Perch'n with Steve and Jeremy Chapman 7/25/18

I stopped off at the Speedway to gas up, and hit Hi Way Bait on my way to Big Bopper's to get some minnows and ice.  All they had were Goldies, so I figured I would only get two scoops, because I thought we would be fishing for walleye first and if there was time afterwards, we would try for some perch. 

I went to Mazurik's, because that's where we were going to launch from, but after talking to another fella that pulled up with his boat, he confirmed that Catawba was indeed open right now. He said that the contractor was behind for some reason, and they are opening it back up until they can start on the project.  Then, it will be closed again until the end of the season.  I think they want to have it done by December, but knowing how well contractors get things done on time around here (Drawbridge...wink wink), I doubt it will be done until next spring.

So, with that new information, and the wind blowing stronger out of the NW than I thought it was going to be, I decided to strap the boat back down, and meet them at Catawba. So, I called the Chapman's, and told them the plan...they were just getting to town when I caught them, and they agreed to meet me there instead.  

On the way, I stopped off at Rickard's Bait Shop to pick up a few more scoops of minnows and was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a 50/50 mix of nice sized Emerald Shiners and Golden Shiners.

We launched at 7:15 and didn't go very far before the Helix marked some fish on the bottom. I figured they were probably perch, since they were in an area that was reported to have some right now...but, there's still only one way to find out, and that's to fish for them.  ;)

 I deployed the Ulterra and set the "Spot-Lock", to hold us on that spot, and laid the towels out around the boat. (It helps keep the minnow scales from ending up all over the carpeting....yeah, I'm anal like that...lol)

We caught 30 in the first spot, but moved when the bite slowed up. I moved west a few miles and found some really good marks on the Helix, so we set up again, and proceeded to catch one perch after another.  We caught another 60 in less time than it took to catch the first 30 in the first spot!  

Steve and Jeremy couldn't have been happier with the action and the size of the perch...which went 33 pounds for 90 fish at the cleaners.

I'm off the next two days, and will be back out again on Saturday with Nick Valentine and his crew.  I don't know yet if we are fishing for walleye or Perch. I'll talk to them on Friday, when I touch base with them, and find out what they want.

So...stay tuned...

Capt Juls