Catching Cold

..... Well as I mentioned in my previous blog we would leave CT's only real safe-ice weekend (so far) and head north to the upper reaches of Lake Champlain in Vermont.  It was finally happening, ice fishing!  Drilling holes, baiting hooks, jigging perch, and getting to test out the new custom Jet Sled.  So Friday night after work, my fishing buddy Evan picked me and all my gear up to get away and fish through the ice for a weekend.

 Early weather reports were showing temperatures to be in the mid 30's during the day, however as the weekdays ticked by on our countdown to VT those 30's quickly turned into low 20's.  Around ten o'clock Friday night the thermometer hit 2 degrees, and shortly after 1 degree as we came down the north side of the Green mountains on Rte 89.  The temperatures did rise again to somewhere between 10 and 12 degrees as we entered the Lake Champlain valley, but I am pretty sure anything below 20 especially when the wind blows at all feels like 0 degrees.

First Pike of 2012!

 We woke to an early alarm Saturday morning at 5am but the prospect of ice fishing makes it easy to get up and go.  My brother Josh and I warmed ourselves with a cup of coffee as the truck warmed so we could go buy bait.  We each bought 3 doz. pike shiners (minnows roughly 5 inches in length) and had them in two separate buckets.  With six licensed guys in our group we could potentially fish a total of 90 tip-ups but with only one auger that would be a difficult task.  We did set up just over 50 tip-ups which covered a solid acre and a half of ice, and included water depths of 3 to 10 feet under a foot of ice.  After the first 7 holes were drilled, we had our first flag during setup yielding a short fat pike!

2nd Pike came about 20 minutes later again during setup

Saturday 1-21-12, setup of roughly 70+ holes drilled for 50+ tip ups and jigging holes took approximately an hour and a half to accomplish with six guys in groups of two pulling one sled filled with gear to clear the holes of ice chunks, baiting and setting up the tip ups.  We picked a spot away from the crowds between two points in a shallow bay that during the summer has a good weed bed with deeper water nearby.  In the picture to the left, you will notice my jigging rod on the ice near the hole.  I always bring it to a tripped flag in case a perch is the culprit of a "false" flag.  I would check first if the tip up spool was "running" and secondly since the water was so clear you could see the bait swimming most holes.  If there was a nearby striped bandit, sending down a jig would certainly catch the perch that had harassed our bait-fish.

This pike, pictured right, as my brother Josh headed for one flag, I watched a second flag trip about 50 feet away.  Turned out after Josh iced the pike, the same fish had taken two baits and was hooked by both tip ups.  So we had to release the same fish twice from two different holes.  Which was quite entertaining as we all joked at the second hole, "Oh I wonder how big this fish is?"  Overall, despite having so much bait in the water, Saturday ended with only 20 pike, 4 pickerel, and a couple dozen perch total with the pike maxing out in the 4 to 5lb. range.  It seemed like a decent spot, although we probably should have set up from the point into the bay to really cover the varied depths and structure.

Sunday 1-22-12, we all woke up slow with tired arms, backs, legs from the huge spread of tip ups from the previous day.  I posed the question, "Are you guys ready to get on the ice."  In return I got thousand yard stares from my fishing buddies.  I returned to my seat in the warm house, "OK just checking."  A half hour later I tried again, "Anyone want to go fishing? We could just go out, drill some holes and jig for perch."  In return I managed two nods from my friends Evan and Jay, fish on!  As we dressed for another cold day, Evan asked what we should take and I said I'm just going to bring my whole sled, he said he agreed and packed his sled into the truck as well.  Evan, Jay and I drove from the East side of the island through a neighbors frozen dirt road to the West side of the island to fish a shallow weedy bay.  We unloaded the gear and headed down a steep ramp to the ice where I knew we could catch a good amount of fish.  I had no intention of just jigging for perch, Evan grabbed the auger and asked where to drill the holes and I said I would drive a pattern with the snowmobile, I told him "Start here, take 18 paces and drill the next one 'cause that's about 50 feet."  I completed a 3 strip pattern and returned to my jet sled to deploy my tip ups.  We setup much less hardware today, which would be easier to manage with only 3 guys, roughly 24 tip ups total with some extra holes for jigging.  This setup was placed from a point near relatively deeper water (8ft) to skinny water only about 2-3 feet under the ice.  Again we were attending flags before we were completely setup.

