Thread: Perch demise

Went with my buddy, Harry, to pester the perch at Murray today. We thought about going to Wateree after Remus said he put 140 in the boat last week, but the threat of high winds and rain made us decide to stay closer to home. Clouds Creek area is pretty sheltered from the wind, even though it can still blow there too.
We started marking fish time we launched so we dropped minnows and started catching fish right away. We steadily picked up 1 or 2 fish every few minutes until about 10 when it slacked off. Harry had marked a spot on this DF where he had caught some last week so he handed me the remote for the IPilot and said see if you can find it while I answer the phone. I slowly worked my way out into the middle of the cove and just as the GPS showed that I was on top of his mark I said "We are here" and 4 rods went down at once I had 2 on one rod and one on the other while Harry did the same up front. Before I could get the fish off, my 3rd rod went down with 2 fish on it. It was bedlam for about 5 minutes and then it quit just as suddenly as it started. We were anchored (with the IPilot) on the spot so I know we did not drift off the fish so where did they go?? I can only guess we intercepted a school that was headed elsewhere, but it was fun for a few minutes. I sent Harry home with around 40 nice size perch and we probably threw back about 15 or 20 (sorry Tim).
Here is a cooler shot which is all I had time to take. That is a 90 qt. cooler just for reference.



The water temp was steady at 62* so it has not cooled down enough to push the big schools in as yet.

Thanks for the report Ray! Good to see yall got into them. My coworker Stanley is a perch jerker extraordinaire. Stanley and his brother will flat load the boat this time of year. Usually plenty to be had on Clarks Hill on the sides of the Savannah River between Hwy 378 bridge and say as far north as mouth of Fishing Creek. No real secret, the SC side usually better. Probably one of those trips it would be great to introduce a kid to fishing. Schools of small stripers come up with the perch too. The times I've gone with him he starts with minnows, catches a few, then cut strips of the white belly meat for bait. The belly meat matches the small bait the perch are spitting up to a Tee! Stays on very well, very tough. I think it fishes just as well as the minnows, but you don't have to rebait nearly as often. Small Berry spoons work good too if no minnows to just get started. Any one on Murray fish with the belly meat?