Though not a banner day, it was a good day on the water with Dtp3. I wanted to explore the lower; so we put in at the dam and started out at Pine Island. There, we had several 18-20.5 inchers. We were off to John’s and it was the same story with some perch mixed in. The mouth of Bear yielded nothing; so we moved up to the Gap/Hollow Creek area. We got 2 keepers and several shorts on boards and cork over deep water. Daniel had a really nice 8-10 pounder get off a few feet from the boat. We ended the day back in John’s jerking 25 or so good perch in the last 45 minutes. A nice day with a good mess of eatin’ fish:smiley:
Nope. Just used spoons at the end of the day. Gotta admit that was funny with Daniel saying about using minnows for perch:smiley: In the warmer seasons, live bait does work better than spoons I’ll admit.
How deep were the perch? I might get to go next Saturday. We marked a bunch last Sunday afternoon at the mouth of Bear but they were scattered from 38’ to as deep as 52’. We didn’t fish long and had around 20. Some were pretty big.
Fog, Check out Cabelas web site. They have a sale on their Real Image spoons. The larger size might be big enough for your fall spooning. I’ve caught fish on the smaller Real Image spoons. They work really well in very clear water.
Fog for as using 2" shinners we use them from November till we quit with them the last of February. I have been before and use the spoon and they would not hit it as fast as shinners. I have been using the spoon for about 40 years but the last 3 has been great to me using shinners. We use to file down the slab spoon and it loked a lot like the Berry flex spoon and would wear the black bass out in November. I fish with one of the best all around fishermen that has wet a line in Lake murray the past 60 years.
You know I don’t dispute that… Sure. I know minnows are the best all-around bait for perch. I’d just rather use the spoons. I would carry minnows if I needed a sure thing. Nothing wrong with using them at all.
I have used minnows, worms, cutbait and spoons while perch fishing. They seem to bite almost anything. I have seen them hit minnows when they would not touch a spoon and I’ve seen days when I could only get a bite on a spoon and the minnows would die of old age while hanging on the hook. I just prefer fishing the spoons when they will hit them. It seems to me that once they ever start feeding they’ll bite any of the above mentioned baits really well. I used to take minnows and/or red worms on every perch trip. Nothing wrong with either and small pieces of cutbait work well too.
I plan to fish on Monday with a friend. How far down is the mud and what’s the water temp? Our plan right now is to put in at Shull and go across unless the mud is already that far down. I can handle dingy but if it’s really muddy I’d rather stay home. Has anyone tried the back side of Shull lately? That used to be a great area for perch, largies and stripers.