Perch Thief with two big pike baits

We would take turns running from flag to flag as the action today was hot!  After six pike and pickerel in a row, Jay and I caught a couple big perch that liked the looks of our big pike baits.  Jay's perch robbed one tip up and then tripped another.  Caught "red handed" I told Jay, also that he should check the 3 nearest tip ups for missing bait.  After resetting our tip ups we returned to our post on the ice and sat down to talk about how much fun the day was going and how tired we were.  Just as I was asking Jay about which tip up had the missing bait, the furthest flag out went up.  Jay and I both said, "Evan, you're up."  Joking that Evan had to run about a football field to get to it.  As Evan knelt down to check the flag, I started my walk with the bait sled in tow towards him.  I watched him strike and he yelled, "Feels like a good one!"  He pulled arm over arm, as I neared four steps closer to him he yelled again, "Awwwww, I lost him!"  I continued towards him, he kept pulling line in, the fish had made a run directly at the hole, and I heard him again, "Hhhwaah!"  I knew it was big as he held a short line, I could see the line spiraling around the hole.  Evan reached down and out came the best fish of the day, and certainly the fish of the weekend.

A beautifully fat Lake Champlain Pike

Free to be caught another day.

The pike was not huge, but it was sporting a stomach stuffed with perch, weighing just under 12lbs.  We got what we came for!  A great weekend on the ice for sure.

Think Ice

As most of us have come to terms with the warm winter in the Northeast, it has been a struggle to find safe ice without traveling hours to get to it.  Probably the only weekend available in CT for those of us who work all week was this past weekend (20th & 21st) of January.  Yet as the ice was staging to be safe at home, I had already planned a trip north to Lake Champlain to guarantee a safe outing.  

Leading up to the trip departure date, the warm weather had everyone itching to get on the ice.  Compared to last year's cold winter with plenty of the hard stuff to go around, this year since Christmas my mind burning up with thoughts of ice.  Three weeks of thinking about stepping onto it and drilling holes to setup was enough to make me go nuts with cabin fever or I could do something creative to attempt to pass the time.  My decision fell onto making what time I could spend on the ice the most productive, and since I cannot stand looking for a particular item such as a pair of pliers, ice scoop, hooks etc for more than a few seconds while on the ice I knew I had to make my Jet Sled organized.  

Anyone who has ice fished before knows that a pile of tip-ups at the end of the day becomes a tangled, frozen mess at the end of the day.  Additionally, the end of the day comes with sore shoulders, tired feet, and the strong nap time feeling that does not allow one to sort through the tangles in preparation for the subsequent day.  Capt. Blaine Anderson of Connecticut Outfitters had been posting pictures of his outings as he too had been heading north to find safe ice.  From one of the pictures, I noticed he had a sled made up with rod holders that he was utilizing as Tip-up holders.  There wasn't a close-up shot of it, but I understood the purpose and started brainstorming a custom ice fishing sled to fit in my current plastic Jet sled.  The basic requirements for me were that, while making a wooden box to fit inside the sled I wanted a cover, an open bottom to allow snow melt to sit in the sled and not soak into the wood, space to mount jig rod holders, tip up holders, and to fit the power-head of  my Jiffy Model 30 into the box.

Included in my consideration of a tricked out ice fishing sled was how many items I need to bring on the ice. In Connecticut, a licensed angler can fish six (6) lines, tip-ups or jigging rods at any one time. (please check the current year's CT DEEP's angler's guide for current regulations).  In Vermont specifically the Lake Champlain body of water, a licensed angler can fish fifteen (15) lines.  (please check with Vermont's current year rules and regulations, and for specific bodies of water).   So I knew that I needed to hold 15 at most, plus two holders for my jigging rods for 17 in all.  After taking some basic measurements of the jet sled interior, the auger power head and figuring out what size PVC pipe the tip ups would fit into, I headed to Home Depot for supplies.

I purchased roughly an 8'longx2'wide piece of pine scrap board.  Because I needed a box approximately 2'x2'x2'high all the way around, some metal corner brackets for rigidity, box of wood screws, four metal tie-down loop to secure to the sled as bungee cord hook points, a box of nuts and bolts 100 count for all the pvc pipe tip-up/rod holders.  I also planned on utilizing whatever scrap wood or PVC board I had leftover from my last spring's boat project (see my earlier blogs). 

