With a scowl on his face, Carl Jersild pointed toward a boat positioned directly over his favorite walleye hole.
"That dirty dog has been out there since 6," he said, shaking his head.
It was 8 a.m. so the fishing must have been good, but Jersild had another idea.
"We're going to catch some perch," he said, reluctantly surrendering the hot spot before we even launched the boat from his lakeshore property south of Neenah.
Not another fishing tale
Jersild slowed the boat and pointed toward the landmarks he uses on the West Shore to pinpoint his reef — a smokestack sticking up over the trees, a tree that stands out.
"There should be a weed bed off the front of the boat," he said as he cut the motor.
Seconds later we floated over weeds rooted in about four feet of water. Who needs a GPS?
Jersild, an avid fisherman for his entire life, has spent nearly six decades getting to know the holes and reefs along the west side of the lake. So, I took notice when he suggested the perch fishing was as good as he ever remembered it.
And it turns out that it's not just another fishing tale. What Jersild and other Lake Winnebago fishermen are noticing is the result of a dramatic spike in perch hatches over the last several years, according to Kendall Kamke, a senior fisheries biologist with the Department of Natural Resources in Oshkosh.
"Our perch population has been increasing," Kamke said. "Certainly we've had some good things happening with perch."
The DNR uses trawling, pulling fishing nets through the water behind a boat, to monitor each year's perch hatch. In four of the past six years, the number of perch caught per trawl cast has been higher than in any year since 1986. Kamke called the classes from those years "huge."
Proof in the live well
After a few hours on the lake, the proof was in the live well. Jersild and I had caught enough perch for a nice meal, or "rent" as my guide called it. He was going to stay at the home of his brother-in-law and sister-in-law the following day.
We wrapped up the morning fishing for walleye. Jersild, who caught a walleye earlier while fishing for perch, landed another between two sheepshead, but I wasn't as successful. All I pulled into the boat were some weeds, another aquatic species on the rise in Winnebago, according to Jersild.
Right again.
The resurgence of water clarity in Lake Winnebago has resulted in more rooted aquatic vegetation, Kamke pointed out. The weeds help clean the water and use nutrients, resulting in less algae.
"The two go hand-in-hand," Kamke said. "We've got more weed beds in deeper water and in more spots."
And those weeds are a haven for the rising perch population.
"It provides a great place for mature perch to lay eggs because they usually lay their eggs on vertical structures," Kamke said. "It provides a place for young, small perch to hide from predators. These plants also provide a good food source because there are a lot of aquatic insects that are going to be crawling in and among these weeds too."
Weeds, often viewed as a negative on lakes, especially for lakefront property owners, are not so bad if they stay under control and don't include invasive species, Kamke said.
"Too much of anything is bad for you, but with rooted aquatic plants, certainly more is better than none and certainly preferable to those heavy algae blooms."
Jigging for jumbos?
Back at the dock, Jersild and I took a look at the day's haul: A handful of perch, mostly around eight-inches long, and two walleye. It was a nice catch, but we didn't land any of the elusive jumbo perch.
That might change in a couple of years.
"Last year, people were catching tons of six- and seven-inch perch," Kamke said. "This year, I'm hearing they're catching a lot more of the eights and maybe getting close to nines. You can see what's happening. These fish are growing, but they're going to grow a little bit slower because there are more and more of them."
A year from now, the eight- or nine-inch fish could be 10-inches, Kamke said.
"I would think starting next year, after the Fourth of July, perch guys are going to start being really happy," he said. "And then probably the year after that is going to be the start — barring some big problem — of some really good perch fishing as far as some larger-sized perch."
Could Lake Winnebago eventually become a perch-fishing destination on the same scale as Devil's Lake in North Dakota and Lake Winnibigoshish in Minnesota?
"I have no idea if we're going to be that good," Kamke said. "The best thing I can say around here is based on what we've seen from our trawlings and sampling, we're in for some really good perch years in the coming future. We might as well enjoy the good perch fishing while it lasts."
That reminded me of one last shred of knowledge Jersild imparted before I left.
"The fishing is always good," he said. "The fish just don't always bite."