Hey at least you were catching something. We couldn't even get anything to take our minnows at several locations. We sat at some spots for over half an hour and not lose a single minnow on 4 rods. We got zero yellow perch. We caught a few white perch, 1 goby, a couple of sheephead, and one 5+ pound catfish. We ended up trolling a while and got a couple nice eyes. I think I probably saw you anchored in your final destination. I considered running out there and trying again but after over 15 stops and anchor hoists I guess I became a bit skeptical on my chances.

I am pretty new at perching Erie myself but our results in the few trips this fall sound similar to yours. Several nice fish but we can never seem to find them when they are real active. All trips have been from Huron and Vermilion. I didn't hear a single person in the Huron area that did well on Wednesday. By the sound of the several pleas for help on the radio I am pretty sure we were in the same boat as everyone else.

 

I also fished out of huron Wed in the afternoon. 3 guys only got 12 perch... 1 pm until dark. Tried alot of different areas, Green can off huron river, castle area, and SW corner of lorain sandbar.

did really really well in lorain area a couple days earlier. nice sized fish. also did well off the Green can on huron river last weekend but Wed was very tough for 3 of us that thought we knew how to perch fish.

 

Yes, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission lists white perch currently as Lake Erie's most abundant species. We went through many years when gizzard shad were the most abundant, and occasionally emerald shiners. But right now, it's white perch.

 

In the 1950's the smelt took over the lake. The lake was determined to be dead but it was just the wrong fish were the dominant species. In the 1960's the Canadians began trawling for the smelt and selling them to Asian markets. Slowly the walleyes returned and salmon were stocked to harvest the smelt. Things were better then. The white perch are not traditionally local food fare but a use for them must be found otherwise we will face a future of this invader specie dominating the lakes biomass.

 

The sea gulls sure like the white perch and they need to eat also.

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Yes, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission lists white perch currently as Lake Erie's most abundant species. We went through many years when gizzard shad were the most abundant, and occasionally emerald shiners. But right now, it's white perch.

Summer before this past one(in 2012), I was on a tour at Stone Lab. The Sea Grant folks took us out on their research boat and did a demonstration trawl similar to what is done for the fish census. We dropped a huge net, pulled it for a set number of minutes (maybe 10-15?) and then hauled it in and dumped it into a washtub full of water. There was about a 3 inch layer of young of the year white perch the size of half dollars ....just hundreds or maybe couple thousand covered bottom of washtub... and there were maybe only 4 or 5 young yellow perch total in the mix. I though then "Oh No!"

What puzzles me some, why now? Saw a presentation this week that said white perch were first introduced to Great lakes in the 50"s. Have they been this much of a problem before, or is a warming climate changing the fishery structure. In any case we sure need a good yellow perch hatch, especially west end.

 

Got 12 nice size perch just north of the green can this morning. I had a handful more that I threw back that were small. I missed some good bites too.

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A good hatch of walleye will take care of those young white perch...

 

You guys need to head to cleveland. Perch are there but deeper than usual for this time of year. We fished in 59 fow. Hard to catch but there. We took 53 in 5 hours of fishing on tuesday and had to work for 95% of them, but once we figured out the presentation they wanted and how to get a hook in them it was a lot of fun. Real mixed bag with some 9" and some 13" but most were 10-11's. Only caught 2 white perch and 2 or 3 sheepdogs. Plan on hitting it again this week if the weather and waves cooperate. Hope to see you out there...

 

I also tried everywhere last Wednesday with no luck! Could not give a minnow away! Finally left everyone and headed out to the dumping ground at 37 fow! Caught fish from 4:30 to 5:30 when the clouds rolled in and it got dark! I finally gave this idea a try after reading something online last week about the water turning over and also read about the guys catching them towards Cleveland in deeper water! I only wish I would have thought of it hours earlier!

 

On Wed last week we got 30 nice perch between to 2 us on our kayaks out of
Mentor Lagoons . Just saying

 

Two tickets North of green can ----HURON-----lots of white perch---all of the keepers were 10"+

 

Two of us fished out of Vermilion last Wednesday and got our 60 in less than 3 hours. We fished the sandbar about 8-1/2 miles out. I can get numbers if anyone is interested. All nice fish with one 13"+. We had some whites and a few big sheephead but not enough to be a problem. Went to the same spot on Sunday with three of us. It was rough and we were the only ones out there. Fished about 5 hours and ended with 75. Again decent fish with one 14"+. On Sunday we caught at least 4 junk fish to each yellow. We had a lot of fat happy gulls around us by the time we headed in.