Tweet
Hello everybody it's been pretty dead in here so I thought I'd share a story of one of my better days of fishing recently. I've haven't got out in the kayak much recently because of life getting in the way, so my fishing was pretty much limited to short shore based trips here and there. I finally had a good opportunity to get the kayak out Sunday morning, but high winds were going to keep me off of any open water. I decided to check one of my back water perch spots, it's only a short paddle from the launch and was relatively sheltered from the wind so it seemed like a my best bet.
After I arrived at the launch I surveyed the conditions and actually second guessed my trip. There was a thick fog and the wind that was supposed to pick up later in the day was already gusting up to ~10mph and was expected to reach 20+. I sucked it up though and after unloading my kayak and gear was under way. Immediately my fish finder started having problems, it was flashing one inaccurate depth and not drawing contour lines (garmin striker 4 plus). I assumed it was a problem with the transducer but decided it probably wasn't something I was going to solve on the water so I shut it off and went on my way. The area I was fishing was only 2-5 feet so a fishfinder wouldn't be a ton of help anyway, but I like knowing the speed I'm paddling, water temp, and marking spots even if I'm not using it find fish.
I trolled a Berkley flicker shad on my paddle out, but despite what looked to me like a very enticing action it got no attention. After a short paddle I get to the spot, set my stakeout pole into the mud and tether off to it with a paddle leash. The wind is still gusting at 10+mph at this point and I'm a lot more exposed than I thought I'd be but I'm not about to turn around now, so I grab my rod and make my first cast. I was using a 7' light ugly stik etite with a Penn battle 2 2000 and I was throwing a 1/8 oz kastmaster which cut through the wind well and made it possible to get a decent cast off. Once the lure hit the water I let it sink for a couple of second then reeled in the slack and gave it a little pop before letting it fall again. Most of the hits I get when fishing for these perch with kastmasters are either on the fall or right after the pop, much less often on the retrieve but it does happen. After my second pop I felt a telltale hit and went for the hook set but missed it, I then just let the lure fall back down and sure enough on the fall I hooked a white perch.
It's only about 9" but it's a great sign, where there's one perch there's bound to be more. I didn't intend to keep any fish this trip so I toss him back and cast back out to the same spot and before I even make my first pop I've got a fish on. That's not abnormal because once that kastmaster hits the water it flutters down beautifully and the perch eat it right up. I make a few more casts in the same general area and get a fish on nearly every one. Not that I know I'm on a school I switch out the 1/8oz silver kastmaster I'd been using for a 1/8oz gold kastmaster with a single siwash hook. I like a single hook much more when I'm on the school because my hookup ration barely suffers and it makes releasing the fish much faster, and I figure if I'm not keeping fish I'd much rather lose a fish than kill one unintentionally which is much more likely with trebles. Unfortunately I still got some deep hooked fish but with the single hook it's much easier to get out, for most of them that were hooked in the gullet I could get to the hook through their gills and carefully pull it out with forceps and cut the line. Out of all the fish I caught I'd say only 3 were mortally wounded and they were all hooked directly in the gills, oh well, it's unfortunate but the blue crabs gotta eat too.
It went on like this for hours. Catching perch after perch nearly every cast. I ended up calling it quits because of the high winds around 1pm and I left the fish biting. At the end of the day I had 65 landed perch(if I counted correctly) with quite a few lost at the boat. Average size was 10" with quite a few of the biggest ones around 12", so I'm still searching for that 13" citation perch. I got close last spring when I got a 12 3/4" slab but I'll just have to keep trying. These perch put up a great fight for their size, and on a light setup in shallow water I'm honestly surprised by their power. They certainly fight better than flounder twice their weight and honestly give similarly sized stripers a run for their money too. I'm already looking into filling a plano box and buying an ultralight combo specifically for these guys. I think I'll get something shorter than the 7' I've been using because I found netting them with the longer rod to be awkward, though I'm not eager to sacrifice casting distance.
I didn't get many pictures but there's only so many pics you can take of identical looking white perch. Anyway thanks for reading and tight lines to all. Share some reports of your own when you're not busy catching fish.
After I arrived at the launch I surveyed the conditions and actually second guessed my trip. There was a thick fog and the wind that was supposed to pick up later in the day was already gusting up to ~10mph and was expected to reach 20+. I sucked it up though and after unloading my kayak and gear was under way. Immediately my fish finder started having problems, it was flashing one inaccurate depth and not drawing contour lines (garmin striker 4 plus). I assumed it was a problem with the transducer but decided it probably wasn't something I was going to solve on the water so I shut it off and went on my way. The area I was fishing was only 2-5 feet so a fishfinder wouldn't be a ton of help anyway, but I like knowing the speed I'm paddling, water temp, and marking spots even if I'm not using it find fish.
I trolled a Berkley flicker shad on my paddle out, but despite what looked to me like a very enticing action it got no attention. After a short paddle I get to the spot, set my stakeout pole into the mud and tether off to it with a paddle leash. The wind is still gusting at 10+mph at this point and I'm a lot more exposed than I thought I'd be but I'm not about to turn around now, so I grab my rod and make my first cast. I was using a 7' light ugly stik etite with a Penn battle 2 2000 and I was throwing a 1/8 oz kastmaster which cut through the wind well and made it possible to get a decent cast off. Once the lure hit the water I let it sink for a couple of second then reeled in the slack and gave it a little pop before letting it fall again. Most of the hits I get when fishing for these perch with kastmasters are either on the fall or right after the pop, much less often on the retrieve but it does happen. After my second pop I felt a telltale hit and went for the hook set but missed it, I then just let the lure fall back down and sure enough on the fall I hooked a white perch.
It's only about 9" but it's a great sign, where there's one perch there's bound to be more. I didn't intend to keep any fish this trip so I toss him back and cast back out to the same spot and before I even make my first pop I've got a fish on. That's not abnormal because once that kastmaster hits the water it flutters down beautifully and the perch eat it right up. I make a few more casts in the same general area and get a fish on nearly every one. Not that I know I'm on a school I switch out the 1/8oz silver kastmaster I'd been using for a 1/8oz gold kastmaster with a single siwash hook. I like a single hook much more when I'm on the school because my hookup ration barely suffers and it makes releasing the fish much faster, and I figure if I'm not keeping fish I'd much rather lose a fish than kill one unintentionally which is much more likely with trebles. Unfortunately I still got some deep hooked fish but with the single hook it's much easier to get out, for most of them that were hooked in the gullet I could get to the hook through their gills and carefully pull it out with forceps and cut the line. Out of all the fish I caught I'd say only 3 were mortally wounded and they were all hooked directly in the gills, oh well, it's unfortunate but the blue crabs gotta eat too.
It went on like this for hours. Catching perch after perch nearly every cast. I ended up calling it quits because of the high winds around 1pm and I left the fish biting. At the end of the day I had 65 landed perch(if I counted correctly) with quite a few lost at the boat. Average size was 10" with quite a few of the biggest ones around 12", so I'm still searching for that 13" citation perch. I got close last spring when I got a 12 3/4" slab but I'll just have to keep trying. These perch put up a great fight for their size, and on a light setup in shallow water I'm honestly surprised by their power. They certainly fight better than flounder twice their weight and honestly give similarly sized stripers a run for their money too. I'm already looking into filling a plano box and buying an ultralight combo specifically for these guys. I think I'll get something shorter than the 7' I've been using because I found netting them with the longer rod to be awkward, though I'm not eager to sacrifice casting distance.
I didn't get many pictures but there's only so many pics you can take of identical looking white perch. Anyway thanks for reading and tight lines to all. Share some reports of your own when you're not busy catching fish.
Comment