Big Jumbo Perch on Lake Simcoe, ON.
Posted on December 31st, 2010[nggallery id=401]My wife Barbara, my daughter Patricia and our pup Mulligan decided to take advantage of the mild weather and headed up for the last fishing trip of 2010. We met our friend Tom and Dave when we arrived in Pefferlaw, ON and headed onto the ice with his Argo. The ice was very uneven heading out and there was lot’s of water on the ice. We traveled about 1-mile out and started jigging in about 24′ of water and immediately started catching smaller perch. The wind picked-up and the fishing was not hot, but we managed to catch several big, jumbo perch. Tom and Dave had been fishing for quite a few days in the same areas and reported catching lot’s of really big perch. I have a feeling that the sudden change in weather put some of the bigger jumbos off.
Besides catching a bunch of perch for a fish fry, I was also keen on testing some of the new Rapala R-Type Ice Fishing Combos (pages 68/69), that come loaded with Sufix Ice Magic line. I was very impressed with their action, bite-detection and smooth-drag spinning reels. I caught most of my fish on the Jigging Rapala W4 in silver/black back and chartreuse colors. I changed the sizes on the bottom treble to a larger size and added a small orange or yellow bead as an attractor. The combination worked great.
If you are planning on going out to Lake Simcoe, use common sense, especially with this mild weather. The ice surface is melting fast and only fish areas that you know are safe. Where we were, the ice was about 15″ thick, but as soon as you start heading further out over deeper water, the ice thickness is much thinner.
