In recent years the best fishing has been from July through the Fall. Water fluctuations in the Spring have really hurt the May crappie fishing. We still catch crappie and smallmouth in May but it's been a lot of fishing for a little action.
Hooper, I took your advice about the Gulp Minnows. Didn't need them this day but what a great bait when the bite is tough in the summer.
So July/August is still good despite the heat?
In July the crappie have recovered from the stress of trying to spawn with unstable water conditions and are schooling up and feeding. Around mid-August the bluegill school up and it's a good time for a mixed catch with mostly bluegill. That holds up through September then in October we'll start catching more crappie than bluegill and the perch start showing.
I found out this spring, that the gulp leeches work well for walleyes, too. I also used them in my private lake and caught some 9-inch bluegill on them.
Coyotes are a piece of cake. I like catching perch but they are a pain to clean. I would rather clean a few walleye or pike.
Ya that would make it easier. That perch skin is tough. Do you fillet then debone or leave the ribs on the carcass. A couple years ago when I was in a perch area that’s how I started doing mine
