Perch! Perch! Perch! The call from Leech Lake to come up and catch them found Tracy, Duane, and I leaving Cedar Rapids on the 21st while Steve headed up from Sioux Falls. We luckily missed the big snowstorm by a day! Our first day out of Brindley’s found us in one of their ice houses catching mostly tiny perch. We did manage five keepers but wanted MORE! The guides said if we were willing to go “hole hopping” the would put us on bigger fish. We did and pulled our limit of 80 perch by mid afternoon! We were using a heavier spoons with a single hook along with the Clam jig with a chain dropper. Tracy changed out the small treble with a single hook and we all tipped the hooks with minnow heads. Tuesday was cool but the sunshine helped keep our rod eyelets and hands from freezing. Our goal Wednesday was to catch the 75 we needed to fill out our possession limits so we returned to our Tuesday spot. The day was cloudy and cool. Sometimes the fish came quickly and sometimes you had to wait. Tracy and I worked the same hot hole together trading places to get a bait down quickly. Duane wanted “bigger” perch so he culled through many while Super Steve moved around looking for active fish. We were done by 12:30pm!! We had some time to shop at Reed’s before our pizza at Benson’s. We enjoyed our Ice Fishing Outing arranged by Steve and look forward to a repeat. Brindley’s Staff was very helpful and their cleaning our fish was a bonus! Be sure to check out their website and consider some time at Leech Lake yet this season!
