at 4pm.

They didn't care what we caught as long as we caught fish. They wanted to just catch and release fish, so that took a lot of pressure off. There are plenty of junk fish around to satisfy that request. lol

We started off the airport on the east side of Kelly's but even the junk fish bite was slow, so I moved up to the green can on the NE end of Kelly Island Shoal. There were a few other boats up there with a lot of seagulls around, so I figured they had a bite going. 

I hit the spot lock on the Terrova and started fishing. The catching began shortly after.  The action was fast, but unfortunately it was more junk fish than yellows. They didn't care though. The highlight was when she caught a good 7 pound sheephead on that little 4' ultra light rod. That made her day, she said.  I can't help but love people that just appreciate a good fight on the end of the line. She was so excited she could barely reel it in. She did great, and with a little coaching, landed it. She laughed and laughed and laughed. It was contagious. :)

The afternoon was absolutely beautiful on the lake. There were no flies or bugs bothering us and the light wind was cool...not hot. The waves were almost non-existent too, which made for a fun boat ride in the 621. Weeeeeee!

The 4 hours were up much too fast, but everyone was ready to go in by that time, because they had other fun plans for the rest of the evening.  We only caught 25 yellow perch, and only kept 22 of them (3 were too small). I drove to two places to have them cleaned, but everyone was closed by 8pm...sigh.  I got home and called my neighbor, Jerry, since he has a tumbler/scaler in his garage, and he was more than happy to clean them. :)

I'll be out in search of some yellows again Thursday thru Saturday. I hope the ratio is better next time.  I'll keep you posted.

Capt Juls