CLEVELAND, Ohio — Lake Erie yellow perch have been exceptionally difficult to find and catch in recent years along the Ohio shoreline, making the recent resurgence in the perch fishing around the Western Basin of Lake Erie a summer bonus as the walleye fishing slows down a bit.
The hot areas for catching perch, including many 30-fish limits of 8- to 10-inchers, have been the Lake Erie Firing Zone off Port Clinton and Camp Perry, and the waters north of Kelleys Island. The outer edges of the Niagara Reef complex is attracting perch anglers, with the best catches coming from the edges of the limestone reefs where they meet the muddy lake bottom.
Some tackle shops have a supply of emerald shiner minnows, the top bait for perch, but most had emptied their minnow tanks long ago because of slow sales and poor perch fishing. Some shops are selling frozen shiner minnows.
More hungry young walleye are being caught around Lake Erie
Fishermen are catching more young walleye from the excellent 2018 hatch, fish that are 10 to 12 inches in length. These little torpedos don’t meet the 15-inch size limit, so anglers must take care to wet their hands before unhooking the under-sized walleye and releasing them back into Lake Erie.
The smaller walleye are generally being caught closer to shore than their bigger brothers and sisters, feeding on the huge schools of small gizzard shad that have recently moved to the shallows.
Fisheries biologists had reported perch changing their feeding patterns because of a lack of shiner minnows in the shallows. They reportedly were suspending in deeper water and feeding on water fleas, which are now becoming scarce.
Warming waters of Lake Erie send big walleye, steelhead trout deeper
The walleye fishing has been fair to good from Huron to Cleveland and off Fairport Harbor, Geneva and Conneaut. As the walleye move further offshore because of the rising water temperatures, fishermen are targeting both walleye and steelhead trout, which roam the cooler offshore waters. A top depth has been 48 to 52 feet of water, with good catches reported from the Lorain Sand Bar to Beaver Creek, and about 15 miles north of Avon Point on the Ohio-Ontario border of Lake Erie.
Steelhead trout are chasing spoons worked behind diving planers. Walleye are hitting diving plugs weighed down with 2 ounce barrel sinkers and run behind diving planers, as well as double spinner nightcrawler harnesses.
Walleye are being caught in 40 to 42 feet of water from the Huron River to Vermilion, but expect to catch and release a lot of undersized fish. For trophy walleye, troll the waters from the Lorain Sand Bar to the weather buoy on the Canadian border.
Off Cranberry Creek, drift-and-cast anglers working mayfly-style small spinner rigs are catching a few walleye and some yellow perch in 26 to 32 feet of water.
Fishermen need to wear masks, follow social distancing
Fishermen on Lake Erie charter boats are now required to wear a face covering and follow social distancing rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Ohio is also requiring out-of-state anglers coming to fish Lake Erie to quarantine for 14 days at a home or hotel if they’re coming from states reporting positive COVID-19 testing rates of 15% or higher. Those states right now are Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina and Texas.
Study of deeper Great Lakes show sport fish population is suffering
While shallow Lake Erie is not having big problems, the deeper Great Lakes — Superior, Huron, Michigan and Ontario — are experiencing a near-shore algae feast while offshore sport fish go hungry, according to a new report from the International Joint Commission of the U.S. and Canada, and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
Disruptions to the food web and nutrient cycle are causing a decline in offshore productivity of the fishery in every Great Lake except Lake Erie.
The low nutrient loads in deep water are compounded by harmful and nuisance algae. From soupy, toxic blue-green algae floating out near drinking water intakes, to stringy Cladophora algae creating a stinky mess on beaches, the algae are feasting on nutrients trapped there by invasive zebra and quagga mussels.
In the deep-water Great Lakes there has been an observed decrease in the fish populations in offshore waters, according to the study.