Managed to get 6 big magnum perch, a sand bass and three good stripers. The big one is over 10 LB. I put the fillet knife down there to give it some scale. Wife is back in the city until the weekend, so no good pics this time.


It's the summer pattern now, so I mostly fish late in the evening and into the early hours of the night. I'm always looking for a deep dock with a bright light close to the water. The spawn is over and large schools of fry are everywhere especially under shady docks. The Courtesy dock at the cliffs is solid fish right now. There's some spawn fingerlings there that are constantly being attacked by big schools of 12 inch bass and big magnum perch. PK desperately needs the 16 inch limit on bass to be replaced with the 14 inch like most other lakes.

The dock I was fishing last night is similar to the cliffs gas dock with a bright light at night. I fished there two weeks ago before hurting my back and got into some stripers on my crappie gear. I lost all those fish, as I was unable to keep them out of the cables using crappie poles and 10 lb test line. I figured the stripers were there to eat those perch so I caught 7 little perch on worms and used those as bait on two ugly stick poles with 20 test flourocarbon leaders while I tried to catch a few crappie. I got a bite on every perch but once the stripers started hitting the perch and crappie ran for cover and I didn't catch any more of them. Twice I had two stripers on at once. I even use one perch twice as the striper just knocked him up the line. Most of the fish I lost were break offs due to cables. Not a big deal since I fought them a long time and I have enough fish. However, my line on the ugly stick poles I have has to be replaced now, as it looks like someone took a sander to it. I pulled the hook out of the mouth of a couple trying to keep them out of the cables. It's not easy to stop a striper thats running. Usually best to let them go and wear themselves out but that's not an option fishing docks.

You could just watch the humminbird and know you were going to get a bite from the stripers. The humminbird would show a large school of fish from 18-24 feet ( perch and Crappie)and then occasionally a line of fish coming by at around 40 feet. When those fish come by at 40 feet the ugly sticks with the perch on them bent double with stripers on them almost every time. The only downside to those stripers was that every other fish with half a brain ran for cover. The perch which had been working the water eating bugs falling from the lights were gone.

If I could catch shad I'd try them but shad are hard to find at PK. I think the reports earlier this year of golden algae may have been correct. I think it must have hit the shad population hard. Either that or all those big flocks of cormorants ate them all. During the spawn, almost every crappie I caught on jig and bobber had a cormorant mark on it. I should be seeing shad spawning shallow but I haven't seen that except at the docks at Bonitaville on the peninsula a few weeks back. I talked with Reel on This guide service that day and he said some of the stripers he was catching were full of little drum. These things make me think the shad population took a beating.

If you are going to PK Memorial Day weekend watch out for the crazies. Good luck to you.

Solid post. Good job.

PK shad are doing fine. The issue is clear water.
The water is a clear as I have seen in it in years in the upper third of the Lake.

I had a tough fish catching day this morning but previous days we have been catching bait in the upper third of the lake and killing the stripes mid Lake.
I know it�s a lot of work but a trip to the upper Lake before Striper fishing is the best way to secure bait

Throw a seven foot cast net. It also never hurts to throw in the dark.

Randy: Thanks for all the tips about the launch across from Carter bend. If I want shad I have to go there. Today I will just go catch some more small perch. The stripers on the lower end of the lake seem to be used to eating them and take them readily.All that said I bet if I dangled a threadfin the action would get a lot faster.

As for the clear water, PK is so clear I can watch schools of perch and crappie swim by as I fish during the day in a shady deep dock. After the panfish swim by they are usually followed by two or three big Sacred trash fish ( LM Bass). Under the lights at night I can see swarms of sandies and small stripers picking off the fry in the green lights.

Hope you get some good customers this weekend and don't get run over by a crazy Jetski.

Bait was a little tough the last few days. When it�s like this I consider going to the dark side. (Downrigging)

Bait was tough and fishing was tough yesterday. Bait was tough and fishing was off the charts thes morning mid Lake.

Just got back from PK. Limited on striper every day within an hour or so. Caught sandbass and crappie all night long fishing docks. All the crappie were blacks. Caught several nice LMB also. All the fish were caught on artificial. For me, PK is fishing great right now. Only kept enough fish for a good fish fry, released all the others.

I just had one bad day last week. Slow for me but I may have just been missing the bite at each spot. The next day I killed them.
Fishing is great at PK.