Stray Casts

John Andresen and his girlfriend Reneda Jennings were fishing at Gary Light on April 27 when they caught this 16.25-inch yellow perch, one of the mythical fish on Lake Michigan.

I went with it over monster 8-pound largemouth bass, some big catfish and a saltwater offering.

Here's my problem: ever since I started posting FOTW photos a couple weeks ago, I've been swamped with quality entries.

So what do I with the others? Sometimes I end up using them in another forum than FOTW. But these are quality fish-of-a-lifetime photos. What do I do with what is just a sick photo of a pig largemouth from Mazonia lakes?

If you have suggestions, please let me know. FYI, I am not inclined to do Fish of the Day. That kind of defeats the purpose of FOTW, but maybe I can add Fishy Monday (most entries come after the weekend).
If you have a suggestion, let me know at outdoordb@sbcglobal.net.

Here's John's tale of a special day on Lake Michigan, the huge perch was a tangential catch. I made some changes for easier reading.

``My name is John Andresen and my girlfriend's name is Reneda Jennings.

``On April 27, 2008 we were fishing on Lake Michigan by Gary Lighthouse. We caught 11 smallmouth between 3lb to 4 1/2 pounds and three perch.

``One of the perch was 16 1/4' long. It weighed 2lb on my digital scale. When I cleaned the perch it had no eggs inside. I can't imagine what it would have weighed full of eggs. . . . I never have seen a perch that big.

``I probably should have got it mounted for her. . . . but, we ate it instead. We were using golden roaches for baits. We live in Portage, Indiana.''