Tiller

The mission was perch this morning, cruising my way around the 70s, hitting 77fow to find an extremely dense holding of eyes over a small footprint. Pressing the spot lock button at 7:10am, down the 3/8oz gold kastmaster went. By 7:42am I had my 6 in the box. Some dandy’s in the 24-26” range released and a whopper at 28” landed that swam back happy. Back to the perch search heading shallower. From 70-66 good numbers of perch schools roaming fast. You’d have to stay on the trolling motor, soon as you’d get one they would be gone. All in all took home my 6 eyes and 10 perch, With an absolute unit of perch @14” exact. Great day on the jigging rod and beautiful fishing weather

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

They release fine in most instances, look at the condition of the fish, watch it swim right back down to depth on a graph. You’d be surprised

I’m gonna give it a rip tomorrow after work. With eyes as a safe backup plan. Tried a few times while out for walleye without much to show. There’s been so much bait on the bottom lately

Anyone spotting any good perch schools?

Going east was the ticket for success yesterday. 18 landed from 630-830. Everything was high 20’ down over 63fow. Sticks spoons and harnesses all took fish on 2oz snap weights. Dark colors were best

Those high volume catch rate days I’m keeping 0 fish or maybe 2 or 3. The studies and general consensus is rapidly changing on deep water fishing. Depth of water isn’t necessarily a death sentence on species like walleye that will tend to suspend. Just because your fishing 185fow if the fish are only down 30-40fow the pressure change isn’t that drastic. perch caught from even as low as 30 fow seem to suffer the most from barotrauma. And deep water lakers which is wildly accepted as a fish you can target in deep water need the most time to make sure you can burp them before releasing

I use my best judgment while out there. I believe a lot more of the walleye caught out deep will survive. The main thing is using good judgment. Any fish that has the stomach popping out, bulging eyes. Dull gills or seems to be weak is kept. Once I’m at a limit and wouldn’t be able to keep fish that wouldn’t release I stop fishing. If I go to release one that floats up I reel in and turn around to grab it. Most of the time fish that are released can be seen on the graph shooting instantly back to depth and it’s accepted fish that can get back down to depth have high rates of survival. I’m sure some have suffered delayed mortality but once again using good judgment on what to keep and what will have a high chance of survival post release is the key. By no means am I trying to kill a bunch of fish. Also fish that seem relatively healthy but can’t get back down can be held straight up burping their air and they will shoot down instantly. Watch the graph make sure they get down. Once you’re at full limit call it quits. Be smart and use your head is how I’ve always gone about it

As great as this season has been with steady high catch rates for the most part, I haven’t been able to get on those really epic slams. last year by this time I had two truly banner days, the first out of Hamburg fishing first and last night in the same spot to boat 73. The second coming early August a year ago today out of sp in 60fow racking up 82 in 5 hours. a clicker counter makes keeping track easy within a fish or two. So far this year the top two days being 40+ east of Catt and 45 in 185fow. With a couple months left of real good walleye bite I haven’t given up hope and the pursuit for the slams continue.

Things seem quite inconsistent since the turn over. Hopefully it’ll set back up soon. Back on the search for good action. Good luck tomorrow