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We got back home yesterday evening and decided to start getting back in touch with the Walleye. We had been primarily Perching for the last month.

We went North of Vermillion to check a few spots that they will sometimes stage in when they are ready to move back in from the deep. No luck. Surface temps were 78 and it was 71.8 40 ft down. I think we will need more cold nights before they will leave the deeper cooler water.

We had to go further North and East to the 50 ft water to start marking big numbers and catching a few.

The fish were hugging the bottom in 50 ish water. We only had 8 keepers but they were BIG! We had two fish Ohio’s. The biggest was a 29 3/4 fatty that weighed 11 pounds 8 ounces by my boat scale. A few weeks from now, that fish would have brought some nice money in the Brawl/Slam. We turned both big fish back so hopefully the karma will come back to us in October. The other keepers were solid mid 20S and healthy/thick. The fish are in great shape for winter.

We also had about a dozen 13-14 inchers and several white perch and white bass. No farm animals.

Everything we caught was within 2 feet of the bottom. We trolled 2.5 mph fish hawk zigzagging. Best producers were copper Michigan Stingers in hammered copper. The one with orange dots was best, but all copper spoons caught.

I started perching south of middle bass shoal early morning. Caught the first one in about 3 minutes. Nice fish, but no more for 3 hours. Lots of fingering walleye, and a few white bass. Said the heck with it, and put the trolling gear together. Oh my I’m glad I did. Crushed them. Trolled east to west, back and forth along the middle bass shoal to the north in 30ish fow give or take. Running spoons behind dipseys. First fish in about 5 minutes. Nice quality fish that I have never caught here before. First was 22” then a few shorts-to eater size. Then thought I had a big sheep. Na na….30” beast. He got returned. I didn’t even get a picture as running 3 troll rods by yourself is a handful. Caught a hog 20”, and a couple more eaters. Plus more shorts. Only 1 white bass, and the 1 big sheep that hit screamed drag for a couple seconds, then got off. The spoon that did most of the damage was wonder bread. Unfortunately I only have 1 as earlier in the season the sheep were pounding it, and I didn’t get more when I replenished due to that. I am going to forego the perch tomorrow, and troll straight away.

Only 3 yellow gold today, no farm animals and no white perch, many boats SE off G can, very light winds a nice day for a boat ride. The 3 yellow gold,only one was a 10 inch keeper the others were returned for next year.
Taking a break,
Cooler nights should bring those hogs back, eyes and yellow gold,
Be safe and fish on,
~Water Dog

Started north of lakeside today in 26 ft of water with several other boats. 8 jumbo perch in 1.5 hrs. Moved east to 35 ft of water off the southeast corner of Kellys. Large pack south of us. One other boat at our location. Had a slow bite for the next 4.5 hrs but managed a 2 person limit of 60 really nice perch. 26 lbs at cleaners. We had 2 fish the broke the 12 inch mark and numerous in the 11 inch range. Emerald shiners cut in 3 on crappie rigs. We had to keep the rig moving up and down to trigger a bite. Ran an engine at times also. Definitely the best grade of perch we have caught this season. Reading some other reports; we were lucky to find these fish.

Baha299

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3 yellow gold keepers today all returned from the holding tub, 4 farm animals and 6 white perch , and 4 yellow gold shorts returned to get some time to get to the hog stage, and 1 young walleye to see next year.
I did see more grass in the water , not sure what caused that, an east wind when west is best. Two head boats moved around , so you know they were still looking for the gold. Back at it tomorrow, may try closer to H can. No complaints here this 5 week haul has been great.
I gave my bait shop guy 2 pounds of the yellow gold and the look of gratitude form his face made my day. Be kind and be safe and always pull those lips.
~ Water Dog

Awful quiet around here. Started late today. Perch bite was slow. South of rattlesnake 33 fow. Started about 1:00. Fished till 4:30. Managed 12 over 9 inches. Quite a few shorts. No farm. 1 white. Decided to troll for some eyes on the way home. Ran spoons on divers. Only walleye for about an hour or so. 6 shorts, and 2 eaters. It was nice to see some walleye around, and biting. Back at it in the morning!

We stayed off Marblehead today. The bite slowed for us from yesterday when it was solid. Today it was spotty and hit and miss. We moved several times but could not stay on a solid bite. We had 39 respectable keepers. We returned maybe a dozen shorts. Crappie rigs with emeralds.

No trash this trip, just Perch.

We have some scheduled down time, but will be back at it next week.

3 hours today had a nice swing and then the wind died down, dozen returns to get bigger and 4 sheep head.
got a late start but still I did enjoy the weather today, no bugs and a nice breeze to start the day.
A few boats in the area and two head boats setup after 12pm so that trip up some where north of G can must not have produced for them.

Looks like rain on Tuesday, so going to look toward a trip later in the week.
Fish On, Be Safe and pull those lips!
~ Water Dog

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Fished for half day 2 weeks ago. Experienced a power outage so had to uncover the motor to the boat lift and manually spin the fly wheel (for about 15 minutes) to lower the boat. Buzzed over to Sandusky boat ramp, bought frozen minnows (no live bait at the time) and then out to west of Kelleys island. Caught 31 perch between 2 of us in about 5 hours so slow bite. Perch were small with many throw-backs.

Power was still out when returning to the dock so we had to manually spin the fly wheel for about 45 minutes this time to lift the boat about 4 feet (going up with the boat weight takes a lot more time and energy than going down!).

Decided to drop a line off the dock once the boat was stowed (back bay in Sandusky). We have had much past success catching perch there in only 4′ of water. Caught this nice 12″ perch and a handful of others in the late afternoon.

Went out a week later without much success. The boat lift cable broke this next time so went out to Home Depot, purchased new cable, eyelet and U-clamps, and repaired the lift in a few hours. Fished off the dock that night and pulled in enough perch for a few sandwiches.

No complaints here, just have to laugh. LOVE being on the water. LOVE smallmouth fishing off Kelleys in the spring, walleye fishing the reefs, and bobbing around perch fishing with a view of Perry’s Monument. But I seriously have to consciously commit to forgetting about the fuel costs, the repair costs/time and the regular maintenance entailed with owning a boat when I’d likely be better served dropping a line in 4′ of water, lol! My wife often reminds me the cost of perch per pound at Kroger’s vs my personal cost of perch per pound….. but I wouldn’t change a thing….

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We are scheduled for a Perch trip tomorrow so we went out today to scout some spots. We fished from the Marblehead light house to S Bass around Kelley’s back to the lighthouse. We worked 23 – 35 ft of water.

To make a long story short the best depth was 30 ft. We had one spot we picked up 30 and the rest just a few each. But to be fair, we never gave them a long shot as we were just hunting. 2 spots we zeroed. We brought in 45 for the freezer.

While the bite was slower than a few weeks ago, the sizes are getting better. We had no throw backs. One was 7 inches but everything else was 8 to 10 with a couple bigger.

We had one big cat off the lighthouse, a couple sheep, one white, and 3 Gobies.

We used our typical hunting rig (drop shot rig) with half an emerald on each hook.