Perchapalooza 2012

There are certain species that are overlooked as game fish.  Personal experience tells me that sometimes you can have just as much fun catching those as you can the others.  Zac and I headed to Carey on Monday to put this theory to the test, and it didn't disappoint.  Our original plan was to target Bluegills.  We had heard reports of delicious fish dinners, so we showed up with lots of nymphs and a couple of buckets.  We definitely found the gills, but after about 50 landed, all of which were too small to keep, we switched strategies.  I tied on a bugger in hopes of finding some bigger gills, or possibly a bass.  Instead of a nice Bluegill or a lurking bucket mouth I hooked up on nice Perch on back-to-back casts.  At this point it was all over for the whoreds of Perch waiting anxiously for a well presented (or a poorly presented) bugger.  They came to hand on just about every cast.  We released far more perch than we kept, but we each went home with plenty of meat for some land locked fish tacos.  We also tied in to a couple of large mouths towards the end of the day, which was an added bonus.  Many don't consider the mighty perch a formidable foe, but I promise you after a good day of perching you'll be sore from extreme laughter.  Here are a few shots of the carnage and the end result.