I invited Andrea to join my adventure. At 10am, we arrived at the location. There were a about a dozen people fishing in this little spot...but there was just enough room for us to fit in .
It was DEAD for carp...not one hit, no signs of activity...and only a couple of carp rolled on the surface. Andrea focused on carp while I fished a sardine head hoping to find a channel catfish. Neither of us got any hit. Then I noticed the guys to my left hooking up fish. They were using nightcrawlers and fishing on bottom. They got at least a dozen of bullheads, freshwater drum and some white bass or white perch (too far to determine if it was one or the other).
Seeing there were some smaller fish in the area, I switched to a #10 mosquito hook and instead of using the sardine head, I popped out the two eyes and put them on the hook. Now I have a 'dine eye meatball
I bottom bounced that for quite a while without any action. The current at this rivermouth was just too strong even for 1/2oz weight. Eventually, I worked it slowly on bottom just in front of me where the current was less...and felt a tap...and another tap...then FISH ON!
It was a small fish...but all I need was one fish to turn this slow day into a great day. It was a white perch...something I have not caught before...and it up my species list to #196!
7" White Perch (Morone americana)
To be honest, I knew this rivermouth is used by white bass as spawning areas...but I didn't know there were white perch here as well. This one came as a total surprise! I was just hoping to catch a white bass for a picture since I didn't have any good pictures of the ones I caught before...
Many people started leaving and now we had the area to ourselves. Andrea and I moved to calmer water hoping to fish for carp...but annoying round goby kept eating all the corn off our hair rigs so we can soak our rigs long enough in one place...
We called it a trip at 1pm at this location. I wanted Andrea to catch some fish, so I suggest that we try another spot and fish at a river.
Another 20min drive away, we arrived at the river. We had rain the last 3 days and the river had a good flow and the water was muddy. We thought we would try anyways. After picking up a dozen on nightcrawlers, we tried for 2 hours only to come up skunked. The visibility was only 6" and it was impossible for fish to even see our bait.
So that was our day...5 total hours of fishing...two spots...only caught one white perch by yours truly. Andrea had fun...and I had a new species. All was not lost