Your thoughts on the recent Perch season

I am just getting back into Lake Erie fishing after being busy with kids, work and family for many years. I found the perch to stage in the same areas they have in past years, but they definitely seemed to bite better over toward Toledo and in the reef complex area. It seemed to me that the perch started out pretty good in August and early Sept, but then trailed off greatly by the islands and border as the fall season progressed. I want to see if most of you that fish the island area thought this was the case. Does anyone have any thoughts or data as to why most of the fish were picked up way out West?
Thanks,
Bruce

We did real well from NE of MBI to E of GIS 60fish 30# at cleaners the wife and I last trip at 3 week of Oct

What you said is true, I had my boat the past 3 years near the reefs and my friends did better in the far west basin and many came this way from the reef complex. This year I moved my Boat back to Meinke West Marina and fished the Bay-channel to Wards and had a great year . Some friends stayed east and had a below average year every time I went with them we struggled and when they came with me we limited.... . Next year will stay far west basin. the walleye jig bite does well in the bay also. The fishing will probably be better east! LOL! Fishing I Guess.

We caught nice fish from east of the islands clear over to the west side of west sister. Didn't really seem to matter much where we went but sometimes you had to wait on them to start biting. Can only think of one time we left without our limit and that was because I needed to get home early.

I caught my limit every time out straight north out of the Portage. Except today!!! Couldn't find a perch!! But I can't complain. We had another awesome year with the walleye and the perch. 4 months and 19 days!¡!!

dansdad,
Fished near CP dump, East of Kelly's yesterday. Limited out on walleye in 5 hours (12). Largest 6 lb., lots of 20-22" walleye.
IB Frozen bandits, Green Perch Bandits caught them all. 2 OZ. snap weight 50/70; 1.8-2.0 mph; seemed to be the sweet spot for trolling.
39-43 FOW; planer boards. A bit cool, but nice day overall.
Not very far from Mazurik's launch. Looking for action, try this spot. Not an expert here, but try different colors until you perfect bite.
Good luck!

This was my 50th year of fishing Lake Erie. The perch fishing was good for us but the size of the fish was the best I have ever seen. To perch fish in the far west end always meant sometimes handling 5 perch to keep 1 due to size. I keep 7 1/2" or better. I dock at Meinke West. What has also significantly changed over the years is the way the perch bite. 20 years ago you just had to keep your bait 6" from the bottom and the perch would hit hard. Now you have to leave it lay on the bottom and feel the bite as you slowly lift your bait. Some people still cannot get the hang of catching perch this way.

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Originally Posted by PZeiler

This was my 50th year of fishing Lake Erie. The perch fishing was good for us but the size of the fish was the best I have ever seen. To perch fish in the far west end always meant sometimes handling 5 perch to keep 1 due to size. I keep 7 1/2" or better. I dock at Meinke West. What has also significantly changed over the years is the way the perch bite. 20 years ago you just had to keep your bait 6" from the bottom and the perch would hit hard. Now you have to leave it lay on the bottom and feel the bite as you slowly lift your bait. Some people still cannot get the hang of catching perch this way.

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Agree with the bite statement. I too remember perch hitting the bait. Not much of that this year.

Now, why has it changed?

I've seen a lot of posts on other forums complaining of issues catching ANY perch east of the Islands. I made one trip to Ashtabula this year walleye fishing and noticed a lot of spiny water fleas fouling my downrigger lines. My theory is that the perch feed on these spiny water fleas more than people realize and that there are more spiny water fleas the further east you go. Another observation is that Lake Ontario has way more spiny water fleas than Lake Erie. Perhaps the abundance of perch in Lake Erie is why the spiny water fleas are not as much of a nuisance in our Lake? I'm certainly no expert and have no data, but those are my thoughts.