I had not been fishing since I was out in Oregon the first of September, so my buddy Harry and I went up to Clouds Creek this AM to see if the Perch or Crappie had moved in.
We had no more than got in the water and our DF was lit up. It looked like this all morning, but the results were not what you would expect.
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Caught a nice perch right off the bat, then started catching little ones that were throw backs. I know, keep'em and kill'em but I did not have anyone wanting catfish bait or garden fertilizer so back they went. I probably caught the same one 5 times if the truth was known. Least he got a full belly.

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This was one of about a dozen we kept for the pan.

We saw some fish breaking water and thought maybe it was Stripers and we motored over and I threw a Pencil Popper, which is about 7" long into the fray and got a hit. I set the hook and felt something then thought it got off. But something was still on so I reeled in and this is what I had.

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I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but this rascal was about the same length as the plug and he managed to get all 3 of the hooks on the treble in his mouth. Course you can't keep small ones now so I tried best I could to release him unharmed. Not an easy task with all three hooks in his mouth which was hardly big enough for the hook to even go in. I give him credit for ambition anyway. I think I got him back in OK and he will live to fight another day.

We proceeded to feed these little boogers the rest of our minnows. They were mixed in with the White Perch, being 1st cousins and all, so that is part of the reason we only had 12 Perch in the well.

It was good to be back on the water and see the fish were moving into the creeks again. Hope to find a few crappie at Secession next Saturday.