As you can see picture above, I made a basic frame to sit in the bottom of the Jet Sled (measuring from the bottom since the walls are wider at the top).  I also have accumulated a variety of tip-ups from the larger ones to the left, flat Lake Champlain style tip-ups pictured bottom, and smaller style tip-ups pictured right.  Accordingly, 2" PVC was necessary for the larger tip-ups, PVC board cut to create slots for the flat style, and 1.5" PVC for the smaller tip-ups.  Inside the box, I also did not want the auger's power head to sit on the ground while in transit behind a sled or ATV so I used two 1.5" PVC pipes notched to hold the handle in place and its own weight to hold it in place.  The hole drilled in the front part of the box you see allows the auger bit to slide into the sled which retains it from lateral movement during transit.  Not pictured are two of the bungee cord tie-downs bolted to the front of the sled to secure the auger bit at the front of the sled.  Also the bucket pictured will actually sit in front of another 5 gal. bait bucket both slid to the opposite side of the auger bit.  In creating this setup, initial deployment on the ice will be easy and pickup will create a system ready to go the next morning.

I did add two jig rod holders that sit above the hole drilled through the box as mentioned above, and I had an extra ram mount rod holder for a boat sitting around so I mounted it to my jigging bucket so I could put it down without reeling in to attend to a sprung tip up flag.  I also utilized my excess boat carpeting as a temporary cover to keep snow out of the box.  Now to test it out......................................

Last Year's Boat Project: Part 2 of 2

Once both decals were applied, I had also purchased lettering for the Registration numbers.  After owning the boat for almost a year now, no one can tell unless they walk within ten feet of the boat that the lettering has reflective sparkles in it.  Essentially I paid too much for a lettering kit.  So skip the bass-boat glitz, and instead I recommend getting your basic 3" tall contrasting lettering from a hardware store and save the extra cash for something else. 

After finishing the plumbing for the livewell, and the second half of the decking, it was time for carpeting the deck.  I purchased a marine grade carpet, that has more of a vinyl surface as opposed to carpet fibers.  This type of carpeting looks nice and more importantly is easy to clean with a sturdy brush for when you get Northern Pike slime and fish blood all over it.  Pictured left, I set up "stationing" from the stern to the bow of the boat along the center-line of the boat's decking, and then transferred this center-line to the bottom of the new carpet.  I took a measurement from side to side at a one foot intervals, to create the basic shape of the decking platform.  I made all of my actual cut measurements wider so the carpet could run up the side of the boat, but not too much excess for ease of handling and installation.  Laying out the roll of carpet over two tables, I recreated the boat's decking center-line and measurements taken on the overturned carpet, and then simply cut it with a pair of scissors.  Now that I had the basic shape, it was ready for installation.  I used a marine grade carpet adhesive, adhesive trowel (one side flat, one with grooves), gloves, carpet razor, paper towel and water for removing spilled adhesive, and some spare pieces of wood to set the trowel down as needed, and something rigid to work the carpet into the adhesive.  Before slopping on the adhesive, I did a dry-fit of the carpet to make certain it would work and also to make the cut-outs around the live-well and storage box.  Beginning at the stern pushing the carpet under the seat was difficult since the fiberglass resin was extremely tacky, I probably could have got away by only relying on this and staples, but since I had the adhesive I was going to use it.  Because I had made the secondary cuts for the live-well and storage box, I only rolled the carpet back to the stern seat not moving the carpet at the rear of the boat.  Rolled up I applied the adhesive from the rear bench seat to the center boxes, do not put the adhesive along the metal groove save this for later.  Then you wait, and wait, and wait, and wait until the adhesive begins to set up, it will change color and become tacky.  Once tacky, I could pull the carpet above, blanketing the work area while standing ahead of the adhesive area. Then I moved to the rear seat and began to work the carpet forward kneading the carpet into the adhesive.  It is important to work it into the adhesive so that it binds to the fibrous under-side of the carpeting.  I repeated this process in sections to the front of the boat.  As for the tailings or excess carpet due to over-sizing the carpet leave them loose if you wish to conceal boat wiring for lights or fish/depth finders, using Gorilla glue to secure the final carpet edges to the aluminum concealing the wires.

Carpet Installed, leaving tailings loose for wiring concealment.

