St. Joe-Sun./Mon.

[Take Six...]

Was out solo on Sunday. Started around 7:00 and by 8:00 had fat, dark male in the box. Saw five others caught around me. All came in the dirty water at the mouth. Decided the traffic was too much and ran out to 90 fow. One release and others in my area weren't talking much. Only one guy reported landing a king at that depth. Monday the wife and I went for perch near Rocky Gap. Caught 80 and kept 35.

FYI - That male I caught was very dark. Obviously he was heading to spawn till he hit the warm water in the river. When I cleaned him, I noticed the meat was white almost gray not pink. There was a state DNR biologist at the launch on Monday checking and weighing fish. I asked him about the meat color. He says he gets that question all of the time, even from charter captains. Yes, white meat can indicate disease but if the fish doesn't have any signs of Lamprey marks or other skin problems and looks normal, he's a healthy fish and the meat is fine. He's says the color difference is through different species of salmon.