TOPIC:

I learned some new things perch fishing this weekend that hadn’t picked up on in 30 years so far of doing it…

First, is trolling RIGHT through packs of boats with your trolling motor dragging perch rigs as if they were lindy rigs a thing now?  I found it interesting that there’s definitely no boundaries with these guys, as I had multiple boats come less than 10ft from me as they dragged their rods over the sides, paying no attention to where my lines were, or if I was casting out away from my boat and letting it sit, etc.

Does catching a fish that everyone sees automatically mean boats come running over to you to spot lock on the pod of fish you are catching?  The quote of the weekend for me when asked why someone was so close "but my spot-lock is on bro??"  Classic.

Does anyone realize you can’t anchor and block the port harbor mouth entrance to where boats can’t get in and out?  That might be the highlight of the weekend for me, watching these morons fish 5ft from one another blocking the ditch entrance as huge cruisers come plowing by.  Absolutely no common sense whatsoever, not to mention courtesy for boats coming in/out – let alone, the shore anglers too. Navigation-wise, I definitely don’t think it’s legal or allowable as well, but that’s a coast guard question.

Now onto the fishing report of course...which is the good stuff.  Nothing any different than all the others have been saying: it was good all weekend outside the mouth of the ditch and further west, and fishing varied day to day depth wise from 12 to 25ft.  Only thing I can say is start early: best fishing seems to be that first hour from 4:45 am on...

Oh and if anybody else saw any perch jerking nonsense this weekend, by all means please chime in accordingly.
 

I see this behavior all the time - spot lock is awesome but have a little respect .You also have to love the moron that thinks the harbor mouth is a good place for a stand up paddle board!! This is why I ran out to 150' Sunday instead of perch fishing.

People have no respect anymore,getting worse all the time, weekends on lake also more people with no respect or common sense.

Their lack of common sense shows up at all the launch sites also!!

Your comments are great and hopefully people read them and use common sense.  None of this is new but based on location and an ultra-hot bite, things have gotten a little nutty from what I have seen.  Its a shame that so many anglers have a lack of respect.  I for one cannot stand combat fishing.  Why people would congregate like that stacked on top of each other is beyond me.  The perch are here in droves from Portage to MC and beyond.  The water temps have been perfect for a significant amount of time.  The boats having a really good time are all alone catching more, bigger, and faster than the stacked boats  - just have to do a little work on your own and find them.

Hey guys first post here great forum, I totally agree with whalerman as we fished close to each other. We started in the dark and myself did fish at the mouth ( off to the side and before most others came out). We were catching fish but moved on as soon as “the fleet “ started coming out… not due to lack of fish just out of respect for others. I did observe the exact thing as I had a guy run my line over and cut me off, when I told the gentleman he had run my line over he said “ I have my spot lock on now “ and there went my rig in his motor. I was pretty mad so we left the madhouse and went on to catch bigger faster and nobody around just as dirty said. Great site! Everyone be safe out there!!

Glad you got your first post in.  Good luck out there!