Sarley: Let me tell you the story of the most memorable fish I ever caught

I recall that this time of year gave me my biggest thrill in fishing. I caught my most memorable fish ever the first of May. It wasn’t the biggest I ever caught, but it was the most memorable. I had gotten the opportunity to go out and chase Lake Michigan jumbo perch with Captain Bob Jenkins of Challenger Fishing Charters.

Jenkins no longer operates in our area, but he was a good one, to be sure. Jenkins was the only charter captain in Illinois who, in addition to a salmon boat, ran a special 25-foot Century center console boat for perch fishing. It was astonishingly better than standing shoulder to shoulder on the back of a big charter boat.

My boat mates for this particular outing were Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Famer Spence Petros and “Green Acres” Mike Ventresca, the noted outdoor chef.

We met at Waukegan Harbor at 5:30 in the morning and set out. Jenkins said that the perch had been biting in about 55 feet of water. Our weather was supposed to be mild with gentle breezes. Of course, in reality we were greeted with very cold temps and stiff winds from the north. The worst conditions possible on the big pond. Jenkins was hoping that we’d see warming water. Instead, we saw the opposite.

Every fish we caught would be a keeper because it was impossible to throw anything back. Because the fish were hauled up from such deep water, their swim bladders exploded by the time they hit the surface, killing them. We were forced to keep everything.

After Jenkins found the right depth, Ventresca caught a nice perch. Petros quickly followed with another. My first fish of the day was a minuscule perch, and I had snagged it through the belly. I figured that this was going to be another “one of those days” where nothing worked out for me.

I was wrong. Fifteen minutes later I lifted my line and felt weight. I set the hook and began to reel. The fish on the other end was stubborn, shaking and pulling against me, giving a good fight. I believed I had hooked either a small coho salmon or a keeper walleye. It surely felt bigger than any perch I had ever caught.

When the fish got near the surface, I was astonished to see it was the biggest perch I had ever seen live, let alone having caught. Jenkins gave it a quick measurement and said it was 15½ inches long. It looked really fat to me and I asked about the weight. He estimated it at 1¾ pounds.

Two pounds is the magic number when it comes to declaring a perch to be a monster. I actually though my fish might be near that weight, but the captain thought not. Then again, what do I know, I had never seen a 2-pound perch anyway. I was actually disappointed that the big perch wasn’t 2 pounds in weight. We threw it in the cooler and kept fishing.

The day ended with our having caught a limit of perch, 45 in total. They were huge fish, almost all being 11 inches or over. Four of them measured longer than 14 inches. It was an amazing cooler full of fish.

We just split the fish up evenly. Bob asked if I wanted to take home my big perch. I said it didn’t matter, they’d all end up as fillets, anyway. We split up the fish and went our separate ways.

To be continued next week, my friends.

• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.