Friends of Fishing’ Mark Addis called Bill Karris’ 16-inch yellow perch “Lake Michigan Gold.”
Yes, the rush has been on.
With this utterly mild December, an unusual number of boaters are fishing on southern Lake Michigan and they’ve caught an unusual number of truly jumbo perch.
Karris’ perch seems the perfect Fish of the Week to end the year on.
Pastor Addis messaged that Karris’ “monster perch of the deep!” was caught Dec. 16 out of Portage, Indiana, on a fathead minnow on a plain hook lying on the bottom. They were in 40 feet of water and using Spot-Lock.
“So big they had to net it so it wouldn’t fall off,” he added.
They had reasons beside size for using the net.
“Fishing was really slow but one fish can sure make your day sometimes,” Addis messaged. “That’s why you kind of never give up.”
Point taken.
It was not weighed.
The Indiana record for yellow perch remains the one of 2 pounds, 8 ounces caught by Roy Burkel Jr. in 1981 from a Vigo County gravel pit.
It’s worth a full view.
FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories (the stories matter, as this one shows) around Chicago fishing, runs Wednesdays in the paper Sun-Times.
To make submissions, email (BowmanOutside@gmail.com) or contact me on Facebook (Dale Bowman), X (formerly Twitter) (@BowmanOutside), Instagram (@BowmanOutside) or Bluesky (@BowmanOutside).
