TOPIC:

DNR set spring lake trout nets at 4 sites in the tri-state area, from 55 to 120 feet. Retrieved  them yesterday,  and caught quite a few lake trout (maybe 50% wild fish), a few whitefish, a couple burbot, and lots of perch, especially in the 55-75 foot range, although we did catch a few out in 120 feet. Perch spawn is in full swing, with males ripe and running and females about ready to drop eggs. 

Beautiful day out there after the fog burned off. 

Speaking of fog, it was pea soup out there and while we stationary and pulling our first net, a small fishing boat almost T-boned us, coming maybe 25-50 yards from us on a collision course. Thankfully we saw them on radar at the last second and sounded the horn as they came into view. They made a crazy Ivan and barely avoided hitting us or the net. Hope they didn't lose any equipment from tangles. 

IF you don't have radar, please be EXTRA careful out there in the fog! It was one in a million chance that 10 miles offshore another boat would be out in that exact spot and that it'd be on a direct collision course. But even long shots happen. 

Cool pics, watched you guys heading out from the pier. That fog was pretty crazy late morning. Saw the Purdue boat going out with the buoy shortly after you. They barely made past the house before their first near miss with another boat.

Great to know every nature perch in the lake isn’t on the Gary flats trying to do their thing. The haystack gets pretty big when you’re looking at those depths!

Yeah we caught probably the most mature perch I've seen in this survey, going back more than a decade. There were clay balls in some portions of the net with the most perch, so where we caught a bunch was a spot similar to the Gary perching grounds

 

No radar can make it pretty scary.......

I bet there were a lot of migrating warblers in the drink that day. I remember one foggy day a few years ago when I was hosting seven of them on my boat by the end of the trip, including one who thought it was a pirate's parrot and set on my shoulder all the way back to shore.  

Here is one from a few years ago.  He decided he was going to be on Steve's hat for quite some time.