Today my main focus was picking up some perch for a fish fry, but before doing so, I decided to check out the 520 bride area for fishability. The number of moored barges and marker buoys in the area has decreased dramatically in the past few months and both the north and south sides had plenty of room to set up a good troll for targeting cutts or kokes. I gave both sides a go and it was the north side that held the fish today. I brought 2 cutts to the boat to be released and lost another good fish before I could snap a pic that was just huge. I think one of the cutts was a hybrid as it looked every bit a rainbow with the exception of the slashes under the gills. I also caught a released 3 kokes that were mixed in with the cutts which is abnormal as they are typically found above the cutts this time of year. As I was fishing with bait, I had caught my 5 so I packed up my trout gear and headed for the weed lines in search of perch.

I found that the perch are plentiful but not of the size that I was expecting. I switched spots several times and had to “sort” through probably 100 fish to pick up a dozen fish over 9”. I was using a rig with 3 hooks, each with a different color plastic grub and they really didn’t seem to prefer one color over the others. Many times I had doubles and even a few triples. By the time I was finished, my hands had multiple punctures and cuts from being a bit sloppy in handling the fish.

The thermocline is set up at right around 45’ but that area also seems to be low on oxygen. I caught all of my trout and kokes between 50’ and 60’ on hoochies and Pro-Troll trout killers. As you get into shallower water, less that 100’, the thermocline will come up, so watch your sonar and adjust your depth accordingly.

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