Simcoe open water perch fishing has started!, they are in numbers and hungry

I tested my boat on Saturday and ran around on a holland river all the way to Cooks only to find lots of ice still in the bay.

Fished for a bit in the river but nadda

Now fast forward to yesterday and I could not take it anymore sitting at home with a +28C in mid April and so off we went in the pm with a buddy to Cooks to try our luck for Simcoe perch

Went off from Keswick side to check how is Mr. Harry doing after a long winter . And he is fine and already pulled out his fancy convertible

it took us about an hour cruising in the Bay at 10 km/h speed in search for perch anywhere between 15-35 FOW but the fishfinder screen was blank - no fish in sight.

We figured the fish has moved shallower in this crazy hot weather and we finally found fish closer to shoreline in 6-9 FOW spread out in older weedbeds and chomping on anything that came in their sight.

We started slamming perch right after we found it and the bite was hot all afternoon till about 6.30-7 pm as the sun started going down .

Caught about a dozen true jumbos at around 12-14" and lots and lots of good medium sized and smaller sized perch

...

Buddy has big hands
But his perch was still a decent pounder

Set up was modified drop shot rig with a 1/8 jig with a 2" plastic minnow on the bottom instead of a weight

most jumbos were caught on a bottom jig.

White colour tubes or plastics was the ticket for bigger perch in slightly stained coloured water (we did not use live bait)

Took home lots of perch and before some folks jump to judging about a number of perch taken I would like to say the following:

1) We took home less than our allowed legal limit of 50 perch each.

2) We gave away most of the fish to some of our friends who are not so fortunate to be able to fish now and going through some difficult times.

3) I left 9 perch for myself for a fry.

4) i usually go out about 4-5 times a year for perch on Simcoe and take home no more than around 50-60 perch overall a year.

Now go get them- there plenty of fish for everyone but stay safe and be careful as the water is still cold.

Excellent report as always. Still can't believe this weather. What a week to go fishing in the spring. Beautiful colours on those perch you guys caught. And very nice of you to pass some on.

Thanks, CM.

Yeah, it was so warm and the blowing SW/W wind was so hot that it felt like we were somewhere is Southern US in a desert and not in mid April on Simcoe.

Everyone I talked to do not remember such a crazy hot weather in mid April here.

Now my perch fishing is likely done till September/October so i can move to fishing Spring Kawartha pike and hopefully some crappies

Nice, the lake is calling me…

I am surprised you didn't jump in for a quick dip in that heat. LOL. We set some records this week for hottest April days. My crappie fishing is over I am leaving them alone now to spawn in two weeks or so. Waiting and watching the moon for the best nights for me to fish for walleye in a month. Good luck on your pike adventures.

We wanted to take a swim but forgot our swimming pants home
All kidding aside the water is still pretty pretty cold although the shallows have warmed up fast.
Pike fishing in Spring is always fun and challenging but I also cannot wait for the walleye opener in May.
Have some big plans for the old spots and some new spots to try this year and have already booked a trip to BOQ with friends for a weekend in June

Nice numbers and size, great haul!
Thanks for the report.

Good Job!Great account of the day, Don't worry about the Karens you did everything text book worthy. If the dogs would stop biting I would be there with you.

Excellent day and thanks for sharing

you don't have to justify your catch imo, but I get it

Well done! What a great haul...

Good for you getting out there in this beautiful weather.

Looks like a lot of fun! Enjoy the meal...

Thanks for the report and fish porn.

PS: Don't worry about Karens on here.

Nice haul of spring perch there