Today's Perching

[bignose]

I had a little clean up to do on the big boat after last night's storms.
Afterwards, I put the canoe in Martin's Cove (skidsteer country), not far from L.J. Marina, and Cantler's.
The water in the cove was kinda interesting.
At first glance, it was extremely dingy, with less than 4" of visibility. But what had apparently happened was the runoff from last night's rain was much warmer than the water in the creek was, and the stained runoff was laying on top of a somewhat clearer column of water. Stirring the water with a paddle or the electric motor revealed this, it was like watching the cream being stirred into the coffee.
Out in the main stem of Mill Creek, above Cantler's, the water was much clearer.
The tide was very high.
I found a goodly number of fish, mostly in the 6-8 inch range. Out in the main stem, the quality of the fish improved.
Their location was hanging in the darkest shade of certain docks, if I caught one, I'd catch 5-6, but it was very random and most docks drew a blank.
But I also caught several along featureless banks in about 5 feet of water, no cover, no wood, just a little shade.

[Skidsteer]

Sounds like you've got them figured out.

Once you find them in that 5' range, you can sometimes sit there and cast parallel to shore since they seem to line up roughly the same distance from the shoreline.

It's just starting to get good.

[J.A. Veil]

I had similar good success in Weems today, even with the highly murky water. I caught 35-40 perch in 2.5 hours. Most were 7"-10" and fat. All were released to get fatter. Most were caught on a Bignose spinner.

[Fishinfool]

I generally go out with a Plan A and Plan B. Plan A is trolling jettys, points, and shoreline rocks with jigs and 4"* Gulps and either a rattle trap or x-rap depending on what size fish I am targeting. Plan A is for one 20" +'rockfish.

When Plan A fails (most of the time), Plan B is to bottom fish under piers with larger pieces of live peeler (if avail) like half claws and quarter cuts of the body. I look for larger, older piers with drop offs in the 8-12 foot range.

A trick is to look for moored larger sailboats. They draw more water than power craft. Boathouses are good too, especially if a thunder storm threatens.

The larger baits discourage the smaller perch. I throw everything back except the 10"+ fatties. I'd rather not have the little guys bite.

Live peeler almost always keeps the skunk off, and other species like rock and croaker love peeler too.