Ducks are Off, Perch are On

 

So yesterday I was lookin for content for The Montana Dream Cast, where we talk about fishing and hunting out here in Montana and since the duck season is on its annual break for this week, I decided to see how the perch bite was going.

 

I drove up to Holter Lake completely unprepared for the weather, wearing flannel lined Carharts and a puffy down jacket, some gloves and my perch jig-stick. I parked at a one of the beaches on the North side of the lake and walked out a few hundred yards, drilled a hole and sunk my jig to the bottom. Nothing. I walked in a few yards, drilled, dropped and again; nothing.

 

I did this about 5 times looking for a ledge I had fished in previous years. I started in about 50 feet of water and when I got back to about 35 feet, I dropped my jig and within a few seconds, pulled a good sized perch out. Dropped it down again and caught another one.

 

It didn't take long for the dogs to abandon me as it was fricken cold! They headed back up to the truck and I kept plugging along, fighting frozen eyes on my jig-stick and frozen finger-tips. I was catching fish as soon as I was able to get my line down to where they were so I wasn't noticing the cold so much until about a half-hour into it when I lost the feeling in just about every extremity. It was time to go and maybe time for a portable fish-house.

 

The problem with the fish-house scenario is that it doesn't allow you to be mobile. I don't have a Vexilar so I can't run around the lake looking for schools of fish without actually dropping a line. And just because you found the perch one minute, doesn't mean they are going to be there in an hour. What I like to do is drill and drop, drill and drop and when I stop catching, I move. I think the fish-house is a little limiting. However, I would have probably fished for a while longer yesterday if I could have got out of the elements. It was fricken cold.

 

Keep 'em where they live...