Clear water

[Bggeary]

Somewhere around 1969 still foggy on that, but I did notice Most water east of Kellys to Lorain was clear like Iv'e not seen in years! It almost looked Lk Mi.

[West Basin]

Fishhead315 is correct. The two main factors influencing water clarity, rain and wind, have been pretty slight so far this season. Cooler weather might curb the algae also.

As for the perch fishing, I did a scuba dive a few years back when we were anchored perch fishing. I was going to try and get some underwater video. What I discovered is the typical perch rigs, weighted spreaders, stir up the silt and clay off the bottom from hitting it so often. There is a cloud of low visibility water that forms. You can't see your hand in front of your face in the middle of it. This cloud moves with the bottom current. On one side of the boat the cloud was only about 10 feet out from the side (remember the boat will move back and forth using one anchor), after that the vis was the normal for that day. On the other side of the boat the cloud was much thicker. That was the bottom current direction. After you fish for a while you form a long bottom cloud of low vis water that moves with the current, like the wind does with a smokestack. My guess is the perch see this cloud and swim into it, searching for what is causing it which often means the bottom is being disturbed, stirring up food sources. They come in from that direction and find the spreaders on that side of the boat first. Or maybe it's the opposite. Just my theory after seeing it firsthand.

[wakina]

Well that makes sense also. It also seems they like the shaded side of the boat and the bite will move with the boat shadow as the sun moves changing the boats shadow profile as the day progresses.

[PatSea]

WestBasin, very interesting observation about the cloud from stirring up the bottom! Makes sense. Maybe the perch are reluctant to enter the cloud for fear of larger predators being inside, so they hang on the outside or up current side?