Winnebago Perch are on FIRE!

Dad with his personal best
catfish...we estimate it at 20 lbs.
The scale was not functioning.

48 keepers on the day.

Dad with one of the bigger
gills I have seen in some time

  Spent Saturday out on Winnebago's, east side doing some perch and walleye fishing.  Never found any walleyes greater than 10", but we did find our way into some spectacular perch fishing.  It has been a while since I have decided that I was tired of catching big perch, but Saturday was that day.

Unlike the previous time out, the fish were NOT in the 11 foot range...rather they had moved out into 13 feet.

To find them, I recommend starting shallow and slowly drifting deep until you get some bites...then when you find some active fish, anchor and try a variety of methods.

Travis with his personal best
perch.  ~11"

The bait of the day again was a red worm on a plain gold hook.  This technique out fished all others by at least 3:1.

Dad took the multi species crown today (as well as the perch crown).  His giant catfish in the upper left was caught on his ultralight and bit a small piece of worm under a slip bobber in about 11.5 feet of water.

All in all, great trip.

I have preached catch and release in my previous posts, and I realize this is my second post in a row with fish being kept.  All previous fish were consumed during a family fish fry and the 48 kept here were divided amongst three families.

First Week of August...Bass and Perch

 My first fishing trip in August was a brief evening excursion with my brother Tim.  We spent most of our time drifting the 17 foot break line with 6" suckers...when that failed to catch anything but a medium sized pike, we anchored in 10 feet of water and casted our suckers to the weed edge and let them swim around on their own.

Eventually, the line would shoot out and you would have a fish.  We caught a few nice bass this way, but a fairly violent thunderstorm chased us off.

On August 4, my dad and I went out on Winnebago to try for some perch.  We did terribly on our last two trips out on the west side of the lake, so we changed it up and headed off of the east side.

Perch fishing is extremely relaxing, as perch like the bait to be completely still.  This means that the best two ways to fish them are 1) with slip bobbers and 2) simply dropping your bait next to the boat and holding it still.

Dad's 12" Winnebago Perch

While this is relaxing, it is also very frustrating when you are not getting bit.

All fish were caught between 11.2 feet and 11.4 feet of water. Anything else, and you were assured to catch nothing but sheepshead.

Also, despite the hundreds of dollars I have spent over the years on different baits, the most productive bait today was a single #6 gold hook with a red worm or chunk of crawler.

We took home 21 perch and one small walleye.  All perch were between 8 and 12" with the majority being in the 9" range.

I am quite excited for tomorrow's fish fry.