Back to Perch in Chicago

Mike C (www.Dupageangler.com member mcalla) Called me and asked if I would like to join him on a guided trip to Chicago on Lake Michigan for jumbo perch. His partner had to cancel so I quickly jumped at the chance.

Thinking on perch fishing, I was brought back to my youth powerlining www.powerlining.com for perch on the lakefront with my friends. We would wade creeks the day before catching crawfish and walk the tracks looking for railroad spikes to use as weights. We would arrive at the water in the dark and catch perch all day then go home and clean perch all night.

This was my first time back since I was a kid. We used Captain Ralph Steiger. http://captainsteiger.com/ We left the dock with high expectations for a quick limit.

When we started trolling our spinner rigs tipped with crawfish, we realized that it was not going to be an easy day.

We trolled near Navy Pier at around 1.3 – 2 miles per hour just tapping the tops of the weeds. The fish were there we just had to keep at it. Slowly but surely the fish started coming in. The sight of my first perch over 9 inches in years made me very happy. We caught a pile of dinky fish that had to be released. Capt Ralph said “we are staying out here until we get them.”  These words I was impressed to hear and this showed me that he was a good choice as our guide today. We trolled, talked, laughed, and caught fish. We grinded it out and left the lake with 20 in the box and day full of memories.