Our season has started and we are starting to fish bluegill and crappies on Hamlin Lake. The first few days produced limits and now we are having to work for them. We are targeting 7-10 feet of water with weeds. A few tricks have been using smaller 3mm Tungsten jigs tipped with two spikes. A problem we are running into is a large number of small perch in the 4-5 inch range…AKA the dreaded “tiger smelt”. If you drill a hole and catch several tiger smelt in a row you should move. You can try fishing a bit higher in the water column but more than likely you will still catch them. If you drill a hole and catch a nice bluegill you may not be on their castle but you should be close to a school of them. Try more holes in the same area. The bite seems to be better in the afternoons so far and the worst fishing by far has been during an east wind.
Our larger lakes that connect to Lake Michigan like Portage, Pere Marquette, and Pentwater have an “up and coming” perch fishery. The last few winters they seem to get better and better each year. We tend to sort the perch, but end up keeping fish only over 9″ and catch them up to 13.5″. We should be able to drive quads and snowmobiles on them by the first week in January this year, about a month earlier than last year. The perch typically love the deepest water in the lakes connecting to Lake Michigan. One of the better methods we have found to catch big perch is to use bigger minnows. Blues and Small Shiners will keep most of the smaller perch off your line, however you will catch plenty of small northern pike. Portage Lake is a nursery for baby Alewives and by using the larger minnows you are “matching the hatch”. The larger minnows are not always the ticket, jigging with Hali type jigs tipped with Larva or Wigglers will catch their share of perch, we have found you will just have more sorting to do. Closer to spring smaller minnows will work good as the adult perch make their way into shallow water to spawn.
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