Pre-Work Perchin' 6/26am

Quite a few readers here are counting down the days until July, and so am I. Us perch fishermen only have a handful of days remaining before the season closes. Well, there's always trout and salmon to keep me plenty busy in the month of July and I'm definitely looking forward to those fishies.

Well, with time running out, I decided to get out on this sunny morning and try my luck with a couple of some regular perch crew members. Arrive at spot J late! I hit my snooze too many times :oops: . Got my jigs in the water around 545am. Three consecutive casts produced three perchies. Due to work duties, I had to leave the lake around 645 am. Only got an hour of fishing in, but was still able to put some fillets away. The perch crew fell a handful of fish short of a 3 man limit... not bad in a about an hour's work before work ;)

What worked -

My pal Tom was whacking perch on a custom spinner tipped with a piece of raw shrimp

Pal Keith did the best on paddlebugs - green

I did my damage with tiny albino flukes, run in tandem, 1/16 oz on the bottom, little lighter on the top.

Mimicking a molting crayfish is a little tricky with plastics, but it can be done. Just ask this 13.5" perch who got fooled...



And here's a couple pics from the morning. Enjoy. Happy Perching. Merry June :)2

Ninja Night Fishing 6/24

Did a little ninja night fishing tonight with Rootpro. I haven't been out much this week. I'm not a big fan of sweating my arse off. Thought I'd eat dinner at a normal time, wait for the sun to go down, and do a little ninja night fishing.

We were only out for about an hour tonight.

Got a blowup on a black buzzbait and had a real nice bass on, and naturally I blew it. Fish jumped, hook was spat right back at me. Oh well.

Keith connected with a decent 2.5#er or so. Same pattern - black buzzbait.



During the last half hour, I decided to try my midnight special rattln' spinner bait made by strike king. Two dink bass. Keith also picked up another dink on the bass.

Thought I'd share this brief report with everyone. It's awesome getting out there in the pitch dark and listening to bass explode on topwaters. We're trying to develop a pattern. Dark skirts seem to be doing better lately. Buzzbait bassing is definitely on, so find you favorite pond or lake and give ninja fishing a try.

Offshore with the Vets, 6/21

A pal of mine, Joel, gave me a call during the week and asked if I could be his co-captain for a Salmon Unlimited event - Take a Vet fishing.

The plan was to pick up a couple of military vets from North Point at 9am. Joel and I did some prefishing from 5am - 830am. No dice. Worked variety of spoons and dodger fly combos anywhere from 80' - 155'. Trolled in every which way direction, not even a hit.

Picked up 2 vets from NP around 930ish after some breakfast and coffee with intentions of getting on some fish and showing the guys a good time. Well, the only thing biting was the flies. We got chewed up. No wind on Lake Michigan on a boat = Human Buffet for the flies. Not fun.

We got 9 rods out, mixed up our offerings. Had bait bouncing off the bottom. Worked the thermocline. Worked the surface. Nothing!

I think the guys had a good time either way getting out on a boat and hanging out. Joel gave them his number and told them to give him a call Late July during prime time offshore king fishing. Very noble of him.

Oh well..next time, right?

The rains definitely messed things up. We dodged trees and debris up to 3 miles into the lake!

Perching 6/20 am

Finally got some west winds. Too bad the perch weren't around :(

I got keepers on my first 2 casts, then the bite vanished! Managed 1 more fish and had 1 fish donated to me. Ended up with a nice dinner, but I still haven't hit a limit day this spring!

All fish taken on tiny flukes

Night time buzzbait bassing 6/18

Hit up a newfound little pond around 10ish and gave it a shot for about 25 mins this evening. Had one blowup literally 5 feet in front of me. I was actually startled to see a fish come up and explode on my buzzbait right next to me. Keith picked up a dink bass, and I got one "keeper"

Post Softball Bassing 6/15

Note to self - Don't go to a swamp area when its pretty warm out after a softball game stinking of sweat. The mosquitos are insane!!!

After my game tonight I stopped at a local pond for about 30 mins and tried for some bass. Got quite a few taps on a 5" senko, then connected on one. Nice little bass. I would've stayed longer and tried more topwater buzzbaits as it got darker, but the bugs were too much for me

Tournament Bassing 6/13

Well, in my very first bass tournament of my life, my goal was to get on the board! I fished with a group of guys who have been fishing a tournament on Deep Lake for years and years. My goal was to avoid the skunk!

I hooked up with fish #1 with about 10 mins of effort put in, but the fish was too small to qualify. Shortly after I got fish #1 in the livewell! a 1#,11 oz bass! Keeper #1 hit a blue/black chatter bait off a deeper weed edge.

Keeper fish #2 came in right before the first weigh in. This one on a 5" darker senko in about 5 feet of water.

At the first weigh in, I brought two fish back to the docks with hopes of being in the hunt.

For the 2nd session, I worked hard, but was only able to land 1 more keeper. This one was a 15" bass.

I ended the day with 3 qualifying fish and a 9th place finish. I was one more fish away from the money! I'm really looking forward to my next event!

Here's a pic of me with my very first tourney bass -



I then shot off to Milwaukee for a baseball game with some friends.

On my way back, I saw a pond off the tollway that looked like it might hold some fish. I had my rods in the car, so I gave it a shot.

Success! It did have fish! I lost 3 decent sized bass, and landed 2 that were in the 14" range both on topwater buzzbaits. I also caught 2 crappies on a topwater popper. I'll have to check out this little pond again sometime for sure!



The highlight of this pond was Keith hooking into a nice 3 lb fish on a plastic worm. Nice fish Keith -