The Lost Perch of Erie's Central Basin Dated May 15, 2019

Get Hooked

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This is a LINK to an Article done by Award Winning Freelance Writer Paul Liikala out of Cuyahoga Falls, OH and covers what is happening to our Prized Yellow Perch in the Central Basin.

It covers the decline of Yellow Perch in the last 3 years, something has changed why anglers can't catch Perch that are there, a change in the Perch diet, Commercial Fishing, tagged 8,379 perch from 2013-2015 with PIT (passive integrated transponder) tags, fewer Emerald Shiners and how Walleye are affecting the Perch bite. A very informative article that all Perch fishermen need to read.

 
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The clues are there: (from the above article)

“Something has changed our ability as anglers to catch the perch that are there,”

“The yellow perch sport fishery has been performing below average for the last few years, but our assessment nets (and the commercial fishery) suggest the fish are there—but the fish are not cooperating with the anglers.”

“In fact, their catch rates increased from 2016 to 2017 for trap netters. The netters met their quotas this year.”
“Now, there are walleye here all year, making the perch skittish and less likely to bite.”

“To show how aggressive these walleye have become, the Linda Mae has had numerous trips where they caught perch that had walleye bites on their tails and sides.”

What I am going to tell you may change the way you Perch fish but it will have to be proven out in the water this coming Perch season. I only shared this information with a 3 Perch fishermen and one was skeptical. One told me he usually had a 2nd Rod out with a Float and had caught sum Perch but last season for sum reason he didn’t try a float.

Last December I ran into a Commercial Fisherman (tug owner) from Port Stanley who I had not talked to since May of 2018. I use to go to a certain Restaurant in Port Stanley for a light breakfast, but their constant Price increases chased me away and I found a more reasonable one in St. Thomas where I ran into this Commercial Fisherman that always gave a fishing report.

I asked him about the shortage of Perch and what he told me made sense after I thought about it. He said the Perch where there in huge numbers, which had driven the Price down in the round off the tugs to $2.75 a pound was was down to a low of $2.25 a pound earlier in the year. He said a couple of years or so when there was an actual shortage and they were getting $4 a pound.

Where are the Perch? They are still in the same areas where we always fished but just not on bottom. He told me that thru trial and error they found them near the surface and had been catching tons in the top 6fow. This past summer (last year) they had caught tons off the OWRC East of Port in 30fow. Go figure! One day last August I did see a tug off the OWRC while I was out for Walleye but thought nothing on why it was there. I also talked to another fisherman who also saw the tugs in close but wrote it off as tugs cleaning junkfish from their nets.

We have always fished for Perch on bottom forever. I thought then sum thing must of changed in the Lake Ecosystem for them to be at the surface. I mentioned to him about how we use to for years seine or dip net the smelt on the beach or off the pier and then that all changed for them not come in to spawn. He said Zebra Mussels changed that. There are still lots of Smelt out in the Lake though smaller so they are still reproducing just not on the beach.

After thinking about it for a while, then it came to me. After reading many Perch Reports on Stomps and all the Walleye that Perch fishermen had caught last summer and previous years it wasn’t hard to figure why the Perch were near the surface. There is so many Walleye out in the Lake even in the shallower water the Perch can stay on bottom and be fodder or try to escape to where it was safer at least in the daylight hours.

This season I have heard of at least 10 Walleye caught off the pier and beach at Port Bruce, then wonder why it's tough Perchin. Just this morning I was talking with an old friend I had not seen in a couple of years. He and sum fishing buddies have been getting sum good numbers of Perch. I mentioned to him what I was told by the Commercial fishermen with the Perch being high. Guess what, they already knew it are are using slip floats. What they do is vary the depths of their bait until they get a pattern.

If anybody has tried a Float this season, please Post your results.
 
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I only fish perch in the fall in the western basin. The days of catching 100 perch and keeping thirty are gone.The past two years you are catching 60 perch and keeping 50 of them.The days of catching 6 to 7 inch "keychain" size perch are gone. Most of the fall perch are 9 to 12 inches,they bite on anything. I have used salted minnows for the last three years. #Colchester
 
Ya know, I'm almost tempted to try something that we used out west for perch. Rolled up balls of frozen velveeta slices. (yeah the lil buggers had expensive taste) Roll it up, freeze it, by the time you get to the lake/pond it;s thawed enough to put the hook through, put it in the water. Problem is, it tends to eventually just fall off the hook, but man, that produced more perch than worms did and they always hit it hard. (weren't allowed to use live minnows, against the regs)
 
Too many walleye . Too many gobbies. Not enough shiners and changing lake conditions. Goes in cycles. I have personally noticed a change in the lake areas I fish . Muskie where there were never muskie. Shallow water walleye in bass areas. Smallmouth bass gone from shoals and BIG largemouth where the smallies were. In my opinion no reason to panic...yet... but we are gonna have to get used to a changing erie fishery.
 
I don't think the perch are lost at all. I think they've just become VERY good at playing hide and seek. They hide, we seek, and for the past 2 years at least, maybe part of the last 3, they've been winning.
 
Its simple boys west is the best, year after year. You can sit on that Pt Bruce pier and wait & wait or get in the game and do the drive ,cuz they are not swimming to see you because its the weekend or your day off.
 
Its simple boys west is the best, year after year. You can sit on that Pt Bruce pier and wait & wait or get in the game and do the drive ,cuz they are not swimming to see you because its the weekend or your day off.

That's fine if 1) you have a boat. I'm not hearing anything from anyone catching any from shore to the west They're getting them while out in a boat. Same thing to the east. 2) You can afford the gas to drive that far.

If ya don't have a boat, and you can't afford the gas to drive that far, you go where you can and for me that is always going to be close to home. Burwell, Bruce, or Stanley. I've done ok off the pier in Bruce the past 2 years, and yeah, this year is a little tougher but I attribute that to mother nature not cooperating more than the fish not being there. I said it in early May and I'll say it again. With the water being so high, I thought and still do think, they're going to be a little later than normal.
 
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