[slim2043]

My buddy and I planned an early morning outing today as he had to work this Sunday afternoon. We were targeting bass and started out popping top waters with no strikes. Passed by a huge dead snapping turtle who was supine in the water. Didnt have any way to get him out. Poor guy. Shortly after trying out the hula popper and a small zara puppy I switched to Senkos. Nothing on a Sunfish colored 5" Wacky Senko. My buddy had a wack with no set on his bass assassin and same deal on his zara spook. I tried a tube/creature bait but the hook I rigged it with didn't fit well with it so I switched yet again and tied up a rapala minnow not sure the size# it's about a 1-1/2 incher. Reeled it in at a steady crank... Bam! A Walleye (so I thought) nailed it a foot or two from the boat. Turned out to be a white perch. Feisty little bugger he was. I caught one more on same lure about the same size. I wasnt too interested in catching more perch so I tried a variety of different senkos tex and wacky before I gave up. I got a couple of whacks on a junebug/neon green laminate but failed to land whatever was biting it. My buddy landed one of those white perch on a rapala minnow as well. We fished about 3 hours had a good time. The wind pushed us around a bit but hey whatever. No bass seen today. A school of walleye was supposedly workin a nice bite on a jointed minnow and yellow perch were also being caught in numbers by some boaters trolling curly tail grubs. The bucket brigade invaded the waters we were paddling w a bevy of baited poles from shore pretty much ruined my appetite for fishing and I had fished up quite an appetite for eating so we headed in and got breakfast. Nice morning out on the water even if I didn't find any bass... And I got the skunk out of my kayak finally! Smells nice n fishy now!

Til nxt time, tight lines![/code]
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Never give up!

[slim2043]

First White Perch I landed
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Never give up!

[PECo]

Nice photo, Tim. Nice BIG photo.

Although I also hate pulling in a white perch when I'm hoping for a walleye, they're pretty good fighters on light tackle. And if you catch enough of them. they're good eatin'!
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[slim2043]

Yeah, my bad on the photo, I didn't check the size before I hit upload. If it was a nicer pic and a bigger fish you could save it as a desktop background ...

You are right about the Perch being good fighters though. They absolutely slammed my plug and there was no question if there was a fish on when they hit it. The first one had all six points of my trebles in him! No harm done though as you can see clearly in the BIG photo, he is healthy! He was returned to the water just fine....

Also if you got or are getting that shimano citica baitcasting reel, I have a tip for you. Tighten the spool control knob pretty much all the way your first 3-5 times out using it and practice casting with it a lot. Doing both of these things really helped to control the backlashes for me and I could still cast it pretty far.
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Never give up!

[PECo]

I got a couple of Shimano Curado CU201E7 reels and a couple of Shimano rods, including a Crucial 7-1/2 foot heavy/fast rod. I have a couple of big, heavy swimbaits that I've never been able to throw with my lighter bass tackle. Plus, I figure that I could use it for flipping. Now I just have to find the time to go fishing. . . .
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!