I arrived at my destination at around 3:00 on June 21. I launched from swan bay and quickly had my little boat fired up and was running at a good clip on my way out to garden island. The water was pretty choppy from the wind so i wasnt running wide open. When I arived at the island i went straight for the tree that is laying down through the lillies out into the lake. I noticed a pair of bald eagles following me into my fishing spot, they landed in a near by tree and had their eyes peeled on me not the water. This strip of the island is sheltered from the wind pretty good and it was pretty calm there. I started off using a white 1/16 oz jig and right away was catching and killing squaws and throwing them overboard. as soon as the fish would float about 40 feet away from the boat there would be a loud whoosh and a small splash and one of the eagle was flying off with its next meal. I caught and killed at least 50 squaws and released a few cutthroat trout, bull heads, small perch and a few 4-6 inch large mouth bass. But i wanted to catch some of the big perch that i was told were in this lake. So I started switching colors on jigs and found that i was catching more fish with a red body with a glow tail. As the day was about over I decided i wanted to keep a few perch and kept 3 nice ones around 9-10 inches.
I awoke to the beaver slaming his tail on the water at 4:15 and after about 20 minutes of that i had enough and decided that instead of laying on the ground in my sleeping bag i should be out on the lake catching fish. Within 10 minutes i was fishing. I realized then that if you want to catch JUMBO PERCH you need to be up EARLY!! I hooked a monster and it got off, but i didnt let it get me down. I kept at it and it payed off! I caught this 12 1/2 incher in about 20 foot of water about 30 feet away from the pads draggin bottom using a jig. I ended up keeping 8 fish all together the smallest was 9 inches I killed Probably 250-300 squaws, too bad they dont pay you to kill em in here i would be rich!!! I did end up hooking something BIG out in deep water trying to duplicate the big perch but it shook the hook. I am told there are 10+ lb squaws in here and I know there are big bass.
This lake is kind of creepy. I heard of a few people drowning in this lake, and i can see how! It is a huge lake and if the weather turns bad you can be in a lot of trouble if you have a small boat or canoe. I would have done a little more exploring but everywhere to the south of garden island was pretty nasty and i didnt feel like fighting the wind.