What a day... started with loading up a couple of rods, my 3700 box with blade baits/jigs/twister tails and some breakfast snacks as I headed to Slez's for some top quality minnows. Richie is the best... Met up with my son, who went to get the boat, and his friend at the Portage marina and we were headed down the ditch by 6:30. There were probably 10 boats out before us based on the number of trailer rigs in the lot. The lake was pretty bumpy with random rollers from the northeast as we headed to the perch grounds north of US Steel. My son has a very capable 19' ranger and I sat in the back admiring his navigation skills as we made pretty good time without getting too beat up. Upon arrival, there was a cluster of maybe 12-15 boats in the area with minn kota's down and most likely on spot lock. Once we were spot locked, a random glance around showed perch being caught by several boats. It did not take long before we joined the crowd with catching and it really did not seem to matter what you dropped down - minnow rig; blade bait; rippin rap- all were successful. We had three men on our boat and had 45 perch is short order. We kept everything we caught because fishing that depth does not allow for a successful release. Nothing was under 10" and we had a couple of 14" perch. The boats were close enough at times for some good conversation and there seemed to be a genuine camaraderie amongst the fishermen. So, with 45 perch in the well, we headed to the warm water discharge at US steel. We were fortunate to be fairly close to the discharge and aside from the deafening, continual noise from the mill, the fishing was outstanding. It seems every trip out, my son teaches me something. I have caught a lot of coho over the years simply throwing a jig/twister but today, I was not hooking up much. He pulls out some snacks for cohos and suggests I tip my jigs and it made all the difference in the catching. Squid, skein, bee moth... If I would have had chewing gum, I might have tried that. So, over the course of the next hour, we caught our 15 coho and several shorts that were successfully released. No huge cohos but definitely 14" and bigger. There were several boats trolling a big circular pattern around the perimeter of the discharge. The ride back home was uneventful as he traveled at a reasonable speed to protect us and his equipment. Once back at the launch, good conversations with other fisherman revealed everyone seemed to have pretty good success. I took my 15 perch and 5 cohos and headed home to the cleaning table. Today was president's day so the grandsons (8 and 6) and grand daughter (3) came by and it wasn't long before we were in the back yard playing catch with the football. I look forward to fishing with them out on the big lake but today may have been a little too bumpy and cold. My wife made the kids blueberry pancakes for dinner and it is really enjoyable to watch those little people chow.
So, get out and have some fun. The big lake is on fire on the right weather days. I am giving away no "big" secrets. Everything I reported, I heard last Saturday morning on Chauncey's outdoor sportshow on ESPN 1000 out of Chicago. Many people know about what I reported so please do not hold it against me for simply sharing what we were fortunate enough to experience today. There is plenty of gratitude to go around. I will also tell you from experience that I could go back tomorrow, if the weather permits, to the same areas and skunk. That's fishing.
