Drummond Island Fall Perch Trip

We reserved a cabin on the first eastern island off the UP for early Sept.    Fall perch fishing was a happy memory for my brother, Gary, and I as we were growing up. We were on several trips in Jr. High/High School and now we were going to do the trip with Dad watching down on us.

Mikey-Pikey, Gary's old WMU roommate, was up for the trip also.  We arrived early at Gary's and ate dinner at Kolu's in Elk Rapids. Best dinner/lunch for $5!!

 

We were off by 9:00 am for our trip across the Mackinaw Bridge and then across the eastern Upper Peninsula to Drummond Island. Once we arrived at the eastern end of the UP, we waited 10 minutes for the ferry.  The ferry is down about 13 cars/trucks.  At this point we always wonder if we will get on this trip or wait 30 minutes for the next ferry.  Dad always use to say, when we started heading East towards Detour, "Don't let any car pass you.  It might take our spot on the ferry".

 

We traveled to the NW corner of Drummond to find our cabin ready for us.  It was about $80/day split three ways. Not bad, as it was where we had stayed back in HS. Dad would like that.

 

 

 

Vechell's Cabins also included an old boat with the cabin.  We packed Gary's 9.9 motor so we could get out of fishing just in front of the cabins. It was rainy and windy every day of the 4 day, 3 night trip.  It is hard to plan a fishing trip months in advance and have the weather turn out perfect.  We were there so we fished rain or shine.  Not much shine, while we were there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mikey-Pikey was ready for any weather.  Actually we now call him, Mikey-Perchy.  Mike caught more fish this trip than all the other trips combined. 

 

 

 

 





We were using perch rigs with 1/2 - 3/4 oz  river sinker and 6 - 8 size hooks with minnows.  We would lower the sinker until it hit bottom and then just lift it slightly to tighten the line.  After fishing in the group of boats in the bay, we decided to slowly drift between the small islands.  This technique worked well for us.  Each day we caught more fish.  We had to sort through the dinks to find the eaters - 7-8" and the occasional jumbos 12+"ers. Our best day we caught 35 nice keepers and threw back as many dinks.  At least there was action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gary has one of the Jumbo perch that Drummond Island is famous for.  You can also fish in the Spring after the ice goes out and get some pike along with the perch.  In June, the walleyes are around so it is a great place to fish.

 

 

We cooked up about 15 fish for our last night's meal.  Beer battered perch, tartar sauce, sliced potatoes, and corn makes a great monochromatic meal, as my ex would say.

This trip brought back many happy fishing memories of our Dad.  It also gave us some new ones.
We froze up about 15 perch a piece to take home to our families.  There is nothing like fresh lake perch.  Join us for our next trip next spring.