Walleye and Perch Help, please

[shuclan]

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

[wakina]

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

We just had a full moon so unless there is another reason for the recent shortage of shiners(emeralds) there should be plenty available while you are here. The full moon makes catching them very hard unless there are cloudy skies, the bright moon makes the lake light enough that the net boats cannot get them to school in the numbers needed to supply the bait stores, it makes their lights ineffective. They may and that is a big may only net 2 or 3 gallons instead of the 15 to 20 or more gallons needed to supply the area bait stores.

StClair's baits behind Wild Wings gas station and A'n'J Baits have their own minnow netting operations and they supply themselves first and the other local stores get what is left. So you might want to start there in your search!

I don't think perch are line shy and I believe leaders are not a necessity.