LAKE ERIE PERCHIN 10/2/05 73 more

[GONE FISHIN(LARRY)]

Fished out of Serling today left the docks at noon ,pulled the boat out a 6pm . Had my 7 yr old son with me today .With a tip from KI JIM (who was out eariler today) we started in 26 feet of water almost straight out from Sterling and never moved , things started a little slow then took off ,from the middle of 3rd quarter till the end of the Loins game , it almost non stop as fast as we dropped a line in we pull out a perch . Then as fast it turned on they turned off . My son wanted a boat ride , with gas almost 3 bucks a gallon he got his boat ride , a ride back to the dock .

Larry

[GONE FISHIN(LARRY)]

To make sense of the title of this thread ,we ended up with 73 no real jumbo's today.but some good healthy 7 to 9 inchers with a few 10inchers mixed in . Just something to through in 90% of our fish today were not caght on perch rigs ,small hooks and light line .

LARRY

[walleyedreaming]

Larry,
You must of been around that big pack that was southeast of us. One of my old buds called me Sat. begging to go. We hit 3 walleyes first thing in the morning then went perchin' at around 9 am. Perch were hitting very light we ended up with around 60 but size was down from last weekend, we had 3 over 11" but had to keep quite a few 7-8". Trolled all the way in for walleyes and ended up getting 2 more. I wish it would have been cloudy we might have done better. My bud was pretty happy hadn't been fishing in quite a while, I guess giving him all the fish helped :lol:

Jimmy

[KI Jim]

Larry,


Glad you caught some, I figured you would. Sounds like you had a lot hotter action than we did. We couldn't get a school of fish to stay with us, a school would pass and we would pick off 2-4 fish, then they would leave and nothing for 10 min or so. Our size seemed a bit better than yours as about 1/3 of our 30 fish were nice 9-12 inchers. Some observations:

-They would only hit shiners, never got a tap on a mud minnow
-They were biting very light and lazy-even (and maybe especially) the jumbos.
-Single hook with a half oz. sinker worked best-they wouldn't touch a perch rig.

Jim

[GONE FISHIN(LARRY)]

KI JIM ,
After I talked to you headed to the other bait shop , they had no shiners either , I had maybe 12 to 15 shiners totel which took are first 10 or 12 fish . It was pretty slow for a while a fish of 2 then nothing for a while I was listning to the Loins game ,was going to move at half but thats when it started to pick up , half of the 3rd quarter and all of the 4th just a blurr, Derek had seemed to have a perch swinging in my face all the time . The older 2 are broke in well now they do evrything on there own , Derek still keeps me hopping .

Jimmy ,
No big pack of boats where I was fishing maybe 7 or 8 boats .

LARRY

[walleyedreaming]

Larry and KI, in comparing your observations to mine: bite was very light but we caught fish on the mud minnows. All fish taken on spreaders but not wire spreaders the ones we use are mono rigs with blades and beads. Also just like Ki said we never got a good run just 3-4 at a time then they would stop. Size was really down from previous trip I think larry and his kids caught all the jumbos :lol: Larry did you see that pack I was talking about? They were north of spudnick.

Jimmy

[KI Jim]

Jimmy,

Interesting. I have never used a "perch rig" until Sunday. All my life, I only used a simple hook and sinker. I have fished side by side with guys using the perch wire spreaders and I generally out catch them-by a substantial margin. I have always thought that my hookup % is better because I could feel the bite better. I talked to a guy at the bait shop Sunday AM who was buying some of the mono perch rigs and he said they worked great. So, I bought a couple to try. I put one of them on one of our rods and in a half hour-never got a bite on it and the minnows were good shiners (I even changed them once). Meantime, action on our other poles was fairly steady-so the fish were down there.

Jim

[rkropp]

Are you guys running the snelled hook tied off right at the sinker? Kind of laying on the bottom?
Thanks
Rick

[walleyedreaming]

KI, Have never tried just the hook and sinker method although I know Larry does well with that rig too. What color blades were on the rig you bought? We have been doing quite well with copper and gold blades with red beads.

Jimmy

[KI Jim]

Jimmy,

I bought same as you described-weird :confused: .

RKROPP,

No the simple rig I typically fish with is a #4 gold long shank hook with a 1/2 oz egg sinker. I tie the hook on the bottom with a clinch knot and adjust the sinker so it is 8"-10" above. We let it hit bottom an then lift it about 1 to 1 1/2 feet above bottom. This suspends the bait about 6" off bottom. I use a light spinning rod-fairly stiff- with 6 lb test line on a Shimano 2000 reel. I have found that this is perfect as it gives you great sensitivity to feel the lightest bites, but you have a chance if something really out of the ordinary hits it (like my daughters 19+ lb sheephead last year). I find with this set up, I'll typically score about 3 fish every 4 hits.

