Still waiting for ice but don't mind at all!

We still do not have any safe ice around us and the docks are still ice free so we decided to do some more shore fishing yesterday. We still had some minnows left from 2 weeks ago when we caught all the pike, stomach contents from the pike which had not been digested as well as a new secret weapon we've been trying out.

We arrived at the docks just before noon and first started with minnows to use them up. Glenn had a fish in before I even casted out and this time it was a perch. He caught a few more and one was in the 10" range so we started a bucket of keepers with water in it so if we didn't catch any more larger ones, we could still throw these ones back. One of Glenn's took a hook deep so we put it in the bucket in case it wasn't going to make it.

Glenn said I could use up the rest of the minnows as we only had 5 and he tried the shad that I had found in the stomachs of the pike we caught a couple weeks ago. I had saved them in salt water to prevent them from going bad but they had started to get a little soft. The perch kept taking the bodies and leaving just the head but then he would catch some more perch with just the head.

I wasn't catching as many as Glenn but still caught my share and on the last minnow managed to get an 11.25" perch. After the stomach contents were used up we switch to a new bait which we have been told about and also had good success with it. We caught around 30 perch and about 3/4 of them were caught in the first hour and then things went dead for a bit. A few more here and there but we decided to call it a day after 2 hours and 8 perch in the bucket. I ended up throwing 2 of the smaller ones back since they had fully recovered.

I'm not sure how long the docks will be ice free but as long as they are, we will continue fishing them since it is so much easier than ice fishing and a lot less equipment. Our braided lines were freezing up a bit but at -5° they were not too bad.


This is the only ice we saw on the water. Several small "icebergs" floated in while we were fishing.

Two of the larger perch caught....

Ready to be cleaned (9 - 11.25") ...

Good going guys. Have yous decided on which bike to get.

Nice Nicole

Nice fish folks .Keep up the good work and perhaps when things went quiet there could have been a big ole pike in the area. Did you throw some lures in the area?

Sounds great Nicole. You know you want to PM me details of this killer new bait of yours!

Way better results than the loads of dink 4" perch I was catching on Scugog on Saturday, but I am not going to lie, it was great to be on ice again!

Nice perch........would look even nicer deep fried in Fish Crisp Beer Batter mix

Good to see the reports are coming in regularly again.

Great catch! Nice jumbos especially from shore.

I was going to give you my perch spot on shore but it doesn't look like you need any help. Plus my spot only has 4" perch this time of year..

Well done.. Thanks for the report..

You could have responded to my thread about catching minnows, then!!

Nice!
Cheers!

You never disappoint. Nice Jumbos! Bring home the pudding.

well done guys

It sounds like you guys had a great day on the water, thank you for a very detailed report

Way to make the best out of the situation. Good job.