  Cosmetics & Function:  For any project like this it is important to know what you need in the boat and how it should function.  For example, located along the edges of the boat at the rear seat, and the center compartments were plywood braces that also acted as rod holders for two rods on each side.  I wanted to keep this function but also add oar holders so they would remain out of the way.  You are required to have at least one oar on boat with motors, but last I checked it is near impossible to row a boat with one oar.  I would make these out of king starboard, along with the new lids for the compartments.  Essentially PVC wood, they will last forever and are easy to work with.  The major issue with King Starboard is that it is marketed to boat owners who are way too accustomed to paying way too much.  I did, but I did find an alternative after dropping too much money for block of plastic.  Look up bulk cutting board, the stuff restaurants use in their kitchens is basically the same thing and it costs a third of the price.  After making cuts, sand all the edges to reduce chance of bodily harm while on the water and edges that could fray fishing lines.

The picture to the right, shows the cuts Evan and I made for the rear section of the oar/rod holders, and the PVC board lid on the storage compartment, as well as the seats remounted with the excess carpeting applied to the original seat bases (plywood).  From here, we made the front rod/oar holders, the live-well cover, and utilized the original hardware such as the latches, hinges, and screws as they were all in good shape.  I did also purchase a no-drill plate mount for a transducer that adheres to bare aluminum, we had to sand off a 3"x3" patch on the back of the boat and it was painful to do to that new paint-job.

Before even finishing the boat, the itch comes when you realize I have enough of this thing done to put it on the water.  So we quickly mounted some vertical rod holders, and said okay, let's get this thing wet!  What a great feeling!  With two adult anglers and two grossly over-weight tackle boxes the boat still pushed 25 mph.  Overall, it was a great experience to do the work ourselves.  I did add my hummingbird fish finder, navigation lights, a mounted fire extinguisher, LED trailer lights, and I have future plans to add a front mount trolling motor since the boat has a mounting plate on the bow already to help save on gas.  The total time invested was probably around 40 to 60 hours spread out over two months for both Evan and I.  We had a deadline of having a finished product before going to the Lake Champlain International Father's Day Tournament.  The boat, motor, trailer, registration with the DMV, and everything I mentioned herein plus gas for the summer cost right around three thousand dollars, which is a considerable amount but as opposed to buying new I saved at least three thousand dollars and I have an original boat I can call my own.

Docked for Lunch on the CT River.

Last Year's Boat Project: Part 1 of 2

In some of my posts, there have been partial shots of my 14' Sylvan Aluminum Boat.  I haven't always had a boat like this to fish from, or at least one that I own, and that has a motor on it.  I had been in the market for something around this size for a few years, but always budgets, school, buying a house, a car, etc. came first (As they all should).  I did mention the idea to my friends that I was looking for a boat, and told them to keep open ears and eyes for any potential for sale signs.  Craigslist and E-bay were daily staples of my online diet, looking up countless boats, looking at ones out of my price range, looking at the same boats over and over again.  Yet I only saw a handful that somewhat fit my idea of what I was looking for.
My friend Evan and I had gone to a fishing expo in Hartford, CT early in 2011.  At the show, we talked to a sales representative from G&R Marine out of Windsor or South Windsor, CT.  He had some awesome looking aluminum boats by Sylvan in the 14 to 16 foot range that were beautiful.  The rep. reminded me of how these types of boats rarely even make an ad in the paper, craigslist, etc. because they are sold to a friend first.  The price tag for a new boat, motor and trailer was in the 5 to 7 thousand dollar range, which simply was too much for me to spend.

A few months passed after the Hartford show, and Evan called after work one day and said he was telling one of his co-workers about how we saw a nice aluminum boat at the show and that I was looking but not having much luck.  Turned out, his co-worker had been thinking about selling his 1987 aluminum 14' Sylvan, which had a 25 horse Johnson outboard.  Evan told me that the floor was rotten and needed to be replaced but that the motor ran and he wanted 1500 dollars for the boat, motor, and trailer.  The next day I grabbed my checkbook, got in the truck with Evan and I said if I like it, I'm buying it.  When I saw the boat, I couldn't believe how closely it resembled the one I saw at the show.  Obvious differences were the age, the hull design, but only minor interior differences.  All I could see were the possibilities and a vision of a restored/refurbished boat.  I bought it on the spot, and Evan was obviously as excited as I was because we eventually drove it to his house.

This is the boat I purchased, not beautiful or over the top, just a simple tool to get me on the water.  And the means to reach and fish places I haven't been able to in the past.  In my eyes, it was only faded glory.  Nothing some blood, sweat, and beers can't fix.


