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[#0000ff]November usually treats me pretty good on big perch at Willard. Got some intel this past week that the water temps were down in the right zone and that there were some perchkind showing up. So I just hadda give it a shot.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Launched at the north marina about 7:30...formerly 8:30. Air temp 29 and water temp 43...warming only about 1 degree by noon. Water levels are way back up there. They have been dumping a lot of water in at the south marina.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Saw little on sonar going out the channel. 17 feet from the ramp out, by the way. Saw even more of nothing in my usual fave spots outside the marina. Like a desert. No shad...no predators.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Made some big S turns to cover all the usually good perchin' spots. Nada, zip, zilch. Getting worried.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Remembered my last trip I found shad and diners in shallower water off Eagle Beach. Motored into about 12 - 13 feet and saw a couple of small shad balls.
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[#0000ff]Put out a flig on one rod and pitched plastics on the other. No bites on either. Had been using the formerly productive blue and silver flig. Put away the plastics and put out a second flig...a chartreuse perch. That did it. Bang, bang, bang. Three perch in only a few minutes...11", 12" and 13". Good I didn't keep on catching bigger ones each time. I could not have handled a 3 footer.
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[#0000ff]Figured I was gonna fill a basket. Figured wrong. Not another bite for the remaining 3 hours before I bagged it. Even worked the whole inside of the north marina without a sniff.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Beautiful weather...no skeeters and no skiers. Only one boat trailer in the parking lot when I left about noonish. Oh yeah...no catfish neither. Don't get to say that very often at Willard.
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Now that there is what we're looking for! Been wondering about water temperature. Stopped at the Smith Family Pond over by Smith and Edwards the other day. North 2\3 was capped.
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[#0000FF]How's the new knee doing? Probably not quite ready to join me in your tube yet.
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Nice job Pat, that’s a Purdy batch of perch. Glad you found them. What a gorgeous day, it had to be fun. Congrats Jeff
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[#0000FF]Thanks. The best is yet to come. Watch this space.
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Knees a little tender. Hanging flippers would probably be good for it. I'm guessing it wouldn't be much fun. Got to get back on my feet for ice season.
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Nicely done ! Sometimes quality beats out quantity...not always... but those are some good lookers....
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What happened to those gray gloves? Did you get them wet or just wear them out.
Glad you were able to talk some into biting.
rj
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[quote r2u2]What happened to those gray gloves? Did you get them wet or just wear them out.
Glad you were able to talk some into biting.
rj[/quote]
[#0000FF]Believe it or not, I actually have several pair of gloves I wear interchangeably. I started the day with the black Kenai gloves. Took them off when it warmed up a bit. Then when cool breeze came up I put on the grey ones...but did not have any more fish to include in a picture.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Have you always been like this or is it marriage that makes you so attentive? Congrats to Violet.[/#0000FF]
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no da carps sighted ?
i was hopin the warm up would bring em back up.
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I like the sound of that... How much distance do you need to cover? Motor or paddle? I haven't licensed my toon this year since I haven't had time to get out and with ice as close as it is, I may go motor less, rather than paying $60 for a single trip.... Not to say how much that chaps my rear to have to pay that much for the toon after paying that much for the boat as well.. Maybe I should just take the boat, it's licensed and ready... But I do love fishing out of the toon... Anyway hope to join you sometime... Later Jeff
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Maybe just the camera angle but thier bellies look pretty chunky. Did you happen to pop them open to see what was on the buffet table they were munching on?
I can likely guess based on what bait indicators you were searching for with the finder, but I have been wrong often.
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[#0000FF]I saw a very few make tentative swirls and half-hearted splashes. There was one clump of inactive ones resting together on the surface and they stayed in that one place for a long time...with only their dorsals protruding from the water...not moving much.
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[#0000FF]Carp are smart enough to slow down and stay out of the colder upper water layers...or to not jump into air that is below freezing. Definitely feeding less actively and harder to coax into eating feathers.
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They will readily accept an arrow.
Much harder to draw back in a tube...
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"How much distance do you need to cover? Motor or paddle?"
[#0000FF]When (or if) the perch really show up, there is usually pretty good fishing just outside the north marina. Not much traveling needed. And with the water levels up there will likely be perch moving into the back corners of the marina too...along with some crappies. It can be good "dock dunking" for early winter slabs. Just move your toon along next to the docks and make drop down vertical presentations...with a small jig, waxworm and a small sensitive bobber. Tubes and toons are ideal for that stuff...without much exertion.
