I've had similar experiences this year. In the last month, fishing for perch, using every bait and technique under the sun, 4 trips kept 12 perch. Caught some shorts also.

What baffles me is the marks. I've have anchored over the best marks I've seen for years. They look like yellow perch marks, and still we catch very little trash. This seems to go along with what the dnr is saying about the population being above average. Just no bites....