WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
February 2, 2006

This last week marked the start of Perch fishing for me and many other anglers in the area. I had the opportunity to find some of those huge Winnie Perch. Up to this point, I have been chasing those Walleyes, but now that the Perch have made their way out into the deep wintering holes of Winnie, it will be those Perch for awhile, at least for the next couple of weeks as the Ray's Boat Show is just a few weeks out. As we head into late February and into March the Perch fishing typically gets better by the day. So with better days coming it should be some fun fishing from now until open water.

With the ground hog seeing his shadow, the Winter has an end in sight. Only six more weeks. It sure is nice to see the end in sight.

The last couple weeks have marked some fantastic Perch fishing opportunties here in the Northland. Winnie has shown the deep Perch much more consistently and the size of the fish is impressive. Most of the Perch action is happening on the West side of the lake in that 26-30 foot of water. The fish have periodic feeding windows throughout the day and it seems that continual movement from hole to hole helps keep the action when the bite seems to slow. The best presentation for us is a Lindy frostee jigging spoon tipped with a chub minnow head. Jigging motion in a slow 1-3 foot movements seems to intince more and larger Perch. Keeping that jig 2-3 foot off the bottom typically puts more fish in the bucket.

Perch fishing can be very rewarding, but even the Perch can be a challenge to catch if you're not presentating what thay want and how they want it. So when the bite slows, keep moving and trying new tricks as they will be inticed to eat by something most days.

Ice conditions reamin the same this week. Winnie is holding 17-19 inches of good ice. If we continue to get snow, I would expect all the lakes in the area to become covered with slush making the travel much more challenging.

See ya out there,

Sean Colter
www.seancolter.com
member of the NMLOG's