Perch Fishing

[wnyguy]

I was out this morning made the run to outside of point breeze campground from sturgeon, it's about a 6 to 7 mile run via the water. I fished from 68 to 76 feet of water and it was non-stop action. Only problem was they were all small. Fish finder basically was showing huge schools of perch along the bottom all over the place, and more or less as soon as I was dropping bait (emeralds) I was getting hits, very light all small fish. I moved 3 or 4 times trying to find larger schools but no luck. Had a few doubles, was reeling them up thinking I got a nice jack perch, haha Nope! One of my doubles included a big white bass that was fun.
Waves were a little big once I got out there but then things calmed right down. I would have like to try even deeper (80) but not enough time.

[lineman49]

3 friends went straight out in front of SP. this AM. & got 137 perch in 62fow. They got sm. minnows at ft. of ferry st., not many there.

[copo427ss]

3 friends went straight out in front of SP. this AM. & got 137 perch in 62fow. They got sm. minnows at ft. of ferry st., not many there.

Did they mention any size to the fish they were catching?

[lineman49]

Various sizes, some 1+ #ders. most average size.

[wnyguy]

That's good news! I don't really like to keep them until they are usually 10 inches or so. Mostly what I caught sat were 8 inchers, not really worth it.

Last friday I got minnows at the foot of ferry myself, same situation not many. Took a bunch of dips to get some, and they weren't really that big.

The bait shop in derby still has emeralds for sale.

[copo427ss]

Yeah I don't keep smaller ones either. Even if you get a bunch. By the time ur done filleting them you have small fillets. And by the time they shrink up in the frying pan. Theyre more like fish bites than fish sticks or fillets lol. So I try n keep the 10 inch rule myself. Now back when I was a kid, at the cottage on Wolfe island. Anything under 12inches was thrown back. Sometimes grandpa wouldn't let anyone keep anything under 13 or 14 inches. And you'd fill an onion bag full in a couple hours. But you don't find jacks up there anymore. I think the VHS virus hit hard up there for a long time, before they caught onto it in the great lakes.

[lineman49]

Copo, gramps wouldn,t let you keep 14"ers, how big were the keepers?! That had to be a pretty nice onion bag of fish!