Tiller

First trip back out in a little while, off Catt mixing it up from the normal eye routine, out targeting deep staging steelhead. 70-90fow little west of Catt. 55 temp was down 40’. Put an absolute wallop of them, full spread of spoons on divers 50-60fow down. Took about 15 eyes accidentally all released. Landed over a dozen chrome backs anywhere from 4-8lbs. Orange and blue being the best colors

Oh be nice, we definitely got a little off topic for a reports thread lol. Start a new thread or even send a pm, I’m always interested in learning more about our fishery.

Fishing can be great while the population is in decline? There’s still perch out there. I don’t get how you don’t understand that. Yeah there’s a lot of bait but you don’t think perch and eyes are competing for it? You haven’t really proven anything I’ve said untrue. Can you prove how the perch population is not in decline?

Perch declines are a combination of a lot of contributing factors, and the walleye boom might just be a reasult of that. Pure fact tho is the perch have been in a steady decline for some years now. You can’t dispute that

I would not say at all whatsoever they are feeding on perch, it’s more about competing for food sources. The perch late summer and early fall (relatively new) are now found suspended and spitting up fleas which was almost unheard of years ago

At the end of the day the survival rates of these fish by anyone is speculation, studies or not there are still flaws. Just like when they said the best walleye spawns were when the lake completely froze over, but the past several years proved that to be incorrect

You’ve been fishing Eire 60 years you’ve already witnessed it. Also Ohio has dropped their perch limits for certain zones for Lake Erie. With stellar walleye, bass, steelhead, and laker fishing something has to suffer, the perch numbers.

It’s not about catching so many fish, we may just have to disagree here. Just because I’m 27 doesn’t mean I haven’t spent countless hours out there or have done my research. I do agree some fish will suffer delayed mortality but the rate of successful releases is higher than expected and catch and release can be successful

It’s all one lake and one cycle. The walleye population will drop and the perch numbers will rise. The past repeats its self

2013-2015 were record highs for perch caught per angling trips. Those years also bolstered more anglers targeting perch then walleye even thru the months of July and August. Fish numbers can be down but the fishing still be good. Limits are getting lowered for perch in other states

I don’t understand your logic, could you tell us what depth in your opinion is safe for catch and release fishing? There’s a lot of studies that have been done on deep water fishing that include transporting fish miles away from the catch site, how is that a real life situation. studies are coming out rapidly supporting the survival rate of deep caught fish. Most of the eyes are caught in the top section of the water Column which would suffer little to none pressure change

Please let me know, I’m curious to know exact counts, I know they been dropping consistently since the walleye boom. Walleye are cool but I’m a diehard perch guy

This past Spring was incredible but perch numbers are still down to what they once were. Erie is well and alive brother enjoy out there

And when the walleye population was low the perch fishing was outstanding. I’m not justifying anything as I personally quit fishing once a full limit is achieved but I personally believe catch and release is more successful out there then you believe

And catch and release fishing doesn’t? Gut hooked fished, taking countless pictures of fish, poor handling. What about the eyes, sheephead and bass caught while early season perch fishing. There will always be mortality related to any fishing. The key is to be smart about what you should keep and what has an actual chance at survival post release