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Sean and Linda drove down from Wisco to fish with me. They had scheduled their trip back in 2021, but due to some puppies that needed taking care of, (they own a kennel in Wisconsin, near Madison, and a resort out on the west side of Devils Lake, ND), so they had to reschedule. We tried again in 2022, but Mother Nature said, “Nay-Nay”, and blew hard, so that trip was rescheduled too. Yesterday, and today, were the days they could come, but the lake wasn’t too kind, as far as giving up her finny friends.


With some wind and possible thunderstorms, yesterday, we opted to try some perch fishing out in front of Mazurik’s and Lakeside. We hit a total of 6 spots, with the best being out in front of the Lakeside pier, in 26 feet of water.


We were also chased off the water by an incoming storm, a little early, so we headed in with only one limit out of a possible three. The bite was light, and the fish were like little “Houdini’s”, stealing our minnows, when we tried to set the hook on them.


I told them, I would add the time the storm took away from us, to this morning’s trip, so we could go try for walleye first, and if that didn’t work out (due to the amount of floating grass out there), that we could go perch’n again. They were happy with that plan.


So, this morning, we launched out of Mazurik’s at 6:30, and headed up to Kelly Island Shoal. We made one pass over the shoal first, with crawlers, but that produced nothing, but a few missed bites and missing crawlers. Then, we set the trolling gear out to try and troll from the shoal up to the line.

Dipsies were set on the zero and three settings, on each corner with the zero settings set at 40 and 45 to start, and the three settings set at 65 and 80 to start.


The Off Shore boards were pulling Bandits set anywhere from 65 to 120 feet back. The port side ran three boards, while the starboard side ran two. We were only allowed 9 lines for the three of us.


The floating grass took the Bandits out of the equation pretty quickly, and they were put away.


We caught one walleye, one sheephead, and one giant catfish on the dipsies running spoons, but they were getting fouled with the floating grass pretty quickly, too, so we opted to just go perch fishing again.


The waves were 1-3s at the shoal, so we drove down the east side of Kelly’s to the SE corner, to see if we could mark any perch there, before heading back to our spot at Lakeside. Nada….so, we drove down to the lighthouse, and set up out in 35 feet of water, out in front of it. The marks were really good, but the bottom was really soft in that spot, and we only caught one in 20 minutes, so we moved in closer to the lighthouse.
Again, good marks when we stopped, but they soon disappeared after we set up, so we only stayed another 15 minutes, to see if they would come back around…they didn’t.


We moved back to our spot out in front of Lakeside Pier, in 26 feet of water, and started catching a few. The bite was slow, and the bite was light again, but we managed to get 20 in the box, before heading in. We had been discussing Mexican food, and we all got hungry, and went to Casa Las Palmas for lunch. lol


The fishing was excellent, but the catching was poor again, unfortunately, but once again, I had customers with positive attitudes, and we had a lot of fun anyway.


Sean and Linda run “Dakota Sunset Resort” (Dakota Sunset Resort – Minnewaukan, ND), and come this winter, will be once again running ice fishing trips, for perch. So if anyone is looking for a good place to stay, with some great guides, check them out. They are super nice people! 🙂


My next scheduled trip is Sunday (perch)…hopefully, now that the cooler weather is coming back, and the full moon is gone, the bite will hopefully start picking up again.


Stay tuned…


Capt Juls

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It was a bit choppy both days but we stuck it out and got our 60 Saturday and 52 Sunday. We started just south of G can and moved around noon to the H can area. I rarely move but the wind wasn’t letting up and we only had 25 at this point. The bite turned on around 1 and it was steady until we reached our 60 around 230. Went to the same spot Sunday morning and it was a slow bite but we stuck it out and had 52 before heading in at 1. Very light bite and it was tough in the chop. We kept nothing under 8″ and had 20 lbs sat and 16 Sunday.

Started out yesterday with a small pack of boats at American Eagle Shoal and only got two perch in an hour. We decided to move closer to PIB, about 1-1.5 miles East of Perry’s Monument and we picked up 38 more perch. Everything was caught with frozen emeralds and crappie rigs. They weren’t biting on goldies yesterday. The size of the perch seem to be getting better, almost everything we caught was 9-9.5” with a few 10-11” thrown in there.

Hope everyone is having a happy and safe Labor Day Weekend!

Our guests today had previously fished for Walleye with us this Spring and wanted to Perch.

We didn’t get out until late but they managed to get their 60 Perch in about 4 hours. It was one of those steady pick kind of days. Never a fast pace, just a slow grind. We only had 2 doubles.

But it was a first time I ever saw this. We had a double with one nice Perch and a large Sheep on the same rig. We had only the one sheep and no whites today, that was nice.

There were boats on the spot we fished last night so I came further south to 27 ft of water and marked a nice school of Perch we had all to our selves. They were smaller than the fish we had further north but still 7 to 8.

