It's Too Bad We Weren't in a White Perch Tourney Today

Had we been, there's at least an even chance we would have finished in the money. Neither Rob nor I were keeping track of how many white perch we boated, but it was a bunch, and many of them were nice size. It's been ages since I recall catching that many white perch while in pursuit of largemouth bass.

As you can see from these pictures, though, we also caught some bass. In about six hours of fishing, Rob boated these two, plus six more, all on a crankbait.

And while we neither one could scurry up a single fish on a topwater lure early this morning, Rob picked his up again around noon, and in very short order, had boated two decent crappie on the bait. He also had a couple other fish make a pass at it but miss or come unbuttoned.

Considering how slowly our day started this morning, I don't think either of us expected to end up with the kind of day we ultimately had.

When we launched this morning, I immediately ran to Straight Creek, where we wore out both shorelines with our topwater baits but to no avail. The fish just weren't having anything to do with those baits, even though they kept chasing baitfish. When the topwaters didn't work, we started running through a whole litany of lures but, again, with nothing more than a couple of half-hearted strikes that didn't yield a single fish.

We decided to run to the back of Albright's to see if maybe we could find some on the wood there. That idea, too, however, was a waste of our time. It was then we decided to check out a couple other areas in Albright's, and one of those proved to be a good choice. For reasons I think most folks will understand, we're not divulging where that area is located--not now, anyway.

If you get the impression that I was slower than Rob in getting started this morning, you're absolutely right. While he was putting bass and white perch in the boat, one after another, I still was trying to find my stride. My best efforts for a good while yielded only two pickerel and two grindle, and one of those grindle--about 5 or 6 lbs. worth--was a real handful. Rob even felt him for a minute, 'cause he volunteered to snap the grips in its mouth, and when he did, the fish tried to yank his arm off. As I was releasing that ornery critter, I made the comment to Rob that it likely would be my only big fish of the day.

Little did I know that, before all was said and done, I would hang this 4-7 bass on the same crankbait that had tricked the grindle and pickerel. I honestly thought for a few seconds that I had hung another big grindle when I got this fish because he was shaking his head underwater just like the grindle had done. As he crossed the boat's bow, though, and started down the port side, I saw the telltale stripe and asked Rob to get the net.

I ended today's outing with four bass--all keepers--with this being the biggest. All but one of Rob's bass also were keepers, so we would have been doing some culling  if we had been in a tournament. I also had my share of white perch and boated one bluegill before we quit.

I feel pretty certain that I speak for both of us when I say we were very happy with the overall results today. I think we both also learned a lesson or two that will help guide us in future pursuits on the water.