Jim

[MUSHY1]

You guys that use the single hook method, should try a slip bobber, especially if it is calm out. I agree with this system, I think as the water gets clearer and clearer, the simple presentation works the best.....also lighter test lines....all great ideas for the "not so sure to bite" Perch.

I fished St.clair last weekend, and the Slips caught most of my fish, with an occasional fish on the perch rig.

Mushy

[KI Jim]

Mushy,

I love using the slips, but on Erie, I have found it to be just too deep. We are typically in 25-50 FOW and by the time the line makes it to depth, it just takes too long. But I agree that on LSC, slips are the way to go.

Jim

[walleyedreaming]

KI, That is wierd we kept around 60 using those rigs and couldn't tell ya how many we threw back.

Jimmy

[GONE FISHIN(LARRY)]

Jimmy ,
I seen several packs Saturday I didn't pay to much attention to them . I knew where I wanted to start between my conversation with K. I. and where I last got into perch the last time out and just headed there .

Went out yesterday to the same waypointe on a buddies boat , we put 84 perch in the box , we could of easily got 16 more for our 2 man ticket ,but we left right on time for me to make my daughters Basketball Game . I might of smelled a little fishy but got there on time .

LARRY

[RyGuy525]

I saw you out there sunday Larry...It was you on the back of the boat and your son in the bow. We watched you for about 5 minutes and we didn't see you pull a fish or set the hook. You must have really gotten into them thick after we left

[Bruce William]

Gone Fishing,

I have read your posts this summer on the tremendous perch fishing on Lake Erie and still are eating bags from the Sputnik after you first reported this fishery taking off. You are fast becomming the "Dick Graves" of Lake Erie. LOL. Seriously that is a great compliment.

My question is the perch seem to be a different color from LSC perch. Does anyone know why they are more whiter and anyone think there is a difference in taste???

Thanks and good luck!

[RyGuy525]

Fewer weeds in Erie! And they taste just as great:D

[GONE FISHIN(LARRY)]

RYGUY525 ,
That would have been us ,a 7 year blonde boy in the bow and a grey haired old fart in the back . Like I said we started really slow then it took off .

Bruce,
Thanks for the compliment , many guys have helped me though the years , I've gottan the oppertunity to fish mostly during the week this year ,I'm glad to share info theirs plenty of perch out there .
I've never fished LAKE ST.CLAIR . The other places I perch fish the perch are darker also ,they are inland lakes and I generaly fish them much shallower . I'm just quessing that maybe the perch adapt to the water there in the inland lakes I fish for perch have a much deeper green water color then Erie .

LARRY

[GONE FISHIN(CRYSTAL)]

Yeah, Dad, you fish during the day and early afternoon, then after it's Basketball games and Cross Country meets to watch. ;)

~*~Crystal~*~

[RyGuy525]

I was in the red and cream Sylvan...3 guys we only pulled 13 keepers all day

[GONE FISHIN(LARRY)]

Crystal ,
I see more then just homework was going on in your room last night . In this house if it's not your basketball and Ryan's cross country , then it's Ryan's school basketball and L.J.AL. Basketball for both of you , not to mention Derek's Y basketball. Then starts baseball , softball and track . Crystal you and your bothers put a hurtin on my fishin time , but I would not want any other way glad you guys are active in sports .


DAD


RYGUY525 ,
I think I remember you guys , should of stuck around ,they turned on pretty good . We fished same spot Tuesday and well .

LARRY

[RyGuy525]

If i can get my dad to go out in the cold i'l be out there either saturday or sunday maybe even both!

[GONE FISHIN(CRYSTAL)]

Dad,

Sports, fishing, camping, and (unfortunately) school are basically our whole lives. At least for now...

~*~Crystal~*~

[RyGuy525]

My old man threw his back out so that means i'll be spending this weekend on dry land...what a bummer!:sad:

[GONE FISHIN(LARRY)]

Ryan,
Sounds like you won't be missing much this weekend on Erie , she's sounds like shes going to be nastey this weekend there forecasting 9 to 12 footers tomorrow . Theres nothing worse then back pain ,let Dad heal before you get him back out fishin . There will be plenty of good fishin this fall on Erie yet .

LARRY