I was born in Toledo, moved to Indiana in 1963. I remember unlimited perch catches in the 1960's. Dad used to take my brother and I out to the intake and we would fish for hours. Dad said we always ended up with 100-120 lbs of fillets from the one saturday morning trip. We used to buy shiners by the dollar and not by the dozen, and when we ran out, we would cut up small white bass for bait. I can remember feeding frenzies that you could drop a gold hook with no bait and catch a perch.
When they came up with limits on yellow perch, I have no clue as I quit coming up for years and just started fishing Erie again in the past 3 years