Lake Erie Perch & Eyes (Eastlake Area)

Fished an area of Lake Erie located off the mouth of the Chagrin River in Eastlake.

Started the morning in 36-40ft of water west of the river mouth perching. The bite was extremly slow but the fish were of excellent size. My buddy and I caught 53 perch with the majority of them over 9″ with quite a few in the 12″ + range. We were using 2″ emerald shiners on standard crappie rigs and spreaders with silver blades.

After we were done perching we went in for a cookout and get together with some other fishing friends.

After the get together we went back out to troll for walleyes. We worked 42ft of water from the power plant to the first set of apartments. We pulled 3 nice eyes in a little over an hour an approaching tunderstorm forced us off the lake. The three eyes we caught were quality fishing weighing in at 8, 10 and one going 11lbs. 2oz. All of the eyes were caught on a fullsize reef runner deep diver in the black headed wonderbread color. 200ft behind inline boards with 30lb ripcord and an 18# xt leader. Medium trolling speed 1.6-1.8 gps.

Attached is picture of my buddy Carl with the 11 pound 2 oz. Eye….

Good Luck

Jason

I cannot believe how fat that fish is?

Looks like she swallowed one of your boards Jason!

You guys sure grow them big out there!

Thanks for the pic.

Question Jason- What does it take to catch some 17-20 on your water? say in a bag of 10 fish, what would the average size be? Is it uncommon to catch 20 and under?

Or do you fish by location to find the smaller fish?

Dman,

Fish in the 15-20 size range are very common on Erie. Last year we had a HUGE school of fish that size located between west sister island and the Toledo shipping channel. These fish stayed there the majority of the summer and were really easy to catch. The charter guys cleaned up on them, sometimes running two trips or more a day. They were hitting everything from trolled cranks, spoons, crawler harnesses to drifting with weight forward spinners and weapons.

Average size is hard to determine, it verys so much based on what basin you are fishing, what time of year, and what presentation you are using (trolling or drifting). I would say that once the females drop their eggs and the spawn is done a typical winning 5 fish tournament box here on Erie is usually between 30-40lbs. With the average nice fish being 22-26″. Alot depends on the weather and the bite, sometimes they get lockjaw and all we do is wash lures and reel in sheephead, white bass, and steelhead trout.

The bigger fish migrate from west to east as the water warms in the summer and east to west as the water cools in the fall. Since I enjoy the challenge of catching the larger fish I usually follow them as they are making these migrations.

I hope that I answered your questions or at least gave you an idea of what to expect here on Erie. Its an awesome fishery and with respect can produce ALOT of awesome memories and catches!!!

If you have any other questions let me know…

Jason

Thanks for the info Jason…That pretty much covered it.

Good fishin to ya !!