Walleye and Perch Help, please

[shuclan]

Thanks for your help, Troy. Do you use Mazuriks for access? Appreciate any advice on minnow size/type for perch and bait shops to find them. Thanks again for your help.
Phil

[Mark]

Thanks for your help, Troy. Do you use Mazuriks for access? Appreciate any advice on minnow size/type for perch and bait shops to find them. Thanks again for your help.
Phil

Emerald shiners are popular and usually most desirable. Call any of the bait shops to see if they have them, ask for a price too. Keep them alive using an Aerator. Some are used whole or cut in half to release a scent. I like to use Mustad "Central Draught" hooks, size 28 on a spreader or on a vertical Crappie rig.
(If on this site, you might want to go back a few weeks and read about conversations we had using white perch belly meat and frozen minnows). Also, go on line and look up how to make a Crappie rig, very simple to do. Some Spreaders are sold plain and simple others have beads, bling and more bling.
As for launching, you can look up the Marinas and public launch areas. One marina, Meinkies, is a half hour east of Toledo that will take you right out to the Water Intake, a popular area for Perch a few miles offshore. Drive further east on Route 2 and you'll find more Marinas, baits shops, cleaning, etc. (Best fish cleaning is at Cutchers, just off 2, east of Davis-Besse). Keep an eye out for packs of boats anchored, they might be on a school. Hope for a nice westerly wind with 2 or 3 footers.
Keep in mind that if the conditions are just a little too rough for your boat you can always try to get on a "Head Boat" out of Sandusky, The Cleavelander, (usually for perching), or in Port Clinton, Sassy Sal, Shore 'Nuf and a few more. Ask about rates and what they're targeting that day. I hope you'll post your results.
Good luck.

[shuclan]

Thanks for the help, Mark. I have some crappie rigs we used at Kentucky lake that have an egg shaped sinker with a couple of hooks above the sinker. I will probably get some spreaders, as it sounds like those are a pretty popular option. I will do my homework to find emerald shiners if possible. Does anyone do any good on the regular shiners that most people use for crappies? Those shiners are usually about 2 inches long but don't have the silvery sides like the emerald shiners. You can usually find those in bait shops around the area I am staying in Angola, Indiana. Thanks again for your help.
Phil

[shuclan]

To everyone who offered help for our trip to Erie last week, I would like to say a big thank you to all of you. My son and I managed to get out on Sunday for a little over an hour before having to return for our reunion, and we caught some perch by Kelley's, where a long line of boats had formed. We took my Brother and his son out on Tuesday, and after picking up some shiners at Jeannette's, and getting some advice about fishing around Green Island and Rattlesnake, we made our way out to Green Island, and fished just west of the island a couple of hundred yards away, along with a bunch of other boats. We motored around a bit, found a big school of perch, anchored, and did not have to move. We stopped just short of a 4 man limit, just to be on the safe side, and we tried some walleye trolling for a bit, with no luck. Our fish weighed 31 pounds at the cleaners. I am grateful to all of you for offering help/advice, and it's nice to see that the community at Walleye.com has not changed one bit over the years. Thanks again to all, and I hope to see some of you in the springtime for the jig bite.
Phil

[Mark]

To everyone who offered help for our trip to Erie last week, I would like to say a big thank you to all of you. My son and I managed to get out on Sunday for a little over an hour before having to return for our reunion, and we caught some perch by Kelley's, where a long line of boats had formed. We took my Brother and his son out on Tuesday, and after picking up some shiners at Jeannette's, and getting some advice about fishing around Green Island and Rattlesnake, we made our way out to Green Island, and fished just west of the island a couple of hundred yards away, along with a bunch of other boats. We motored around a bit, found a big school of perch, anchored, and did not have to move. We stopped just short of a 4 man limit, just to be on the safe side, and we tried some walleye trolling for a bit, with no luck. Our fish weighed 31 pounds at the cleaners. I am grateful to all of you for offering help/advice, and it's nice to see that the community at Walleye.com has not changed one bit over the years. Thanks again to all, and I hope to see some of you in the springtime for the jig bite.
Phil

Glad things worked well. Did you try using spreaders and Crappie rigs too? Were they pretty much equal in results? Did you feel a hit and leave the rig down to see if you could entice another bite?
Good eaten'.

[shuclan]

Glad things worked well. Did you try using spreaders and Crappie rigs too? Were they pretty much equal in results? Did you feel a hit and leave the rig down to see if you could entice another bite?
Good eaten'.

Mark,
We just used spreaders. My brother and his son tried spreaders with some bling (blades), but the perch seemed to just want a plain spreader. The bite was really consistent, and even if you missed a bite, you could still catch a fish on the remaining minnow without putting on another minnow to fill out the spread. There must have been some really good perch hatches over the years, as it seemed no matter where you fished, there were lots of perch around. Erie is an amazing fishery, to say the least.
Phil

[Mark]

Mark,
We just used spreaders. My brother and his son tried spreaders with some bling (blades), but the perch seemed to just want a plain spreader. The bite was really consistent, and even if you missed a bite, you could still catch a fish on the remaining minnow without putting on another minnow to fill out the spread. There must have been some really good perch hatches over the years, as it seemed no matter where you fished, there were lots of perch around. Erie is an amazing fishery, to say the least.
Phil

Good! Now you know what to do, where to do it and available options. Best news is that if things go as usual with the weather conditions and other factors, you might want to consider trying it again later on in September and October because that's when larger Yellows move in! And if you do end up with an abundance of fillets just ask the questions here on how to freeze them and you'll get a lot of ideas.

[Bggeary]

If you find big shiners always cut them in half. 1/2s have always out fished whole at least for me.

[shuclan]

Thanks for the recommendation, my fellow veteran. I suspect that if I can find some emerald shiners, they will be larger than what I consider a crappie minnow, which is about 2 inches long, so if I get the large shiners, I will cut them in half. Do the perch eat both sections of the minnow, or do they prefer the head and front part of the body? I perch fish in South Dakota, through the ice, and the perch there usually will not eat the tail section. Thanks again for your help.
Phil

[Bggeary]

I have not noticed a difference.