Cotton road/selfrige outing.

[Can't Touch This]

We went out to SANG this morning at 7:30. We walked about a mile down in the snow, were a few shanties were and figured t was cotton road. At first, we set up the shanty right in from the pressure crack in 5 FOW, and saw nothing. Then youngguns went out of the shanty to try to find them and he did. He said that 2 11-12 inchers just tooks two of his baits. So we moved the shanty, and saw some perch, caught 1 dink, most were dinks that we saw. There was medium-thick weeds on the bottom. We seen some bass, and a few HUGE 10-12 inch sunfish, but they woldn't hit. Yougguns and fmontie went out of the shanty to find them. Youngguns found them again. This spot was a only about 100 yards from shore, but it was still 5 feet deep, with thick weeds, and lots of perch. Right when i got down there, 3 perch were fighting over my minnow, the 12+ incher sucked it in, i set the hook, but somehow, the hook came out. Then the machines started to come, and the got very finiky. Then, i had to switched to just an unweighted plain hooks/w minnnow. Right away they wree sucking it in, caught 2 9 inchers, but the same thing, the hook would come out of there mouth. We ended up with only 4 81/2 - 10 inch perch, but, if we went to that spot before the machines, we would've gotten around 20. And, we couldn't set the hook, does anyone know why those perch are hard to hook???? It seems they sucked in the whole minnow and hook, i set the hook good, and the hooks would just pop out, this never happened to me before, would've had around 15 more if that wouldn't of happened. The bite was fast at times, alot of exiting moments of seeing jumbos eyeing the minnow. Did anyone do good out there???? Did you have the same problem as us???

[Fidel Casserole]

How large are the hooks? Does the hook have a positive or negative curve? How large were the minnows and where did you hook them?

I would guess that either the perch didn't totally suck the minnow in or you didn't have enough hook exposed. The only other suggestion that I can make is to 'open up' your hook a little bit.

[Lunker]

flatten your barb

[Houghton laker]

fished this morning(sat.) only 3 dinks..could not get them going...made MANY moves..headed out to the left off cotton rd. was about a mile out ....just couldn't get them to bite!....Thinking of trying off metro beach sun. morn..........either there or off harrison twp. park

[Joe_G]

Went out this morning at dawn, put 2 minnows down. Perch would come in for a look, and as they sat there motionless, I dropped a small perch spear on 'em. Picked up 16 decent ones
by my standards, 8 to 10 inchers. 15 speared, 1 took a minnow on an orange teardrop. This is my first year spearing, and it's sweet revenge against the lockjaw frustration....The bite lasted from 7:30 'til 11, then nothing............Good luck fishin'

[statebull]

bend that hook out and away from the shaft a bit and sharpen it. I don't care what kind of hooks I buy, I sharpen them myself and always get it sharper that it came manufactured.

[Hunt4Ever]

I fished from 6:30am to aboput 6:00pm with only 6 keepers. Sizes ranging from 8-10 inches. I got two nice 10's and wish I had more. A 10 inch perch is a nice fish.

All my keepers came from an area north of SANG and only about 200-300 yards from shore. Weeds was the key today. No weeds, no fish.

All came on minnows, smaller minnows. I also used small treble hooks, only had one fish slip the hook set, but I think I got him a few minutes later.

[Can't Touch This]

To fedel casserole: The size of my hook was i believe 8, but maybe 6, it was a long shank, i think a neutral bend(:confused: ) It seemed the bigger minnows would actually scare them away, so i had to use small minnows, which exposed the hook. I had this really small hook that i was going to usse, but i losed it.
To huntforever: Your absoulutly right!!!!! I was in very scarse weeds, fish seen-0, i moved to some thicker weeds, it seems the bass and the gigantic sunfish like those kind of weeds. MOved in the very thick weeds, and the perch were scattered throughout the weedbed. I didn't have those small treeble hooks, i think that would've increased my hooking percentage greatly. If we would've went to that spot in the morning and stayed theere till' evening, we probaily would've got around 30, because the noise level would be down, and then they go into feeding mode. Thanks for the suggestions, i think i'll have to buy a sharpener now, and where can you buy one???

[MSUICEMAN]

hey Hunt4ever, i copied your rig that i saw you using on chemung.... couldn't resist, looked dynamite... also those really small trebles allow the minnow to survive long. unfortunately i didn't have the success that you did on chemung, but i like the rigging. you gonna be fishing the LSC area next weekend? i should be home so maybe i'll meet up with everybody.

Steve

[Spinner]

At SANG I went to about 6 or 7 different areas and none of them had weedbeds. Really wish I knew where those things were. Thats when GPS would come in handy for when I do find those spots.

SPINNER

[catfishtom210]

I also fished SANG yesterday. I had two shanties et up, one in tight in about 4 feet and one closer to the pressure crack in aboy 5.5 feet. (I about had a freaking heart attack draggin all my stuff out! I gotta get a trike or 4 wheeler....or a defribulator!) No weeds in tight, brown weeds out further. I assume when guys refer to weed beds they mean green ones as the dead and decaying weeds don't do anytrhing but provide some cover as they no longer produce oxygen.

It was very slow. I caught 15-20 fish with only 4 going home and 3 of the 4 were in the "I can get a fillet knife through that one" category. The two perch in my aquarium are about the size of the smaller ones. It's amazing how low you'll go when you're not catching that limt or even a meal pack you hoped for! I picked em up off the ice/slush and threw em in my baitbucket. They were all swimming when I went to clean them. I hate cleaning a live fish!

Most of the fish I caught came on two tips I got from members here, mudding the bottom, which brought some fish in almost every time, and letting the bait fall to the bottom so they could vacuum it up! Thanks!

BTW, coming back in was easier as the "taxi" found me after dark and pulled me in, he even waited while I broke down both shanties. I told the guy thanks and mentioned that he must be the guy referred to on this board. He seemed to get a big kick out of that! Super nice guy! He told me he was considering using a ticket system and a pager to make it easier to find those he taxied. I should have mentioned the use of a FRS radio but didn't think of it til later!

Tom

[Can't Touch This]

Well, here are yesterdays catch, will make a snack for us at least.
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/500/4796small_meal.jpg
Here's a good photo of todays action!!!!!
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/500/4796ford_field.jpg
Can't touch this(left) and yougguns(right) first time at ford feild, at the boat and fishing show there today!!! Pretty good show, there seems to be more fishing equipment thean last year, i got myself a good stealhead rod for the spring!!!! Can't wait to use it!!!!

[slowpoke]

Going Wed. @ 7:30 am if weather don't stop me. Anyone else going? I will have radio on ch 8, give me a call. My radio will be inside all my clothes so give me time to get it. cya.