Friday's notes( Three days late)

Sorry for the delay though I have a good excuse. I went fishing Friday. At a farm pond to be precise.

And I tried that modified version of the drop shot system. I wrote about it June 2. This method includes rigging a standard drop shot rig with a hook tied to the line using a palamor knot. Above the knot about six inches is an inline three-barrel swivel. The swivels are expensive and made by Proline but they are effective.

Anyway, instead of using a 1/8- to 1/4-ounce sinker about 18 inches below the hook ,(which MUST rider up) is tied a jig head of the same weight. This jig head must be so built that it rides upright, which is why flat-based jig heads are best.

To the top hook is placed a 2 1/2- to 3-inch soft plastic minnow imitation. I prefer either a Berkley Gulp or else Powerbait minnow.

To the bottom jig is placed a 3 1/2- to 4-inch soft plastic worm. A Slider worm on a Slider jig head is perfect though any upright jig and either a soft plastic worm or minnow imitation should work.

The rig caught a bunch of large farm pond bluegills along with fat sunfish as well as crappie and largemouth bass. And twice I managed to catch a bass on the top hook as well as the bottom jig.

You'll be seeing me use this system more and more though it can be expensive to replace if the rig gets snagged. But as they say, no pain, no gain.

I hate it when the fishing is good one day and poor the next, or outstanding in one location and then falls apart just a few miles away. But that's what has been happening on Lake Erie from Neff Road to the Grand River.

Perch fishermen have scored good gains off the Wildwood unit of Cleveland Lakefront State Park only to see it go poor the next day. Now the word today (Monday) is that it is good again in 40 feet of water.

And the perch fishing's been similar erratic off the Painesville water intake slip to off Headlands Beach State Park. It's consistently been inconsistent.

Ditto for the walleye fishing. Some anglers have killed the walleyes off the Euclid hospital in 25 feet of water while off Eastlake to off Lost Nation Road the walleye fishing has proven so-so.

I hate the fishing when it's doing that. Which is one good reason why I enjoy farm pond fishing so much.

In any event, I hope to get out Tuesday or Wednesday for either some more yellow perch fishing or even troll close to shore aboard Wildwood Marina's "Popeye" charter boat for walleye.

And I really, really want to go crow hunting in the next couple of weeks. I can't believe that I missed the opener last Friday. Still, I was happy to catch all of those sunfish, crappie and bass and put the drop shot modification through its paces.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
jfrischkorn@news-herald.com