11/5 Erie Perch

[AtticaFish]

Got out and did some perch fishing with Dad on his boat on Thursday. Beautiful weather to put it mildly. High got up in the 60's and had plenty of sunshine. Left from West Harbor and headed North about 8 miles i think, darn near to Canadian water.

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Fished Gull Island Shoal off the north side of Kellys Island. We were actually closer to Middle Island (Canada) than we were to Kellys. This is a pic of the North tip of Kellys as we drove bye.... amazing to think this is Erie in November.

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Anchor only went down once and we were on the fish. Shiners on spreaders or my own tied 2-hook sabiki style rigs were used. Did try fishing jigs with not much luck. Caught 1 keeper perch on a jig with no bait and that was it. Did get a few white bass on the jig though. Got our limit of 60 perch pretty quick. Started out keeping 7.5" and up but quickly upped our size limit once we put a bunch in the cooler. By the end, our size limit was up to 9" and we still put them in the box pretty steady. 1 sheephead/drum, 1 cigar walleye and a few fat white bass mixed in. Great day spent on the water with Dad.

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Then the fun of cleaning 60 fish! Ugh. Killed a few hours and a few beers in the process. Left hand is pretty beat up from getting finned while reaching in the bucket. Pulled a few of the bigger fish out for the picture, all of those were over 9". Froze the majority, but did keep enough out fr dinner tonight.

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[Kdog]

Fall perch on Erie is one thing I really miss! Glad to hear you got out and got on them.

 

[slammingjack]

Real nice mess of fish!

 

[hookup]

Nice job - but I'd talk Dad into chasing small mouth on Erie ;-)

 

[Pup]

AF,

Your Father has a very nice boat and an even nicer slip. I miss the days when I used to go out routinely on a 28' Sea Ray on Lake Michigan. Did far more fishing for salmonids, however the perch fishing we did was fun too.

I couldn't argue the table fare either way.

 

[Fatman]

Erie or Ontario like that in November is amazing!! Glad you got quality fishing time with your Dad!! and nice fish.

Gave up filleting perch - I cut the head off run the knife down each side of the back fin, pull out then peel the skin off each side take the guts out. My wife actually showed me this way of cleaning them when we were dating back in the 1980's and now there's a video on youtube.
[video=youtube]Erie or Ontario like that in November is amazing!! Glad you got quality fishing time with your Dad!! and nice fish.

Gave up filleting perch - I cut the head off run the knife down each side of the back fin, pull out then peel the skin off each side take the guts out. My wife actually showed me this way of cleaning them when we were dating back in the 1980's and now there's a video on youtube.
[video=youtube]

 

[StumpHunter]

Good report Russ, enjoyed reading it! Looks like a lot of fun catching all those perch.

 

[davidriley]

Excellent report. I am green with envy. I would love to fish a water like Lake Erie.

Many years ago when I was a kid we used to fish for perch in Lake Windermere in the English Lake District and cook the perch we caught on the lakeside. Sadly those days are long gone, which is a pity because I think perch taste really nice. Nowadays in the UK it is frowned upon to kill and eat perch and many other species apart from game fish from certain waters and in the appropriate season.

David