Perch and smelt

[spot]

We caught a couple of stringers full of perch today, some very big ones- there were both white and yellow intermingled near bottom in about 70 feet of water not far from Swift's Point.

After dark we went deeper and baited up with eyes and cheek slabs and found the smelt suspended about 80 feet down over about 300 feet of water. Anchoring wasn't possible so we were drifting with heavy sinkers. The bite was strong over about a half mile area, so we found a big school. My son also brought up two lakers from the smelt field and I landed a nice walleye.

It was a good day/evening.

I'm thinking that the biologists are right in that the smelt are still there, but they've moved off the points and reefs where the alewives have taken up residence and are now in the open water. It makes them a challenge to find and given the depths involved even more challenge to catch, but I love smelt.

Hopefully there will be good ice this year all the way out so it'll be possible to walk out to them.

[chilly-willy]

Surprised my self we had a huge run of smelt In michigan this year..but I think it over being able to take them from shore... I think like your saying the fish moved deeper cause of the thermocline and cooler water around here oh by the way get a drift scok to slow the drift down to do the jigging if you can...

[dave b.]

Good job Spot, doubt you have much competition for smelt in the summer. No drifting to worry about when you are on hardwater.

[spot]

After dark when we were after the smelt the wind had all but died so the drift was mostly lake current and very slow. The place we chose has an upwelling of current so it's usually productive in the summer. Fish will stack up in the cooler water coming from below and wait for food to go by.

In the winter it can be an iffy spot unless the lake freeze is good and solid.

[spot]

went back out there this evening and caught three lakers, two walleyes and 1 1/2 buckets of smelt. The whitefish were active on the surface right at sunset too, so we brought in three of those as well.

Nice night on the lake.