Rare yellow perch bonanza around islands: NE Ohio fishing report

Big yellow perch are being caught again around the Lake Erie Islands this week. Bernie Weiss of Indianapolis shows off a jumbo caught on Thursday east of the Perry Monument on South Bass Island. (Mark Cahlik, special to cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The yellow perch fishing along the Ohio shoreline used to be at its best in spring and fall along the Lake Erie shoreline. This summer, there’s a Lake Erie Island perch explosion going on. Sadly, though, it is still difficult to catch them in the Central Basin of the big lake from Huron to Fairport Harbor.

In fact, while the daily bag limit on yellow perch is still a vibrant 30 fish, as usual in the Western Basin of Lake Erie, the daily bag limits in the Central Basin have been reduced to just 10 of the green-striped panfish.

The size of this year’s perch being caught around the Western Basin has been very good, with 11-inch and larger perch, the premium “jumbos” anglers are seeking, becoming more abundant.

The outstanding catches have caused one problem. Commercial fish cleaning facilities have struggled to keep up with the demand. With the Lake Erie walleye fishing still good in early August, fish cutters are burning the midnight oil.

While sport anglers are not welcoming commercial trap nets that have been popping up between South Bass Island and Kelleys Island — this week’s top waters for perch anglers — crowds of sport fishing boats are anchoring around the usual top perch fishing areas.

Hot spots for yellow perch: “Up the middle” between Kelleys Island and South Bass Island and around American Eagle Shoal have been targeted by fishermen, with the 28-foot depth a key to success for many. Anchored anglers have been spotted while perch fishing around Rattlesnake and Green Islands, as well the green can off the Catawba Island State Park launch area and around the various cans marking the north end of the Lake Erie Firing Zone off Port Clinton and Camp Perry.

Nothing really new in perch tactics: Old-time perch fishing tactics are still in play, with anglers anchoring and probing the Lake Erie bottom with perch spreaders tipped with monofilament leaders, No. 6 hooks and emerald shiner minnows, which most bait shops in the area have for sale. Crappie rigs, which give anglers a more vertical presentation, are also popular.

Travis Hartman, administrator of the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s Lake Erie fish management program, reports that in July and August, perch seem to have changed their diets. Instead of small baitfish and plentiful emerald shiner minnows, the perch have transitioned to invertebrates, primarily the invasive spiny water fleas, as well as mayflies and midges.

Walleye, steelhead lure anglers offshore: Large schools of smelt and emerald shiner minnows are attracting schools of steelhead trout and trophy walleye from Lorain to Conneaut, and Ohio fishermen are running many miles offshore for a chance to catch a mixed bag of the game fish.

Both species are being caught with the same tactics — diving planers and spoons, sometimes combined with a nightcrawler for added attention. While blue-and-chrome spoons are still a mainstay for steelhead trout, hot colors such as orange and chartreuse on silver spoons are in play, as well. Small boat anglers are reminded to have radios, cell phones and safety gear and to keep an eye on the weather, which can change quickly and produce threatening waves.

Veteran skippers remembered: Randy Raudebaugh, 73, of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, and Bud Gehring, 82, of Lebanon, Ohio, both charter skippers this season at Mark I Charters in Port Clinton, died recently.

Having fished Lake Erie many times with both veterans, they were the consummate professionals and two of the most congenial guides on Lake Erie. Gehring was also one of the long-time ice fishing stalwarts at Put-in-Bay each winter.

Raudebaugh will be remembered on Saturday at 4 p.m. with a ceremony at Bay’s Edge Bait & Tackle in Port Clinton. Gehring’s funeral was last Sunday in Lebanon.

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