Lake Erie Perch Fishing Report 8-5-23
This week's report will focus on the Lake Erie yellow perch bite in the western basin. