Early XMAS perch

[MoreTroutPls]

Went to a local pond for a quick XMAS eve morning at a warm water pond.  Set up four traps and did some jigging.  The morning started slow/dead, so we moved to a different spot on the pond and tried again.  Had some better results with fat perch.   

The first was caught jigging a pimple clone with meal worms. The second was on a shiner set on a Nor'Easter.  Both fought hard and were thought to be bass, but fooled us all.  Both were released to continue the blood line.   


Jigged perch


Nor'Easter perch

[skidoofisher]

nice looking perch and thumbs up on the catch and realease!

[fishingeek]

Nice perch!

[THE JIGGER]

Nice
 Merry Christmas

[fishermantim]

I hit a pond in Wayland on Friday mid-morning and got fish on shiners and worms.
Shiners got me a crappie, pickerel and a good 3-4lb. bass.
Worms allowed me to jig up a bunch of sunfish, white perch and yellow perch.

I hit the same pond on Xmas day and got a few more of the same!

Sunday I hit a pond in Westwood and using ONLY worms I jigged up over a half dozen good sized sunfish.

I'm ready for a good haed freeze!

[jonserfish1]

nice big fish

[lavaman]

alright charlie first fish on the noreasta. i set mine up the other day but it was at the end of the day and didn't get anything. how did the rubber line grip work? did the fish have any problems triggering the trap?

[MoreTroutPls]

alright charlie first fish on the noreasta. i set mine up the other day but it was at the end of the day and didn't get anything. how did the rubber line grip work? did the fish have any problems triggering the trap?

The flag trip is very sensitive and very low resistance.  I've had at least five flags on the Nor'Easter and three hook ups.  One flag trip did not have a line release and the fish was gone.  I'm experimenting with how deep I put the line into the rubber line grip slot.  I'm putting the line in at a 45 degree angle inserting the line deep into the bottom of the slot and having the line exit at the vertical midpoint of the slot.  That way the fish can pull the line down and out of the slot.  I'm three for three with flags and hookups since I started using this method. 

I think I had one pop and drop because the line was frozen into the skim ice in the hole.  Since then, I have been careful to skim the holes often so that the line does not freeze into the ice and give resistance to the initial run.  I'm planning to do a hole cover to keep the line from freezing into the skim ice.

I've had one case of a flag and line release but no hookset.  In that case, I had the reel set for low drag and the hook failed to set.  Since then I have switched to an open bail allowing no drag resistance or rod pressure to a running fish.  I'm experimenting with leaving the bail open and a loop of line captured under a rubber band to keep the wind from blowing the line off the reel.  When the flag trips, the fish can pull the line out from under the band and feels no other resistance.  So far, it has fooled two bass and a perch. 

Charlie

[JBERT]

Those are some jumbo perch in my book, well done.

[lavaman]

thanks for doing all the leg work and reporting on it. my only concern was that line holder. what if there was some sort of lubricant in there like some baby oil or veggie oil? the loose line is a problem that i didn't think of. what type of line are u using. i'm was gonna try it with some super braid but i'm afraid water might freeze in the line. what about floro?

[MoreTroutPls]

thanks for doing all the leg work and reporting on it. my only concern was that line holder. what if there was some sort of lubricant in there like some baby oil or veggie oil? the loose line is a problem that i didn't think of. what type of line are u using. i'm was gonna try it with some super braid but i'm afraid water might freeze in the line. what about floro?

I'm using 4# mono and will stick with it.  I'd be reluctant to try braid or floro as I hear that floro tends to coil up in cold weather and braid absorbs water and freezes.  Getting water in the slit might cause the line to freeze in the slit and not release. 

I've thought about adding a bit of lube but want to stay as built if I can.  I'd rather not have to carry more stuff when I go fishing. 

I'm hoping that some really big fish will not have any problem pulling the line off the holder.   

[drl823]

WTG Charlie....now if you could only teach Scott how to catch those!!!!! Love those Nor'Easters. Looking forward to sharing some ice with you this year.

Don

[miked]

nice perch