Gilford Perchin' Report Dec 27

[Aaron Shirley]

I went out of Gilford on Cooks Bay on Lake Simcoe yesterday for perch with my fiance Kristi, Tony and Johnny, and did we ever have a blast. We had constant action all morning until we left around 1:30pm. The average size was a little small, but we had bigger fish move in at times with different schools.

 

There was about 4" of black ice all across the bay, and some areas had a layer of white ice up to 5" on top of the black ice. It was bare ice in the morning, which made the walk slippery (cleats would have been golden). We walked out way past all the other anglers in hopes to get into great numbers from unpressured perch, but we learned after that most anglers close to Gilford did very well.

 

After we got to our spot, I started to set up my hut, and Johnny and Tony started getting into fish. It started to sleet/wet snow just after I set up the hut. I stopped to take a few quick pics of the guys before finishing setting up inside.

 

Johhny in the background reeling in a perch

 

Tony gets a nice fish on a jighead and craw

 

 

 

I finished setting up in the hut with seats, the Humminbird sonar and heater, which Kristi was happy about, as she was comfortable and dry

 

Kristi in the hut warm and dry as the sleet fell outside

 

Kristi with a nice sized perch she caught on a W2 Jigging Rapala

 

Typical schools of perch that moved through on sonar... the screen was full from the bottom 10-feet of the water column at times. Every time I saw a new scool move in, I let everyone know, and we nailed fish. It was great to see the lures and fish on sonar when the bite slowed down a bit, as I could lift my lure above the fish and trick them into biting or target suspended fish I noticed up higher.. it's almost like a video game

 

Our hot set up in the hut was a size 8 black Gammakatsu octopus hook tied 12" up the line with an Exude nymph, and a small Mepps Little Wolf spoon (pink and white) or Cyclops spoon (gold) on the bottom. We even got double headers on the same line when the perch were thick. Most fish came within 10-feet of bottom suspended. We tried to target the top of the school for the most part, as it was easier to see our lures and perch hittimg them. When the school thinned out and got closer to bottom, we would let our lures down to the fish.

 

I popped out of the hut a few times to check on the guys, and took a few pics.

 

Tony gets into a fish

 

Tony holds up a couple larger than average sized perch

 

We got some larger perch throughout the day from 10" to 12" to keep us happy. Near the end of the day I tagged a true jumbo on a Mepps Cyclops spoon that was the biggest of the day without a doubt (don't know how big, didn't measure or weigh it).

 

 

 

 

Tony even caught a small muskie about three pounds, which was pretty wild. He said there wasn't any fin clips on it, but I don't know if MCI and the OMNR clipped the ones they stocked or not. No pics of the muskie, it went right back down the hole.

 

As we were about to pack up and leave, I got this shot of the perch tally for both Kristi and I at 43 perch. We released about 6 perch for every one we kept.

 

 

If you get a chance, get out to Cooks Bay and get perchin'!

 

Good fishing!

 

Aaron

[danbo]

Atta boy!

[fatherof3]

good report,congrats on a good day

[Greencoachdog]

Excellent report and pics!!! Now that looks like the kinda ice fishin' I wanna do!

 

What model Humminbird is that?

Edited December 28, 2007 by Greencoachdog

[Terry]

very nice

34 ft of water was way out there, I was way to chicken to go out that far and tired of walking

[Guest gbfisher]

Saw you walk out there and heard the...WE'RE ONLY HALF WAY THERE!

 

I was a 1/4 mile south of your group.

Edited December 29, 2007 by gbfisher

[Riparian]

Nice report, Thanks.

 

Did you see many sleds or atv's out there?

