Horne Lake.

The last couple of nights have seen me on Horne Lake. I have not been there for the Bass. It has been for the perch. They are a regular staple of my diet currently an I was running low, so time to stock the freezer. The bass have not been good to me recently on Horne. All I am landing are smaller fish. I do better in an hour from shore on Depot than I do in 4 on Horne lately. Anyways, the goal was perch, so perch it would be.

Horne sunset.

Perch are generally pretty eager to hit a fly. The one thing I have noted about fly selection, is to avoid tails. A Wooly Worm will serve better than a Wooly Bugger for example. Perch, more than any other fish I can recall, have an annoying trait of grabbing the trailing part of a fly. There have been times I have near hauled them into the boat this way. They do they same thing with plastics. A fly I used to tonight, and one that has served me well with panfish, is a tiny jig fly. A friend of mine, Dan Heculuk tied me up a few dozen of these a while back, and they get put to good use. I also got some bass, biggest maybe a pound. These were incidental catches as they were not the target.

I have spent more time in the shop lately than on the water. I finally setup the rest of my tools for lure making. One very positive change I have made is to go from Basswood to pine. I am finding it much nicer to work with, and it lends to a nicer finished product. I am awaiting some new parts that I am hoping to integrate into some new designs. Still working on the paints and clear finish. Very happy with where I am at. The lures were looking good before, but now they are even better.