Chicago Perch Limit : 6/26/2009

After all was said and done today, in a short 2 hours 3 stringers had a combined total of 36 jumbos waiting to be filleted. I made it out with friends Mike and Keith, I got my limit of 15 by 6:30 this morning. They were willing to bite anything that swam today, shad raps preceded by bullet weights, flukes on jigs, paddlebugs, raw softshells, and my personal favorite, the spinner tipped with shrimp.

The action was relatively fast starting at first light, and lasting to 6:15. I found the trick today was movement. I see these reports coming out of Montrose harbor that baffle me. People sit there and fish for 4 hours shoulder to shoulder and only take a few fish. Since perch are creatures of a school, why would you sit there and drag your bait through empty water. Every time I moved to a new location today one of two outcomes would transpire, number 1, I'd hook up right away, and take 4-6 perch within a matter of 5 minutes. Number 2, I would get no bites for 4 or 5 casts and move on. I'm not at some secret spot, in fact I'm fishing a spot just like any other in the miles of Chicago lakefront. It just happens to be a spot I go to each day. I know where snags are and where deeper parts are. I start off fishing the shallow areas over rocks before sunrise, and move to deeper water when the sun heads for the empty space above me.

I think if these hundreds of people sitting in one harbor or another moved along down the seawall and found pods of fish, they would be much happier.

My limit consisted of 4 fish over 13", 8 fish between 11"-13" and the rest were smaller due to gut hooking, or just a frantic need to take a limit, no fish were under 8.5".

It was a beautiful morning, a little cooler finally, I was shivering a bit before first light, it felt nice. I'm counting down the days now and will do my best to get out there every dawn. I will not be keeping as many fish now that I have stockpiled a good number. I just want to enjoy the bite before it's gone.

Like I say at the end of every one of these posts... I'll see you at the seawall.