another day chasing perch

Whiskerkev and I spent a BEAUTIFUL Sunday morning chasing perch on Monona. Excellent bite for the first couple hours, but then you had to work hard to get bit after that. Best bite was from right about sunrise until 9:00. We called it a day at noon.

Kevin I stayed huddled in our shacks the entire time as we had about a dozen hole hoppers in the area that weren’t catching fish. They spent all their time going from hole to hole hauling their flashers around. Some days, hole hopping is the best bet, but today was a day that paid to find an area the schools were cruising and stay put.

By finding fish and then staying in one spot, we were able to pick off a couple fish each time the schools passed through. I kept 20 fish in the 9 – 11 inch range, and I think Kevin kept a dozen. Not the biggest perch on the planet, but good sized for Monona.

Was a great day to be out, but it was a pretty wet hike back off the lake.

nice to hear someone has finally got on some decent perch around here. I’ve been out chasing them on Mendota and Monona and had one good day on Mendota. Found em big time on Monona a couple weeks back but couldn’t hardly get bit.

We had the same luck on Monona a couple weeks back. Lots of lookers and no biters. I told Kevin I was done with Monona as we had been doing well on Waubesa, but then Waubesa died out so I decided to give Monona another shot. Turned out to be a good choice.

Monona is neurotic. It seems like a switch goes off and then the fish go nuts for an hour or two and then off again. Being at the right place at the right time is very important there, but also is patience to know your bait is a good one that when they bite, they’ll be voracious and having your deadstick ready doubles your production.

this is by far my worst year on the ice around here. Only been out a few times and with less than stellar results. Bring on the open water

Hey there guys I’m new to the site and just read the post. I was on Monona a lot this year and my best days were around 2/7-2/12. Last time I went there were 30 people by 6a.m. in the area I had been fishing for the last 3 weeks. I’m not one to jump in to the crowd so we spent the morning looking for some different fish and only managed a few. I was hopeing to get back out for 1 more trip but not to sure about the ice since I’ve been spending my time on the river.

Monona has definitely slowed down as of late. The perch have moved shallower. My ice fishing is most likely done now that there is open water relatively close and I can get the boat back in the water. Welcome to the site Duck Corpral.