Made my first trip to bigger water, Lake Menderchuck, this morning.

Cooler air temps, moderate north wind, and water temps in the 45 range.

It's been blowing here for a few days, so the usually clear water did have some color.

But the biggest deal was the lake level was way measurably higher than what I'd experienced before.

Tried fishing, like the deeper water didn't matter—wasn't paying off.

Called an audible and moved inside a bit.

I think it took three casts.

Old fat girl T-boned a perch with a vision of 110, and the fight was on.

After a few anxious minutes I managed to slip her into the Frabil.

Man, that one felt very good.

Yanked the scale down to 5.77 and then pooped all over the place.

I think I got credit for poop's weight, which made the cleanup a little easier to take.

Either way, this is my new big fish for 2026.

An hour or so later, the north wind can on strong, and despite my best efforts, I had to bail.

I'll take it though.

A-Jay

Beautiful fish, I have to throw a jerk bait more this year definitely not one of my confidence baits.

That fish been eating cream corn and bananas? 😂 Nice one

That's a tank! How deep were you fishing?

Thanks, I was on an 'edge' that's a steep drop on one side and comes up shallow to usually 6-8 feet. When they first come up they usually hang closer to the deep side. But with the high water, this one had already pushed a ways past that and was holding in the same 6 ft on some dead reeds, but that put her almost 25 yards from the edge. Which is usually unheard of. Colored water might have played a role too.

If it was clear, she would have stuck out like a sore thumb over the light sand bottom.

A-Jay