jimski2

The better walleye fishermen use inline boards with snap weights or leadcore lines to reach the suspended walleyes. Worm harnesses are better until the white bass steal your worms, then stickbaits are a better deal. Get the lines away from the boat at all times. Riggers can pull the big smelt eaters off the bottom if they are there. Popping a rigger with a harness works to catch walleyes when you see them on the screen and they chase down the rising worm.

The 2013 Fish Odyssey contest on Lakes Erie and Ontario had the walleye winners come from the Niagara Bar. It is time for walleyes to be featured from Lake Ontario. Put some worm harnesses on and check it out.

The perchin will go on to Thanksgiving if you need them. As the water temperature drops, they move closer to shore. With the cold temperatures lifejacket wearing is needed and mandatory.

The DEC has regular annual studies to monitor the Lake Erie fishery from the Argo and other small craft. The result of these studies determine your regulations rather than some "mahogany ridge" beaurocrats.

When the currents in the lake are high, i notice the perch are hugging the bottom and do not appear on the screen. After a good blow the waters return to regular levels and you will notice your lines at an angle to the boat. Caused by currents the perch seem to find depresions to shelter them to maintain their locations.

Your water temperature displayed seems wrong for this time. Sturgeon Point had three guys return at 10:00AM with their eighteen fish limit. Not bad since sunrise is at 7:00AM.

This year has been the most tremendous year in my lifetime for perch fishing on Lake Erie. It is not that there are a lot of perch out there, it is because we have changed our ways of finding them and communicating with others as to what is going on. Our electronic fishfinders are the most important thing we use now since we have learned how to use them better and have faith that when they say there are no fish down there, we move on and look more. One day I counted sixty five boats in sight all perch fishing. Numbers like that I have not seen in our area for years. Boats fishing for perch in deeper waters over fifty five feet was unheard of years ago. On another point, yesterday three guys in a boat came in with their eighteen fish walleye limit at 10:00AM at Sturgeon Point.

Yes, that is the deal that I saw. A swim noodle slid over the rods.

Usually temperatures in the low sixties will hold perch and till ice forms where the bottom water temperature is highest at thirty nine degrees. Spawning in the spring brings them into warmer shoreline areas where they will release their eggs and milk till about forty eight degrees and then they will return to the open waters. Depleted oxygen waters from deep in the lakes will upwell at times with offshore winds and all fish will seek better environmental conditions. High winds with whitecap surface waters will bring the fish to suspend with better dissolved oxygen conditions in the summer months. A dissolved oxygen meter on your boat is something that will help eliminate search areas. No one has invented it yet.

A row boat may not need a steady light but it does need a light like a flashlight to warn approaching boats of it presence. The wading fisherman should also have a light to warn other boats such as a clip on hat light. Trolling boats with side planers should have a light on the trolling board at night or at least spotlight indicating the presence of the side planer. Navigation rules call for a red light on top of a fishing vessel warning others of lines in the water sometimes off the sides and stern.

The "secret spot" changes with the wind as water temperatures from cold water upwellings move the perch just as seasonal temperature changes bring them closer to shore in the spring and fall. Your GPS numbers do not work from day to day. The perch choose which "pasture to feed upon" when water temperature changes. Most importantly a good fish finder, especially color, will indicate the presence of perch except in shallow water where your boat spooks the perch away. Then you have to depend on water temperatures to find them. Most important is that if there are no fish on the bottom of your screen, keep on looking for the "mother lode" where they are five foot solid. Perch hunting can take hours just like trolling consumes a lot of time.

The steering connector arm such as an EZ Steer arm has to have foam floatation added to the arms to save them from sinking when they come apart. I lost two and they are an expensive loss. I wish I had the foam doughnuts that slide over the arm.