Kissing the June Perch Season Goodbye (litterally)

Out to home base on the sea wall this morning by 4:40. I had some equipment malfunctions that were unexpected. My trusty super rooster tail actually snapped in half today, I guess after catching 3 Northerns and close to 60 Jumbo Perch on it the metal gets a little brittle.

This was just fine, I was fishing catch and release today in respect to the great season lake Michigan gave me. I landed a few jumbos and a few smaller little guys that hit much harder than their lighter biting older siblings. The fishing was by no means on fire for me today, but guys using #5 shad raps were doing better than I was.

Upon catching my last jumbo (around 12") today I looked at it right in the eyes, said "see you next year my friend" and gave it a kiss on it's fish lips and tossed him back. I got some funny looks from other anglers, letting go such fine table fare. I'm ok with some funny looks.

I won't be out tomorrow, half the year is done with and I'll have a report coming with my totals from the fish log for the first half of 2009.

Thanks Lake Michigan. I'll be moving on to brown trout and skamanias in later July, Brown trout, steelhead, and salmon will be heading my way in a couple of months as well. It's been a great year.