Wakina,
I agree with you, I won't waste what could be hours trying to find emerald shiners, especially if they are not available. I did some google searches on emerald shiners and Lake Erie, and I saw the articles about shortages of emerald shiners in years past, so it sounds like the same thing is happening again this year. I will call a bunch of the bait shops that others have mentioned and see if they have emerald shiners. I use nanofil on my spinning rods and baitcasting rods, so I am all set there. I have a fluorocarbon leader on each rod, so the perch should not be able to see my line. Thanks again for the great advice, especially on the emerald shiners. I am driving over 600 miles from Omaha, NE to attend my family reunion and go fishing, so I don't want to be chasing emerald shiners all over the place and waste time that I could be out on the water.
Phil