[oldphart]

~~~~~ Fantatic report and thanks for sharing the pics

[Musky or Specks]

Great Report!!

[DANIMAL]

Nice feed of perch there, good job.

[tbayboy]

I just get back in town and this is the first post i see and what a great post it is. Makes me want to hop right back in the car and head up to simcoe. Thanks for the great report.

[Joey]

Great report Aaron, thanks for all the info.

 

It pleases me no end to hear that Tony caught a small musky. Looks like the stocking may have taken hold. I certainly hope so

 

Joey

[irishfield]

Tony.. you sure it wasn't a pike ! LOL

 

Sounds like a great outing Aaron.. hope you made Tony drag most of the gear...

[highdrifter]

Now that's what I call gettin 'er done! Sweet sweet perchies... mmmmm

 

cheers

HD

[Aaron Shirley]

Haha, yep, we are paying for it today walking out that far! We were all soaked with sweat from walking so far, and dead tired... definitely got our exercise!

 

I didn't see many sleds out there, but did see a few close to shore.

 

Hey Irishfield, Tony had it easy dragging the sled out on the bare ice. It was a lot heavier to pull back on the snow... even without Kristi hitching a ride on the sled like she did on the way out

 

Hey gbfisher, how did you guys make out where you were? Was the perchin just as good there? I am going to try a little closer to Gilford next time

 

Greencoachdog, that Humminbird is a Matrix 87 Combo (now discontinued). It is just the unit off the bow of my boat. It just snaps off the bow and into my portable unit. I use it for ice-fishing and my 12' tin boat as well on small lakes and rivers, so I get three uses from one unit. I gerry-rigged my portable box to accept two 6v gel-cell rechargeables, and it works great. Tony liked the idea so much, he got a portable like mine and rigged it up the same way. I helped him do it and took pictures of the entire procedure. I'll have to post it on-line in the new year. I have had requestes by e-mail on how to do the conversion, but it is a pain to keep e-mailing all those pics.

 

I really like that I can see my small perch jig at any depth, or a small jig for whitefish down 85' and see the fish hitting on screen. If I'm not paying attention to the sonar when a fish looks at my bait, I can sometimes catch the action in the history.

 

The only thing is... if I want to use the GPS with hydrographic charts in the unit, I have to remove the GPS receiver from the bow of my boat with two screws and attach the GPS receiver to the portable. This is a bit of a pain, as I still use my boat to fish the Niagara River in the winter. I am going to upgrade to the unit that replaced the Matrix 87 combo with the 787c2i Combo - Internal GPS, so I don't have to mess around with the GPS receiver anymore and save space in the portable box, as the GPS receiver makes for a tight fit in the portable box with the transducer. The 787c2i Combo also has a flasher style view on it, however, I'll be honest with you, I really like the view I have with the history and the real-time flasher style vertical bar to the right of the history.

 

It's nice to have GPS with hydrographic charts in the unit to find specific spots and see where we are on the structure. It takes the guess work out of the equation and allows precision. Whenever I find good winter spots, I can mark a waypoint and use them year after year.

 

Good Perchin'!

 

Aaron

Edited December 29, 2007 by Aaron Shirley

[Guest gbfisher]

I went from 18 fow out in the middle to 24 fow back towards shore and back up to 18 fow even closer to shore. I had close to a limit at the first spot.

I walked back over to my buddy, 18 fow and they were right into them hard for a few hours. We left by 1. It was a good bite for sure.

I saw the hitcher riding out with you.....lol was definitely a good ride out. The new layer of snow made it tough walking on the way in even with cleats.

[fishindevil]

Way to go guys !!!! great fishing,nice pics too..

[mistyriver1]

Nice report Aaron and some great pics, congrats.

[Mike Pike]

What a terrific report and pics Aaron!

 

I can apprciate the trouble that it takes to get that camera out in those conditions and snap a pile of photos, organize and download 'em and then post and tell the story. Thanks for that.

 

Lots of detail there and I think learned a thing or two!

[mcallister.grant]

Great report and well done! Can't wait to get out there!!!

[b2kptbo]

Good stuff, nice haul...

[Shelley Cooper]

Excellent report and pic's... Nice to see people are getting out and getting some nice perchies...

 

Thanks for sharing...