Just a Great Day to be on the Lake

Fished with Joe. Temperature this morning was in the upper 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind was out of the west southwest less than 10 knots and the waves were less than a foot. The water temp is 66 degrees. Started fishing where we left off on the last trip and we caught nothing. Marked a lot of fish but the water was very dirty. Made a move to the east about 1/2 mile (41 49 650 / 083 14 950) and the lake was a little cleaner but still no fish. Made a couple of moves around here and we only had 1 perch. We pulled the anchor and were heading for Sputnik when Captain Bob called on the radio and said he was on some perch in the area we were leaving. Made the U turn and headed back to where he was fishing and dropped the anchor. Started to catch some perch and everything was going good until we caught a smallmouth bass and then the perch fishing quit. Made a move to the west about 300 feet and we were on the perch again. The fishing was good until we caught another smallmouth bass and then nothing. Hard to believe that this happened 2 times. We caught mostly perch today and a lot of them were just under 8 inches that we put back. Kept 45 perch between 8 and 10 1/2 inches.

The Fish are There

Fished with Norm. Temperature this morning was in the lower 50s and when we quit fishing it was in the middle 60s. The wind was out of the north northeast all morning around 10 knots. The waves were just over a foot. The water temp is 66 degrees. Started fishing about 2 miles east of the E buoy 41 49 325 / 083 18 100 (Michigan waters) and we were catching some perch but we also caught a lot of white perch. We made the decision to move further out and fish at 41 49 300 / 083 16 225 (Ohio waters). We ran into the same problem, to many white perch but the perch that we caught were nice size. We probably should have stayed at the first location because we caught most of our fish there. Kept 41 perch. One of the problems today was we had very small shiners.

Did the Impossible

Fished with Doug E. Temperature this morning was in the upper 40s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind in the morning was out of the south less than 10 knots but the waves were still coming out of the east around 1 foot. As the day went on the wind and waves laid down. The water temp is 67 degrees. Headed back to where I have been fishing but we did not mark any fish. We still dropped the anchor and tried anyways. No bites so we moved around a couple of times and still nothing. Made a move to the #1 buoy off the River Raisin and again nothing. Went back out to the Michigan/Ohio boarder and tried again but the same results. Made one more move here but nothing again. Packed up and headed for the swamp to try a different area. Caught 1 catfish and that was it for the trip. One of the rare times that we did not catch a perch on Lake Erie. One of the boats came back from fishing and he had about a dozen perch fishing by the E buoy. Just after that another boat came back from fishing and they had a cooler full of perch. They were fishing between Sputnik and the #1 buoy off the River Raisin.

Nice Day on the Lake

Temperature this morning was in the middle 40s and when I quit fishing it was in the lower 60s. The wind in the morning was out of the south less than 10 knots with waves around a foot and by 10:00 am the wind started to come out of the east less than 10 knots with waves less than a foot. The water temp is 68 degrees. Headed towards the #1 buoy off the River Raisin until I saw a small pack of boats just south of the buoys. Made a pass through the pack off boats and did not see very much activity so I kept heading south until I came to an old perch waypoint about 1 1/4 mile south of the #1 buoy (41 50 900 / 083 14 925). Dropped the anchor and spent the whole trip right here. Had to sort threw a lot of fish but at least some of the perch were pretty nice size. Kept 25 perch between 8 and 11 inches.

Unexpected Call from Daryl

Got a call from Captain Daryl and he had the weekend off so we went fishing. Temperature this morning was in the lower 60s and when we quit fishing it was in the lower 70s. The wind in the morning was out of the south 15 to 18 knots with waves around 2 feet. When we quit fishing the wind was out of the southwest less than 10 knots with waves less than a foot, which made for a nice boat ride back to port. The water temp is 73 degrees. The fish finder and GPS did not work so we fished like the old days. Started fishing about 1 mile south of buoy #1 off the River Raisin. Caught nothing but junk fish. Made a move further out and we caught a lot of junk fish and 1 perch. With the wind blowing we did not want to pull anchor too many times. Once the anchor grabs its hard to break loose. Made another  move to the pack of boats fishing east of the # 1 buoy and we caught a few perch. Made one last move about 200 feet and that was it for moving. Kept 18 perch with the largest one 10 inches long. Tough day of fishing for us.

First Perch Trip of the Year

Woke up this morning and the winds were light out of the east but the waves were around 2 feet so I did not go fishing. Checked the computer again around 8:00 AM and the winds were still light but the waves were starting to lay down so I packed up and went fishing. The temperature this morning was in the middle 60s and when I quit fishing it was in the upper 60s. The wind was light and variable and the waves were less than 1 foot. The water temp is 74 degrees. Called Huey on the radio and they were fishing by the Toledo Light House and not doing very well, so I headed towards the #1 Buoy off the Raisin River. Started to mark some fish on the graph so I dropped anchor .8 miles due south of the #1 Buoy. First fish was a catfish, then I caught about 6 white perch, then 2 small perch and I thought about moving. Finally caught a perch just over 8 inches. The catching was slow and the large pack of boats by the #1 Buoy were starting to break up so I just stayed put and pecked away at the fish. Had to do a lot of sorting and threw back a lot of sheep head and white perch but I was catching some keeper perch. Pulled lines around 12:30 and headed for port. Kept 22 perch and most of them were between 8 to 9 inches, the largest was 11 inches.