White perch are biting for early season fishing fun

“Christmas morning dawned bright and clear, but I wasn’t there in the house to see it. I was down by the duck pond, with Mickey shivering beside me. I had clean forgot to look under the Christmas tree.” — Robert Ruark, "The Old Man and The Boy."

“Everybody took sick but me.” — Robert Ruark, "The Old Man and the Boy."

Not to inflame sufferers of pink eye (pardon the pun) or somehow run afoul of the “Pink Eye Awareness Association,” but I figured a pink eye diagnosis with a 70-degree day in the offing was downright providential. And, besides, I was pretty sure I just had allergies.

My doctor took a quick look and confirmed the school nurses’ diagnosis: Pink Eye.

“So let me get this straight, doc,” I asked, squinting at my general practitioner. “All I have to do is stay away from the kids and not infect them?”

“That’s right, Cap,” he chuckled as he wrote the prescription. “Just use these and stay away from the kids."

So I figured, hey, what better place to stay away from the kids who are supposed to be in school, and heal pink eye, than to go fishing on a 70-degree day?

To steal from Ron White’s “Tater Salad” skit, “I was wrong.”

I may not have thought I had pink eye in the doctor’s office, but by the next day I was pretty well convinced of it. My eyes looked like one of those old Visine commercials with Ben Stein and burned like seven furies. 

Additionally, I learned, they were pretty sensitive to light and, fortunately, upon finding myself streamside, one frantic search of the truck later I was sans sunglasses, having left them at the house. Life with pink eye, the hard southwest wind blowing right into my face, sun reflecting off of my unpolarized eyes, quickly became a shabby hoax.

The fish bit though. For the first time, real numbers of white perch have started to show.  The fish are, in that charming term used by watermen, “mixy” — meaning of course that they are not all exactly whoppers. 

Fact is some of those silvery devils were so small that I wasn’t sure if my conjunctive eyes were actually “seeing” them right. 

There have been plenty of keepers as well, with the bulk of them falling in the 8-10 in class. Grass shrimp has been the top perch producer, but small minnows and even worms are working. Many sharpies prefer to use blood worms in the spring because of the increased scent over many other choices.

Tide is very important in most types of, well, TIDAL fishing and white perch are no different. During the early season such as this, the ebb tide is often the most productive as it offers slightly warmer water temperatures.

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Wind direction, too, plays a role. Ironically those southwest winds that usher in warmer weather can actually work against success, as they roil up the water and decrease water clarity.

Phillips Landing is a perennial first choice for early season perch anglers, producing plenty of fish every year. I’ve always found that the ‘top of the tide” works the best here as the harder the current runs the tougher the fishing.

No matter where you try for early season perch it’s a fun time of the year to fish. The fish have firm white filets and are a treat on the table. So get on out there and give it a shot.  Spring is right around the corner!

Reports, questions or comments to captjackrodgers@comcast.net