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[#0000FF]There have been times, however, that I have had to cover a lot of water and really search to find only a few perch...like yesterday. Thankfully, I have a new EnduraMax motor that allows me to troll very slowly for a long time without using up the battery like the C2 Endura does. They have a "maximizer" that lets the motor use only the amps necessary for the speed you are running. The C2 burns the same amps at all speeds...with excess power being turned into heat. So yesterday I was slow dragging almost all the time...once the sonar indicated I might be in a target-rich environment...which was seldom.[/#0000FF]
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[quote Cowboypirate]Maybe just the camera angle but thier bellies look pretty chunky. Did you happen to pop them open to see what was on the buffet table they were munching on?
I can likely guess based on what bait indicators you were searching for with the finder, but I have been wrong often.[/quote]
[#0000FF]Virtually all of the perch over about 10 inches are females. And at this time of year their tummies are filling up with large egg masses. That accounts for a lot of the visible girth. But two of the fish I brought home also had small shad. I suspect they are slurping up the late spawned shadlets that are dying in the cold and because they have not developed mouth parts to allow them to feed on anything but the disappearing zooplankton.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]This picture is from a couple of years ago when a trip coincided with a shadlet dieoff. The little tykes were floating to the surface and the birds were going crazy. Almost like a wiper boil...without the wipers.
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[#0000FF]I did not see any dead floating shad on the surface yesterday. Nor did I see any tern or gull activity that would indicate a current die-off. The fact that the water temps are already well below 50 suggests that the dieoff probably happened last week and there are still just a few remnants for the scavengers.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]There are few remaining shad bait balls in most areas. And where you find them you will often find predators in the vicinity. Kinda like following a food truck around for when you get hungry. [/#0000FF]
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[quote MrShane]They will readily accept an arrow.
Much harder to draw back in a tube...[/quote]
[#0000FF]Right ye be...on both counts. Howsomever, since carp seem to fear not a float tube, they are very easy to approach...and sometimes swim right up and bump my tube. And when I wear black fins they actually roll on those fins...carp-raped fins?[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]I have tried shooting a bow from a tube. Tough, but doable with the right angles. Even better with your crossbow.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]Several years ago I rigged up a powerful slingshot with a shaped wire crossbar for shooting arrows. Even had a line spool on the bottom. Tried to find pics of it but they are lost to time. It was made of PVC (what else) and had two strips of surgical tubing on each side. I proved to myself (and a few carp) that it had plenty of power and was a carp killer. Got rid of it and my bows when my rotator cuff in my left shoulder began reminding me to act my age. [/#0000FF]
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[quote MrShane]They will readily accept an arrow.
Much harder to draw back in a tube...[/quote]
sums of em can take that lickins and keep on tickins
![[Image: image_zpsfsamu5xp.jpeg]](https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/skifishbum/fish%2015/image_zpsfsamu5xp.jpeg)
poundkeyfunandgames
![[Image: IMG_5080_zpsso6p4kr1.jpg]](https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/skifishbum/fish%2015/IMG_5080_zpsso6p4kr1.jpg)
growing up in the windy city suburbs with a river running thru town filled with targets ive put some arrows in some poopers
and theres no doubt in my mind on the sup i could slay large numbers but thats not my thing right now and im kinda glad i havent seen anyone doing it yet
seated would be a definate di  vantage in vision and ability to put em on target though as with most things
I think a lot of it is the smaller water displacement of tubes toons and sups doesnt seem to spook em as much and allows you to git closer
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Those are good looking perch. I'm glad you got out and found some. Hopefully the numbers you are looking for will show up.
Thanks for the report and pictures. I was reminded of what a perch looks like a few weeks ago while I was chasing the little whites at Provo.
It was big enough to fillet, but it didn't look much like those you caught. Keep up the good work!
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[#0000FF]The perch population in Willard grows in inverse proportion to the number of hungry mouths (wipers and walleyes) that feed on young perch when shad are in short supply. The past few years the predator population has been lower and perch numbers have been greater. And perch dine well on shad as well as a few other smaller food items...including their own young. So, in Willard any perch that survives the "hunger games" can get some size and girth.[/#0000FF]
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[#0000FF]In the reply to the Pirate I mentioned how large the big females get when they are full of eggs. Here's a picture of one caught last March...probably no more than a week before spawning. Gross!
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