Page 4 - Lake Front News September 2019

Page 4/LAKE FRONT NEWS/September 2019
Fall Perch Tactics Continued from page 1
Lake Erie’s yellow perch will bite year around, but there’s one time when the fishing is best, and that’s in the autumn. This for good reason. One, they’re feeding up for winter and therefore hungrier than usual, and two, the population has had all spring and summer to eat and grow, so those caught are likely to be larger than spring fish. Better yet, fall perch- ing is usually done in lovely cool, crisp weather with blue skies above and a shoreline brilliant in red and gold foliage. Those are good reasons to fish then, and when you add re- cord or near record hatches over the last several seasons, your chances of filling a limit are the best they’ve been in a number of years.
Veteran boaters who have plied the waters of Lake Erie for long years and know the feel of a rod in their hand need little advice on how to catch yellow perch. But too many make a spot decision, head out of the marina and drop their anchor anywhere on the theory that “One place is as good as anoth- er.” It isn’t. Perch are a schooling species, and while you might have literally hundreds here, bottom just 50 yards away may be barren of more than a few gobies. So, your first job is to fire up the fish finder and go looking for them.
In the Western Basin there are innumerable places to look. Around Cedar Point, off the Huron Pier, near the Marblehead shore, on the deep side of Starve Island, near al- most any shore on Kelleys Island, and plenty of other spots around South, Middle, and North Bass Islands. Plus such tra- ditional hotspots as the north shore of Rattlesnake Island, off Camp Perry, and near Old Woman’s Creek The Central Basin is more featureless and lacks islands or much shore structure, but I’ve made some great catches off Lorain, which is more or
Fall is the favorite time for Lake Erie perch.
less Central Basin, and in waters off Lake County and elsewhere. The schools are more scattered here and deeper, but fish often run larger in average size.
One simple way to find good perching without much looking is to check with local bait shops and ask the usual “Where are they hitting?” That can narrow down the possibilities. Another choice is to head out and look for clusters of boats. Check them with binoculars and make sure rods are bent here and there and perch com- ing aboard, then anchor and fish near the pod. But re- member that perch move. The school (s) down there are feeding on anything from insect larvae to minnows and crayfish, and once the food is gone, they go elsewhere.
So, staying in one spot long after the fish have quit biting is no way to fill a cooler. Give any spot 15 minutes maximum, and if little happens, try elsewhere. Most larger boats have a fish finder as a matter of course, but if yours doesn’t and winds are light, try wind drifting
with a colorful float, 50 feet of line, and a several ounce sinker close at hand. Drift until you catch a perch or two, toss the marker over, then circle and anchor. If you start pulling in fish, fine. If not, move again.
There are little tricks that can improve fishing when perch are definitely down there, but temperamental and slow to bite. I fished with an old timer and several friends in Lake County a couple of years ago, and while the screen showed a nice school, we were catching little. “Get the dead minnows out of the bucket.” our captain said, “Put about 6-8 on each hook, let them down to bottom and jerk hard. Let’s see if a lot of free food won’t get them on the feed.” It did.
I suspect that 80 percent or better of all boaters do their perch fishing with spreaders, two wire arms with hooks hanging from each and a sinker in the middle on a short line. When perch are biting hard and with enthusi- asm, spreaders work fine, but when they’re being delicate and picky, a fish will often gently tug a minnow off the hook and the wire spreaders give no indication of a bite.
I far prefer using a “crappie rig”, which is two No. 6 snelled hooks about a foot apart above a one ounce sink- er with the lower hook just a few inches off bottom. The lines hang almost straight down, so the slightest nibble registers instantly, and with the weight on lines end, an occasional short up and down rod movement will keep you tapping bottom occasionally, making sure the baits are down there where they’re supposed to be.
The bottom hook will take the near bottom feeders while the one above will catch those suspended a little. A spreader won’t do that since both hooks are at the same depth, and if you’re drift fishing and the bottom is uneven, it’s easy for a spreader to be dragging mud first, then fish- ing several feet too high second. Shoe fishermen usually
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Birthplace of Thomas A. Edison
2019 Events
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