Neither of our guests had Perch fished before, so we set them up with crappie rigs with live Goldies (we did well on live goldies last evening). They weren’t catching much of anything at first, but I noticed the few they did catch were on the smallest goldies. It turned out today they wanted a small bait. We ended up cutting the goldies smaller and smaller. We ended up using a 1/4 to 1/2 inch piece, that is what these particular fish wanted. They were spitting up sand fleas, so maybe that is why they wanted such a small bait.

It was a nice afternoon with nice people. BTW they caught their own 60 with none from Capt. Christy or me. They wanted to beat some friends who fished with us earlier and only caught 53 on their own.

For those who want to see pics, we post them on the fishing tiger charters facebook page. Feel free to follow us there.

We went scouting for perch today. This was our first trip looking for perch since the storms. The reports we were getting weren’t sounding positive.

We started N of Catawba and set up just off a pack. We didn’t see many jerking but we started catching a few. But they were all small, 6 ish. So we moved N toward Green. We made several stops over marks but the bite was very slow.

We finally moved E toward the N end of Kellys and started catching quality fish in 30 ft NW of Kelleys.

The best bite for us was on live Goldies hooked in the back so they could swim. Multiple rigs produced but a simple drop shot rig cast out, then dragged across the bottom did the best. We kept 30 over 8. We had one jumbo just shy of 12 and 2 more 11s. We had 3 doubles and caught 60 to 70 to cull out the 30 best. Maybe 4 sheep and we had a wave of white perch come through that wore us out for 30 minutes.

We caught on frozen emeralds but the live goldies were best.

We will be back perching with guests tomorrow.

When will the walleye start heading back around the reefs?

Headed up this weekend from indiana for my dads 60th birthday and was wondering if anyone had fishing information around the islands. I know it’s not the best time but are there any fish around or north of the islands? Probably be staying in port Clinton. Thanks. If not it might turn into a perch trip pretty quickly

Taking some friends perching. Thinking about heading out of wild wings or Catawba. Can anyone point me towards a bite from today?

“Grandpa” Gene, his son, Andy, and his grandson, Drake (Andy’s nephew) came up from the Cincinnati area, and had signed up for a walleye trip, but due to conditions after the recent storms, and the distance to the walleye that were available, we decided to do a perch trip instead. The storms had ripped up shoreline weeds and mats of floating grass were all over the island area, which would be a pain in the butt, trying to troll the area, so that was a major factor in the decision.

We launched out of Catawba at 6:30 and headed north.


My original plan was to hit the north side of North Bass, to check for those bigger perch, but word from another Captain said to go to D Can, so that’s where we started. The marks were really good, but we couldn’t get them going and left after an hour and half, with only 8 in the cooler. At that point I should have stuck to my gut, and went further north, but didn’t, and went to known producing spots, instead.


I went back to the area between Rattle Snake and Green first, where I had done well in previous trips, and again…there were really good marks, but a poor bite. It seemed like every time I found a good pod, and set the Spot Lock on the trolling motor, the screen went blank. They would come and go, but when they came through, we could only get one or two at a time, so it was very slow and agonizing for me. It was very frustrating.


I told them, that if the bite turned on later in the morning, that I would keep them out, if they wanted, but Grandpa said, “No, that’s okay, we’ll head back around 11:30-12 O’Clock, if that’s okay, we need to get back”, and I said, “Of course”.


We tried 5 different spots on our way back towards Catawba, with the same experience in each spot. The best spot was where I have been several times SSW of Green in 28′ of water.


Andy was doing better than Grandpa Gene and Drake, who would only catch a couple, each, while he and I caught the rest. We were allowed 120, but only ended up with only 24 for our efforts.


It was just one of those humbling days. I’m guessing that the full moon, and the clear sky at night, didn’t help matters, and that the fish probably turned on mid to late afternoon…but, that doesn’t help when your trips are scheduled in the morning.


They were patient, and stayed positive, so that helped….and, it was a good time in the boat, even though the bite was poor. Gene said he still wants to come back to do walleye, so I told him the best time to come back this fall. He’s looking forward to that, and so am I.


On a personal side note… Several times, when Gene would turn his head a certain way, he looked just like my Dad, who I lost in May 2022, so it made me smile and warmed my heart. It was like I was fishing with my Dad again. 🙂


I don’t have any trips scheduled from now until September 6th/7th, so it might be awhile before I’m blogging again, unless I get a trip before that. Fingers crossed!


Stay tuned….


Capt Juls

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We have had a great run on perch over the past month and the fishing has been the best I can remember for several years. That said we went for perch today: Goldies from Hwy bait and frozen perch bellys. Started south of the monument at 8:30; moved to south of Green island and then finished North of Lakeside at 1 pm.

3 fishermen. 12 perch.

Beautiful day on the lake. Frustrating day fishing. Great marks in all areas.

Baha299