After a month of no fishing finally managed to get back on the water Monday. SnowCamp was kind enough to invite me down to the family place on White Lake. It was my first trip ever to specifically target Yellow Perch.
For those who aren't familiar with White Lake, it's more or less a shallow bowl shape, crystal clear with a white sand bottom. It's been a resort lake for many many years and the shoreline is wall to wall docks and piers with only a couple of breaks. The primary activities on the lake are water skiing, cruising & skidooing and the outer ring of the lake is marked with posts as a no wake zone. It is NOT a normal fishing destination. Not only does the boat traffic make it uninviting to anglers, the lake's acidity limits the fish population almost exclusively to yellow perch with a smattering of pickerel and a few other small species which can tolerate the ph levels.
We made it to the ramp around mid morning, it was a chilly 36° but the sun was out and the wind was calm. Water temp was ~46°. We definitely had the lake to ourselves. There is no real underwater structure, just a gradual slope to about 7'-8' in the middle so we started out trolling across the lake where Raz(SnowCamp) had heard the lake was "deeper", looking for any little hole or depression that might hold fish. After about an hour of pulling baits we worked around some of the no wake markers in 5-7 fow and picked up the first little perch. We started circling the area and by 3 pm had brought 30 fish to the boat. Most of the fish were small, but there was one 11"er and a few around 9". After a short afternoon break we rode back out and managed a jack about 16" and 6 more small perch before calling it a day. All & all it was a great day on the water, very peaceful and relaxing with the promise of some good eating to come.
We started "longline" trolling like we would for crappie and later added some long poles in the front pushing jigs(tightlining). Fish were caught on several baits including 1/16th oz Northland "Mimic Minnows" in the perch pattern, Fire Tiger Rage Tail crappie grubs behind 1/16th oz chartreuse Road Runners and small Fire Tiger cranks. Basically anything that looked like a small yellow perch caught fish(being the only species in any numbers the small perch are the main diet of the larger perch). The trick was to keep the weeds off the baits long enough for the fish to get a look.
Out of the 36 fish we dropped about 18 in the livewell, then culled those down to the 6 least lively to take home & fillet. There are a couple of things you can count on with perch, especially the yellow version. They are FINE eating, and they have a strong aversion to being eaten. They are spiny fish with sharp gill plates and at first sign of hostile activity will bow up and flare out their gills. You have to handle even the smallest ones with care or end up poked and gashed.
0213121029.jpg0213121127.jpg 0213121127a.jpgperch01.jpgperch02.jpg
For those who aren't familiar with White Lake, it's more or less a shallow bowl shape, crystal clear with a white sand bottom. It's been a resort lake for many many years and the shoreline is wall to wall docks and piers with only a couple of breaks. The primary activities on the lake are water skiing, cruising & skidooing and the outer ring of the lake is marked with posts as a no wake zone. It is NOT a normal fishing destination. Not only does the boat traffic make it uninviting to anglers, the lake's acidity limits the fish population almost exclusively to yellow perch with a smattering of pickerel and a few other small species which can tolerate the ph levels.
We made it to the ramp around mid morning, it was a chilly 36° but the sun was out and the wind was calm. Water temp was ~46°. We definitely had the lake to ourselves. There is no real underwater structure, just a gradual slope to about 7'-8' in the middle so we started out trolling across the lake where Raz(SnowCamp) had heard the lake was "deeper", looking for any little hole or depression that might hold fish. After about an hour of pulling baits we worked around some of the no wake markers in 5-7 fow and picked up the first little perch. We started circling the area and by 3 pm had brought 30 fish to the boat. Most of the fish were small, but there was one 11"er and a few around 9". After a short afternoon break we rode back out and managed a jack about 16" and 6 more small perch before calling it a day. All & all it was a great day on the water, very peaceful and relaxing with the promise of some good eating to come.
We started "longline" trolling like we would for crappie and later added some long poles in the front pushing jigs(tightlining). Fish were caught on several baits including 1/16th oz Northland "Mimic Minnows" in the perch pattern, Fire Tiger Rage Tail crappie grubs behind 1/16th oz chartreuse Road Runners and small Fire Tiger cranks. Basically anything that looked like a small yellow perch caught fish(being the only species in any numbers the small perch are the main diet of the larger perch). The trick was to keep the weeds off the baits long enough for the fish to get a look.
Out of the 36 fish we dropped about 18 in the livewell, then culled those down to the 6 least lively to take home & fillet. There are a couple of things you can count on with perch, especially the yellow version. They are FINE eating, and they have a strong aversion to being eaten. They are spiny fish with sharp gill plates and at first sign of hostile activity will bow up and flare out their gills. You have to handle even the smallest ones with care or end up poked and gashed.
0213121029.jpg0213121127.jpg 0213121127a.jpgperch01.jpgperch02.jpg