Author Topic: Gill, Perch & Gar (Read 2144 times)

ZRWHAT · « **on:** Jan 17, 2011, 08:13 AM »

1/13/11 7-11PM, Private Lake Kosciusko Fished a private lake Thursday after work, didn't actually get on the lake until 7pm. For whatever reason we always do good at this lake in the dark for big gills and crappie. We were fishing the bottom edge of a break from 7-17ft. We were always marking fish but they were hitting it so light that we missed quite a few. Ended up with 30 nice gills from 8-8.5" with my biggest of the year so far at just a touch over 9".

1/15/11 8-4PM, Wawasee Didn't have much to do on Saturday so I planned on trying to locate a few perch on Wawasee and then head to the Snowmobile Races on Syracuse. Walked out of the house and it almost felt warm with little to no wind. Stopped to pickup some spikes and once on the West end of the lake realized it was going to be a very windy day on lake. The plan was to setup in an area I knew the perch would be coming through and play the waiting game (too cold and windy to hole hop for me). Got the otter setup with all of the wind supports locked in place which was the first time it had really been tested. Worked great in the 20+mph wind on Wawasee, I was surrounded by snow drifts when I decided to call it quits. Ended up getting setup a little after 8, had the camera setup so I could see both jigs and the flasher was on to catch anything swimming higher in the water column (Fishing 17FOW). I caught a few small perch here and there until the first big school came through around 9. I had two rods going one with a Yellow/Black Dot Fiska & the other with Chartreuse Pimple w/Nils Chain. For the most part they fish were fighting for the jig, but some of the bigger fish were very cautious if I let the jig sit (They would almost always hit it if I was constantly pounding the jig). Caught 20+ in a couple minutes of which 15 or so decent size fish 8-10" in the first school. The second school came through about 9:30 and had mostly larger fish in the 10" range, wish I would have taken a picture or video of the camera screen but I was too busy pulling them out of the hole. Around 10:30 the last school came through and were also decent fish nothing I would consider a jumbo but good eaters. A buddy called to see if I was headed to the races and told him I was doing pretty good on the perch and was going to see if another school or two would come through, he showed up just before noon and we didn't see another perch until 3:30. In all I ended up with 38 Perch from 8-11", not the greatest picture I tried to take one while I was in the blowing wind.

Having both the camera and the flasher helped pass the time when the perch were swimming circles. I had a couple huge catfish fly through, then a school of what looked somewhat like carp but were all in the 5lb range and were dark skinned schooled from 5ft to the bottom at 17ft there had to be a hundred fish. Then I started to see fish on the flasher moving through very slow at about 5ft. I would pull my jig up but no interest until I got out of my chair and looked down the hole I realized they were gar. Every couple minutes I would have multiple gar swimming directly under my holes. Once the snow had melted off the top of the ice in my shanty I could watch them swim through. So being bored out of my mind I decided to take out the tipup rod and throw a spoon on to see if I could catch one. Ended up catching probably the smallest one I had seen all day, but still was the first Gar I had landed through the ice. I did release it back down the hole, if anybody knows how to fish for these I can tell you were there are a bunch of them! Notice the marcum camera panner froze in place, I've got to do some work on it now.

1/16/11 8-11AM, Wawasee Thought I would try it again Sunday morning before the football games started. Same spot and 9-9:30 rolled around and not a fish in sight. Since the wind was down I decided to hole hop and found a few perch here and there but nothing of any size or quantity. Packed it up and headed to the house to clean the gills and perch.

Globalwarming · « **Reply #1 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 08:26 AM »

ZRwhat

Great report. Nice set of perch. I really liked the picture of the gar...you dont see them very often. BTW...have you ever caught a carp through the ice, unintential or otherwise?

jimmycrown · « **Reply #2 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 08:28 AM »

nice catch.having a camera is definetly a must

ZRWHAT · « **Reply #3 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 08:28 AM »

No carp, have seen a few swim by in the camera but they never show any interest.

High Tide · « **Reply #4 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 09:39 AM »

Nice mess of perch, and great gar... Told my wife it's time to make a stringer mount, and a smaller gar will be included, they just look cool.

Flattop · « **Reply #5 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 09:45 AM »

Nice pics and good report, thanks.

Joe

blueultra2 · « **Reply #6 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 10:01 AM »

Nice mess of perch ZR! I've enjoyed reading your reports that you've posted this season. So which camera do you have? That be somehing that my Son would like to use.

If you need some help on the perch patrol you know who to call.

South33 · « **Reply #7 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 10:03 AM »

Man! That gar looks like a fun fish to catch! Pike are the closest thing we have to those here in NW MT. Good Fishin'!

spring bobber · « **Reply #8 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 10:23 AM »

Looks like you had a lot better luck finding perch on saturday than we did.

That wind was brutal!

Nice job

river_scum · « **Reply #9 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 10:35 AM »

great report and pics. :thumbsup:on the gar catch. i have never caught one through the ice either.

icemantwo · « **Reply #10 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 10:37 AM »

Nice catch

ZRWHAT · « **Reply #11 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 12:07 PM »

Thanks guys!

Blue it's a Marcum VS-820, last years model. I had an Aqua-Vu Scout II but they only run about 2hrs. before they drain the battery. The 820 has an 8" LCD screen and I had it running Saturday from 8AM-4PM without an issue. They are pretty expensive new but if you watch Ebay you can find used in the $300 range. And like all of the Marcum equipment they are made for ice fishing, screen collapses and the case velcros shut that makes it easy to store/carry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EytmYt_hjQ

hotdog · « **Reply #12 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 12:10 PM »

nice mess

wax_worm · « **Reply #13 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 01:59 PM »

Nice pile!! Looks like a bunch of nice males there! Too bad those suckers don't stay put longer when they finally come in! Many years ago in the fall we were in that same area in our boat with our aquavu and marked a huge school of something. We dropped the camera and there were 100's of gar in every direction. I have never seen so many fish of that size in one area. They must live in that area of the lake. If you could figure out how to get them to bite, they would be fun to catch!

mroy44 · « **Reply #14 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 04:04 PM »

Wow nice gar. never seen one ice fishin

Ice Sergeant · « **Reply #15 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 04:21 PM »

Gar...FUN!!

Fishslayer81 · « **Reply #16 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 04:57 PM »

Nice mess o' perch and bonus gar lol!!

abishop · « **Reply #17 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 05:23 PM »

Them perch taste GOOD.

Hog Daddy · « **Reply #18 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 06:47 PM »

Neat pics and journal . Never thought I'd say this...but that gar is quite beautiful with it's spots and all. I have some distant neighbors with noses that long.

HHD

FelixD · « **Reply #19 on:** Jan 17, 2011, 09:50 PM »

looks like a good day on the ice!

News:

Author Topic: Gill, Perch & Gar (Read 2144 times)