Got my 2014 Fish--Susky perch

[sparky1423]

Happy New Year! Ventured out this morning on the Susquehanna to see if the yellow perch has increased in size and/or numbers.

Air Temp: Cold
Water Temp: Cold

Caught around 20 yellow perch in a few hours. Still cannot find a keeper, my largest was close to 8". A few boaters were around also catching smaller perch....no females to be found. I was using a tandem 2" grub with 1 or 2 ounces of weight depending on the tide. Some others were using minnows, perch belly, and crappie tubes with a small piece of cut gulp! for scent. Maybe next time I will bring some smelly jelly. I talked to a boater getting ready to launch and he limited out a few days ago...jealous!

Most of my fish were caught in shallow water. Half in 20 FOW and the other half in 10 FOW under a few piers...fished in the 50 ft. water column that worked for me a few weeks ago and no strikes.

[HJS]

One of these years I'm going to try fishing for yperch during Jan. & Feb. I was watching reports last Jan/Feb but it seemed like perch action in the Perryville area never got started. We'll see what this winter brings. Was it 2 or 3 winters ago that everyone was catching lots of jumbo yperch? Seemed like during that winter yperch action stayed hot&heavy for several weeks. I been regretting ever since not going that winter.

[Nitefly]

I hope to come up your way in January! Looking forward to grilled Perch!

[AbuMasgouf]

Nice bro! Glad you got out to honor the New Year

YP seem to really like smelly jelly. There is a small pond close to my area that has a bunch of fish stocked for catch and release. Last winter when I found out about smelly jelly I decided to try it on this pond. Cast after cast I was pulling up YP that up until this point none of the people that I fished this pond with could ever find them (they would frequent it a 2-3 of times per week) . They were even beating the BGs to the lure!

The effects of the smelly jelly may not be as strong in moving water as they are in a pond but I'd think it would still do better than no scent at all.

[Yak Fish]

Fished a few hours this morning without a bite. Strange. We got lots a couple of weeks ago. Fished 10 to 60 fow to try and locate them but nothing. Current was moving and wind was picking up making it feel even colder.