Arthur 2016

Nice! Hoping I can make the time to get up there sometime in early June. Can't beat a 12 hour day of wading the coves for slab 'Gills, Crappie, and Largemouth. Well, around here, anyway :). Plus hopefully I can finally catch a Wiper this year.

Caught a 25" wiper on a bluegill head Saturday afternoon while fishing for catfish.  Couldn't believe my eyes even after I saw it.
 
 

python73
Limit... you kept FIFTY bluegills?  Hmm.  That should be you kept fifty BLUEGILLS?   Let's puzzle this out though.  You said "caught" and not "kept" and even though the word limit implies harvest, I'm guessing you didn't mean it to.  Also, I can't imagine wading with a stringer of fifty 'gills swimming behind me.  Finally, having cleaned nearly a double limit of crappies one time MANY years ago, if you DID keep a limit of gills and filleted them... you are my hero.  Because no thank you.  Gills are tasty and super fun to catch but they are near the top of my "you can fillet those but not this guy" list.  :)

Yup, kept a limit! I keep a limit or 2 every spring so I can have some in the freezer when I want some through the year, then I'm mostly c&r unless it's something really nice.

I also caught my biggest ever Largemouth, 19 inches, on a 1" jig, 4# line, 5' ultra light Ugly Stik. Figures, cause I almost never catch legal largemouth on Arthur when their season is open, but it was still a blast to catch.

By the way, I use the filet method that leaves the skin on the carcass and the guts there too. Just cut behind head, then along spine and over ribs, down to tail leaving just a week flap of skin holding to the body. Then, slice the meat from the skin.

No gutting, no scaling, few bones to deal with, and once I get going each fish takes less than a minute.

luvinbluegills

Divemaster
Nice! Hoping I can make the time to get up there sometime in early June. Can't beat a 12 hour day of wading the coves for slab 'Gills, Crappie, and Largemouth. Well, around here, anyway :). Plus hopefully I can finally catch a Wiper this year.

And perch! 8-)

I've never caught any Perch from Arthur, any good shore fishing spots you can recommend for them? I like fishing them much more in shallow areas with UL tackle where they actually fight as opposed to using 2 ounce weights in 60 FOW in Erie where you don't know there's a fish in until you can see it lol.

I'm pretty much in line with Pork.  If you fish in 6 fow or less pretty much anywhere in Arthur with minnows or worms you should encounter perch.  BIG perch are another story.  I run into numbers a couple times a year, but otherwise one or two nice perch per trip is average for me.

Crappie and gills seem to be much more scrappy.  Perch are cool looking, and like said, taste good on the bun.  Fight wise, not so much.  They've saved a skunking a few times.  I've got a bunch of them on the "Cheech's LowFat Minnow" in bluegill before, but was on a spinning rod under a float.  Find some baby gills, and you'll find some perch around.  Large mouth too.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfisFlNRN0k

luvinbluegills


You can get them on flies too! There are 2 flies I believe are "must-have" for Arthur panfish; the Zug Bug and an olive Damselfly nymph. Both will slam the panfish numbers and get you t he occasional bass and catfish.

If you want to eliminate the smaller fish, go with a size 6 white zonker or black wooly bugger.

thanks for that.