Perch by the bucket

When the yokels around here talk about fall fishing, the discussion usually focuses on the joys of catching big walleyes, northerns and muskies. Me, I like spending an October day fishing for yellow perch in the six to 12 foot water at Cass Lake.

For the past few years, I've noticed that a lot of bigger perch move into the shallows this time of year. The action is usually fast.

One other thing: while pursuing perch with a fathead on a jig one afternoon, I had an unexpected tangle with a muskie. The fish leaped out of the water twice before plunging into the deep and snipping my six pound monofilament like it was a cob web.

The whole experience--the wild physicality of the airborne fish--got me wondering: Could I even handle a muskie if I didn't have someone else in the boat with me?

I hope to find out the answer to that one of these days--and I hope the answer is yes.