simcoe (gilford) perch today

[castgame]

headed up to gilford today to do the hardwater thing. haven't been out on the ice in a long time, and never targeting perch. started the day off by stopping in bps to renew outdoor licenses and pick up a little gear. couldn't believe they were entirely out of small jigging raps--there was half a dozen guys just staring at the empty display board, moaning and complaining, which was actually pretty funny. so i picked up a lil foxee and some 4lb fluoro and was off.

 

stopped in at innisfil bait and tackle to get those jigging raps, and the advice from this board was spot on, that guy was friendly and very helpful. he sent us up to the 2nd line with instructions to head about 200m offshore, which we did. now, i don't own an ice auger, so here was my plan: i'd brought a hatchet, and i was just going to bust through some of the old leftover holes from throughout the week. well, you probably know how that ended up. a lot of wandering around looking for traces of old holes with no luck, so i just settle in to hack through the 5"-8" of reported ice. yeah, that was last week--ice is a solid 10" now, and it took me probably 20mins to determine that. of course, as soon as i do break through to the water, my hole fills up and it's nearly impossible to enlarge the opening. so i'm stuck with a hole 14" in diameter, 10" deep, with a 2" aperture at the bottom . so i abandoned that and beelined it to the closest guys i could see on the open ice, a couple of older gentlemen another couple hundred meters off. they kindly let me borrow their auger to drill a few holes nearby--i'm happy to be their neighbour, because they've got a bucket of nice perch including one monster that's over a foot for sure.

 

so finally we're fishing--we're a party of three: one's jigging a tiny grub, i'm jigging my jigging rap tipped with a honey worm, and another's jigging a rattling spoon. half an hour passes with no action, not even a hit. our new friends are on their way out, so they leave us with their minnows, which was a pretty nice thing to do. immediately i switch to a dropshot rig--a size 12 red gamakatsu 10" above a heavy jighead/grub (i figure, why not leave open the possibility of a big guy picking this up off bottom?)

this is my first time ever dropshotting, but i've seen the videos and i get the principle. my jighead hits the bottom with a thud and it doesn't take more than thirty seconds before i feel the gentle taptaptap. pause a second, lower the rod tip, and up comes the first perch of the day . i help my partners switch to the same rig, and soon we've got a few on the ice. a live minnow worked best, but i landed a few with a headless minnow too. just needed a little gentle jiggling.

 

three hours total i think, and we managed to land a dozen decent perch. i know these numbers are far from impressive, but i was satisfied with our first outing at this game. next time i'm going to be closer in: we were in 40ish fow, with very little vegetation. the perch moved through, but they weren't really there. looks like i'll be buying an auger

[castgame]

 

 

 

 

 

[Dozer]

now, i don't own an ice auger, so here was my plan: i'd brought a hatchet, and i was just going to bust through some of the old leftover holes from throughout the week. well, you probably know how that ended up. a lot of wandering around looking for traces of old holes with no luck, so i just settle in to hack through the 5"-8" of reported ice. yeah, that was last week--ice is a solid 10" now, and it took me probably 20mins to determine that. of course, as soon as i do break through to the water, my hole fills up and it's nearly impossible to enlarge the opening. so i'm stuck with a hole 14" in diameter, 10" deep, with a 2" aperture at the bottom .

 

Great report and great read.

Edited January 15, 2010 by Dozer

[Skud]

Thanks for the report. I great lesson to start things off. You will nail them next time.

[Terry]

sounds like a good day on the ice

 

buy an auger and get out again

[johnnyb]

Great report!! nice to see that you found some fish...I'm sure you're sold on buying an auger now You would think that it would be easy to find old holes...but with a steady breeze out there, they can be covered in less than half an hour and you'd never find them.

Hope we see another report from you soon