Perch and bluegills and crappie, Oh My. Chilly October mixed bag

With winter quickly closing in on us Northerners, Jeff and I decided to take what may very well be our last open water, Michigan fishing trip of the year. The weather genius was calling for winds 5-10 out of the east with morning temps of 40 and high of 50. We decided to give Morrison one last try and launched the boat at 8:30, greeted by a stiff breeze that was touching the upper end of what was predicted and water temps in the high 40's.

Acting on a hot tip, we motored to the west end looking for the bluegills and perch rumored to be hiding there. We tried and we failed. We (I) also froze. I should have put on more clothes but I didn't let that ruin our trip. After an hour of no fish and few bites, we opted to head to the east end where we could hide from the wind.

We drifted the east basin, east to west, marking some small groups of fish, getting a few taps, but catching no fish. Near the end of our first drift we marked a couple of huge schools of fish and Jeff hooked up with a double of smallish crappie. We moved back into the wind until we marked one of the schools and dropped a marker on them, then attempted to make trolling passes through the school. This worked out OK, with Jeff picking up a couple more throw backs and me getting frustrated with the wind.

We decided to drop anchor up wind of the marker and fish slip bobbers, some with a hali/ red worm combo, and some with a jig/ plastic combo, back to the school. It didn't take long and Jeff hooked up on a nice gill, then a good perch. I followed that up with a keeper crappie and a few gills and perch of my own. The bite stayed steady and we were able to put some good, quality fish in the box.

By 3:00 we were getting low on worms, we had both had enough of the cold and wind and the dinks moved in. We decided to call it a day with a final tally of 19 gills, biggest just under 9", 2 crappie 10+" and 4 perch, also in the 10" range, with a lot of throw backs.

The weather was a bit chilly and the wind a bit frustrating but the fishing was good and the shore line colors were in full bloom. And we didn't have to deal with any jet skis. Overall a very good day.