Friday, July 31, 2009

"Perch Round Up" at Starvation

Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m
Weather: Windy, Windy, Windy
Moon Phase: 76% Moon
Location: Starvation
Bait: Bottom bouncing crawler harnesses with earthworms
Who Went: John, Me

I had the day off today so I called my buddy John and we hit the road in search of some walleye. I have heard some decent reports coming from Starvation Reservoir so thats where we headed. We got a great start leaving my house at 4:30 a.m. and we were at the lake by 7:00. I was a little nervous when we got to the lake cause the wind was already blowing, and Starvation usually only gets more windy as the day goes on. Little did I know that the wind would help us in more than one way. We launched the boat and started fishing by bottom bouncing worm harnesses and shortly after our lines hit the water I hooked up with this nice perch.
As we continued to fight the wind with my thruster motor trying to keep the right speed it finally hit me (actually it hit John first) why don't we use the wind to troll instead of wasting battery for the trolling motor. This turned out to be the best idea of the day. The wind was a constant stiff breeze and it kept a very hot day manageable by keeping the temps down. It also ended up drifting us across the lake at almost the exact speed I would have trolled at! So we just motored to one end of the lake and let the wind blow us back to the other end while trolling. It wasn't long during this method that I FINALLY caught my first walleye of the year with this sixteen inch mid sizer.I was excited and thought that we might get into some more but it ended up being the only walleye of the day. We did however catch around 20 very nice perch that made for some excellent table fare the next evening. I have never been a fish eater, but these perch are unbelievably tasty and I never thought I would say this but I might be targeting more perch in the future!