Deep Basin Searches!!
Wait For It…
Tis the season to ‘go deep’ and basin fishing is upon us. The Perch bites in 30-50 feet of water are heating up and those are the probable depths where we are going to be staying for the foreseable future. I really enjoy these deep water bites. The biggest schools of Perch we see every year are always found in these deep water areas and today’s school, once we finally found them, was pretty sizable albeit not terribly active; biting wise. We were able to land a little over half of a limit in just under half a day on them so the potential for ‘Perch Limit’ is entirely possible.
We were coming off of a 21-day stretch today and the first day off from clients so we slept in and didn’t get on the ice until after 10. A couple of hours to get on fish in a new search area and we were rewarded for our efforts.
If we would have jsut been fishing with larger lures and larger baits we never even would have known that these fish were there. Tungstens with spikes and the bottom erupted. We caught all but one of these on the two Tungsten at the bottom of the page, the ‘other’ was caught on the Gold Varmint with a minnow head.
Often times these deep water fish will be timid at first and working them into a frenzy is required. Lots of finesse fishing with small lures and smaller baits, spikes and wax worms.
Concentrating our searches on the very last rows of contours before the abyss begins and the first few hundred feet of the edge of the basin. In finger bays, it’s right out in the middle, no contours to play off of, just straight abyss.
Gravel Lizzards!
If Walleyes is your game and you want a little more bang for your buck when it comes to the hook set, this bite is picking up considerably. The Northern Feeder lakes are always going to be a Walleye Destination what with their shallow water and ample Walleye populations. Spots on the main lake are picking up as well and targeting Walleyes in 3-12 feet of water right now can be exhilirating. Absolute ‘rip-the-rod-out-of-your-hand’ action.
I literally had the rod taken out of my hand the other day, didn’t even mark the fish and I was busy chatting away when…
BANG!!
Normally when we are hitting these deep basin bites, we are seeing gobs of blood worms in the mouths of the Perch as their air bladders pop. That hasn’t been the case so far, we are seeing gobs and gobs of shrimp in these fish.
Tools Of The Trade
Lures You Gotta Have Right Now!
Either chasing Walleyes or the initial Perch Search, these are the main tools that we are using right now. While that Gold Varmint is always going to be on one of our rods, those two PK Spoons, in White and Pink/White, have been deadly lately. Two other truly effective lures so far this year have been those VMC Buck Shots in UV Pink and UV Orange.
The last, super aggressive lure, is that larger PK Spoon at the bottom that has landed us some dandy Eyes lately. We tip all of these with a minnow head…
YES, JUST THE HEAD!!!!
When those Perch go dormant or a little negative -or- if you are seeing a glimmer down there but can’t get them to react; size down with these two Tungsten colors tipped with either spikes or wax worms. I prefer spikes but waxies have their day as well.
Good Luck out there!