We moved the boat to Evan's house because not only did he have all of the tools required to refurbish the boat, but an empty garage bay to store it in.  The first step for any project like this is to strip everything out of

the boat.  We started with the carpet and the rotten plywood decking.  Peeling strips of the old marine blue carpet out with our hands, and to our surprise most of the plywood too.  The original decking was secured to the boat with rivets that either went into thin aluminum strips that run side to side (pictured left), two "C" channel aluminum structural beam that run bow to stern located about 16" apart in the center of the boat, and to four of the main cross ribs as found on the bottom of all aluminum boats.  We used a saws-all reciprocating saw or a drill to separate the rivets from holding the plywood decking.  Most of this work went fairly easy with the exception of the wood located under the seats and the live-well and storage boxes.  Since the boat had been stored outside without a cover on it the factory installed foam (under the plywood) was very wet but would dry-out during the restoration process.

Pictured to the right, Evan is removing the seats the last screws holding down the seat mounts, plywood lids, hinges, and any hardware from the boat.  We also saved all of these parts as templates, and all of the hardware for reuse or as a gauge for replacement parts.  Also in this picture, I have removed the old decals, lettering, and old registration stickers using a razor blade set-up like a putty knife.  Additionally, in this picture I have also used a solvent by Interlux (Company that makes boat paints and products) on the side of the boat that removes glue, grease, etc in preparation of a new paint job.

 

From the picture (left) you will notice this is the boat pre-solvent, and just after removal of the lettering.  The picture above illustrates nicely how much grease, scuffs, and glue actually came off of the  boat.  After removal of the glue and grease, on all sides of the boat and the interior, the boat would get an exterior sanding.  The sanding is done to create a surface on which the new paint can adhere to, and  removes areas of the old paint job that had cracked over time.  After sanding, I made a second pass with the solvent to remove any other possible contaminants before applying paint.

Once all of the prep-work is done, and the boat has dried, and border areas have been taped for neat lines, we painted the first coat on one side.  This goes quickly maybe ten to fifteen minutes, and depending on how hot it is outside use of a paint thinner/brushing liquid is a good idea.  The detail areas of the boat were done ahead of the roller with a 3" to 4" brush.  Once an area of about 5 feet has been detail painted the large area in-between can be rolled (not worrying about paint thickness, you want it to be thin) and then brushed over to get rid of bubbles.  I used a cross-hatch pattern for brush strokes to spread the paint, finishing with horizontal strokes.  The brushing liquid allows the paint to smooth-out making the brush lines disappear.  One important thing to keep an eye out for are paint runs (also due to brushing liquid), retouch these areas to remove runs as long as the paint is not too tacky, also keep in mind that it is the first coat of paint and minor runs can be sanded out before the second coat.

While allowing the paint to cure, usually at least 24 hours before a second coat, we went back to the drawing board.  Pictured to the left is our front cut in new AC plywood, which is slightly more expensive than regular plywood but not even close in price to pressure treated.  The reason I didn't use pressure treated came from talking to the salesman at the local lumber yard.  He said, the pressure treated plywood would not really provide any better results than any other plywood.  The reason being that if water finds its way into the layers in the plywood, it will still separate the glue holding it together.  He suggested AC because it is slightly treated, but that we make a trip to a local boat shop and purchase fiberglass resin and coat it multiple times to prevent water getting into the layers.

Pictured to the right shows the fiberglass resin coated plywood installed from the front to the middle of the boat.  A couple notes here. 1. The front section was a very good cut, because the original piece stayed 99% intact and acted as our jig.  My note is that because it was so old, it had shrunk by about 3/4 of an inch so make a cut slightly larger if you are doing the same.  2. The center piece of plywood would be easy to put in, if the live-well and storage boxes were not already welded into the boat.  My note is that we had to make a cut down the middle running side to side of it in order to get it to slide in since it was too long to fit underneath the storage compartments.  Because of this, make that cut ahead of time, just in front of the screw tabs as seen at the lowest portion of the center storage boxes, and use the fiberglass resin to also seal those cut edges.  3. We used 1-1/4" self tapping screw, counter-sunk to sit flush with the top of the plywood so there would not be lumps under the carpet once that step would be reached.  4. Also, if the live-well plumbing needs replacement, get those parts before installing the floor.  We had to stop half-way with the decking install, to make another trip to get those parts before we could finish.

