I Got Out . . .

[bogtrotter]

on Burnett's Pond in Savoy from 2 to 5 PM.

It was mostly sunny - - but darn it gets dark early this time of year - - with a light breeze and temps in the upper 20's (just low enough for my holes to start freezing over every so often).

It was hard to tell with the drifting, but there appeared to be about 10" or so of snow on the ground heading down to Pond.

On the Pond itself, there was about 1/2 inch of snow on he surface. Underneath, the ice cover varied. In some sections, there were 4 or 5 inches of solid ice, while other sections were "layered" - - with a thin layer of ice on top of 3 inches of slush over another 3.

I chopped a half dozen or so holes, and set up two tip ups and a dead stick, and cycled between three or four other holes with a jig stick - - all of which I baited with night crawler sections, since (as far as I am aware) my local bait dealer still does not have shiners yet.

Action was fairly slow. I ended up catching nine perch - - one on a tip up, one on the dead stick, and the rest on my jigging rod. I kept the two biggest ones - - both a little over 10". I also lost a pickerel which snapped the ultralight line after striking suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly (since I was targeting perch) on my jig rod.

[bogtrotter]

Sorry, I accidentally "double posted" this item without intending to.

[KillerFish]

Gotta love that early season ice? How do you cook those perch if I may ask?

[SHaRPS]

Another successful trip!

[bogtrotter]

Another successful trip!

Cooking 'em is easy enough . . . dip the fillets in some egg, flour and a little melted butter, and fry 'em.  "Poor man's shrimp" is what I've heard them called serve this way.

The hassle is filleting them . . . which (I willl confess) I am not proficient at. 

A friend of mine can consistently get beautiful butterfly shaped fillets that saves every bit of the "jelly like" meat that's the "good stuff." 

By contrast, when I do it, I end up with dribs and drabs of meat that looks like it's been run through a wood chipper, and (worse yet) fear I lose at least 20% of the good stuff.

I've heard there's a way to cook them without filleting them so fastidiously, but if there is, I don't know what it is.

Cooking trout is definitely a lot easier - - just clean them and cook them with the back bone still in, and then pull the back bone out. (There's some debate whether it's better to keep the heads on to have something to grab when removing the spine. I favor that approach, but I know others who have tried it both ways and claim it really doesn't matter).

[Velcro]

I've gotten the hang of filleting perch, though when I have smaller ones I leave the bone in and clean them like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTlFwQb7D0
I usually pan fry them too, though the ones I leave the bone in are really good baked with butter and dill.

Sounds like a really good trip, perch sounds really good right now, I can almost taste them. I can't afford the gas to travel very far so I'm very impatient for my lakes to freeze over.

[lavaman]

Wtg buddy