Fish like its October…Pay the devil later.

A light dusting of snow flurries and then gone. This has been the story for things east of the continental divide. On the one hand I savor mornings in December where the roads are not covered with ice but in the back of my mind desperation for precipitation grows. The longer we go without a few heavy winter snows puts more pressure on the water situation.

I don’t control the weather. Good, bad or ugly I try to fish through whatever comes my way. Now things are sunny and mostly mild depending on the day making it look more like October than December. Weather like this presents an open window for small pond action. Without more snow later in the year these ponds will be hurting.

(Above: As evident from the look on my face, I was expecting the perch to be a few inches bigger.)

One such small pond has an abundance of perch. So many perch in fact that they may be overcrowding and stunting themselves. This stunting results in smaller fish year after year. Yellow perch are a species of fish that tolerate colder temps very well and are fairly active in December months. One or two casts and I wish that I had brought a bucket.

Weighted curly tail jigs in the 1/16oz size run slowly on the bottom received constant hits. Color choice didn’t seem to matter as they hit green, black and white variations as I tried to dial in some of the larger perch. Nothing fancy just let it drop to the bottom. Slow troll the jig and the hits just keep coming.

(Above: Me and the tooner rolling off a pond that is typically frozen over this time of year. Toonin’ in December? )

All in all it wasn’t a bad day. Any day on the pontooner is a worthwhile adventure especially in December. But it was not the “big perch splash” that I sought out to find. These perch have stunted and there was plenty that I could have done about it over the years. Anglers are often quick to point fingers at management when something isn’t perfect rather than improve the things they as anglers control. In retrospect I have no one to blame but myself.

“I should be taking these perch out by the bucket load!” My voice grumbled while rolling the tooner out. “Without some moisture…I might lose these ponds altogether.”

My name is Matt and I’m a fishaholic.