Aaron Shirley Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 I see there are lots of reports from Simcoe perching, but here is our first day on the hard water. There were tons of anglers out there. Tony B. and I got out on Simcoe yesterday for some perch fishing out of Gilford on Cooks Bay, and had a lot of fun. The size of the fish were very small averaging 7" to 8" with very few larger fish, but fun to catch nonetheless. We must have caught well over 200 perch between the two of us, and the action was pretty constant all day except for a short while. We decided to move after the bite slowed down on our first spot, and it paid off big time. We fished deeper water (27' to 33') further out in the main basin, but most people fished closer to shore from 15' to 20' of water. Everyone we talked to had similar success to what we experienced and mostly small fish as well. It was pretty cold in the morning, and we put up an old small tent I had with a heater to pop into once in a while to keep warm. I am definitely getting a portable ice shelter soon! What a difference when the guides don't constantly freeze up and holes don't need to be skimmed. Tony stands beside our make-do 'getto' ice shelter lol We put bigger holes in the tent floor to jig inside the warmth, as there were already holes anyway. Tony and I did very well on Jigging Rapalas W2 and W3 size in Firetiger and white\chart, and jigging spoons like the small Mepps Cyclops in gold. Shiners tipped on the Blue Fox Big Crappie jigs with a hook and shiner above the jig worked like a charm when the action slowed a bit, and I even got several double headers on the set-up We found the slightly larger fish preferred the spoons. Here is one of the larger perch we caught yesterday, about 10" I had my portable Humminbird with GPS and Navionics hydrographic card with me to pinpoint our location on the structure we wanted to fish, then see the schools of fish hitting our baits... it's almost not fair, the fish don't have a chance Shot of the bird working it's magic for us (I modified the interior of the portable unit so that I can put in two 6 volt gel cell rechargeables, what a difference not having to buy expensive 6 volts for every trip ) This is what the sonar looked like most of the day - the small blue line near the top of the red marks is my spoon, and the blue, yellow, green and red marks are the perch. The green and yellow marks are smaller perch and the red marks are bigger perch (or perch at my bait). The "RTS" window on the right is a real-time flasher so I can see my lure jig up and down and the perch hit my bait.. the large screen on the left is the history. This is just the sonar unit\GPS I popped off from my boat for double duty Despite what some people say about lcd screens, this unit works very well in the cold weather. After seeing Terry's report though... I am going to have to get an underwater camera for next year.. that is just awesome! Tony was out again today in an ice hut of Whitie's, so he should have a report of hopefully bigger perch tomorrow. Good fishing! Aaron
Carp Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 Very nice. Glad you two got into some fish Aaron. I'll be out there soon.....I hope,
irishfield Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 (edited) Great stuff Aaron. Tony should have brought a sleeping bag and just stayed the night ! LOL As for the hummingbird in the cold. I've left my Portable in the (powered turned off) cottage on Lake Temagami the last two winters and it worked just fine when I used it for depth/fish info last March and I used it this summer as well in the tinny when we portaged into the back lake. Works just fine. Guess I'll see next weekend how it works.... after the -29 to -35 that is going on up there right now. Edited January 28, 2007 by irishfield
Rob Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 Nice work there Aaron, those perch will look a lot better when there cookin!!! Rob C
canadian_copper Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 GREAT REPORT AARON !!! TX FOR SHARIN!!
Terry Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 great report, guess I should have moved deeper for some big ones
nautifish Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 Very nice Aaron. Was out myself today also...How ever never ended up out on the actual ice.....Long story.....Lets just say i got a little wet.
Aaron Shirley Posted January 29, 2007 Author Report Posted January 29, 2007 Thanks guys and gals. It was a lot of fun, and the perch were great in the pan Terry, we didn't catch any big perch in the deep water either... only about 9" to 10" tops, and very few of them. Irishfield, I would be very interested to know how well the bird works in those temps. The coldest I used mine in, was about -16... much different than -30! Nauti... I ain't gonna even ask lol. All I can say is, I hope you were wearing a floater suit. Good fishing! Aaron
nautifish Posted January 29, 2007 Report Posted January 29, 2007 Nauti... I ain't gonna even ask lol. I think thats a good thing Aaron.......lol
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