Style: Adding Attitude.  I had seen some boats online with the G. Loomis skeleton fish decals, and they looked sweet.  I found these at Cabela's, a 9"x16" decal set of two for 20 bucks.  I couldn't resist the white on black to give the boat some contrast.
The decals come on double sided sheets.  One side protects the sticky backing. While the other allows placement of the decal.  My tip for application is to start in one of the upper corners, working across the top using a credit card to work the decal onto the painted surface of the boat.  Spoiler Alert, yes, this is the second coat of paint (If you thought I jumped the gun).  Any remaining air bubbles that cannot be worked out with the credit card, can be punctured with a pin to allow the air to be pushed out the pin hole.  Because of the rubbery material of the decal the puncture hole with virtually disappear.  The most difficult thing about this step on this particular hull is the fact that there are horizontal ribs running the length of the boat.  Despite the trouble the decals look sharp.

.... To Be Continued.

Happy New Year! Jan 1st and 2nd

I wasn't expecting to be fishing the new year's weekend from a boat, however yesterday and today I found myself floating in water on a boat as opposed to walking on it.  Yesterday (New Year's Day) I hope everyone found something to do outside.  It was beautiful, 55 degrees and mostly sunny, yes, in January, in Connecticut!  I received a text message from my friend Jon around 11:30am and he asked if I had any thoughts on fishing.  I sent him back a message, "meet me in Marlborough at 1:00p.m. and we'll go."  Done deal.  Since it was a new calendar year, I needed a new fishing license.  In the past this would be a problem, being that it was a Sunday, a national holiday, and close to noon, however technology has made it so that in most states you can purchase your license online through the state's environmental protection website.  The all waters (fresh and salt) license is $38.00 this year in CT, but hopefully it does actually go into the CT DEEP's fund and not the general fund for the state.
After launching the canoe, Jon and I paddled straight out about 100 yards off shore and stopped to make some casts.  On Jon's second cast the first fish of the new year was caught.  Smiling faces greeted a 9" largemouth bass as it came aboard the canoe to be unhooked and released.  We were both using jigs as they can be fished slow to accommodate the lethargic movements of fish with water temperatures right around the 32 degree mark.  We fished the Southeastern bank first since the sun shines on this side of the lake for the longest period of the day, but maintained a fair distance from shore because we also wanted to allow our retrieve to move from shallow to deeper water.  My first fish of the new year came along this bank, and I thought I had a decent sized bass but to my surprise it was a huge perch.

I was fishing a 3.5" reaction innovations "Sweet Beaver" in pumpkin/chartreuse color on a spot remover 1/4 ounce jighead.  The spot remover jig head has a flat head allowing the "creature" bait that resembles a crayfish to stand up off the bottom.  This imitates a crayfish as it tries to defend itself while in the open.
So, I will cast the lure in towards shore, allow it to sink and rest for a few seconds, and then hop or jig it back along the bottom with intermittent rests.
It is usually during the pause or during the first jig after a pause that the fish will strike the lure.  This technique will typically boat fish at all times of the year, and produces good results, unless the fish are suspending higher in the water column.  However, if the fish do receive this technique well, you can be quite certain that it will be a productive pattern for the rest of the day.
Following this perch, I would find two more along the same bank in the same size range, along with a skinny 14" smallmouth bass.

Based on how fat and healthy looking the perch were, they seem to be out-competing the bass in terms of finding and catching forage.  Another boat with two anglers we also out fishing but were trolling the deepest areas of the lake for trout.  I didn't see if they had caught anything, but gave them a wave hello as they past while I released a perch.  About half-way down the lake Jon and I decided to switch sides of the lake and paddled to the western shoreline.  Jon switched his jig from a small 1/16 ounce jig to a 1/4 ounce grub-tail style jig and found an 8" perch.  He turned and asked why isn't mine as big?  I joked back, well the big perch want a big snack to eat.  Yet a few casts later, Jon debunked my theory and landed a perch as big if not larger than my first fish.  I asked him to hold it up for a picture just as he was about to release it.  He pulled the fish back from one side of the boat, and while it was over his lap, it flopped and went into the water on the other side of the boat.  We both laughed and figured the fish was camera shy.
The western bank of the lake had considerably more birch trees that grew close to the bank, and a good amount of them were tipped over into the water creating cover for fish.  Targeting these blow-downs we found some decent pickerel hiding in and around the birches.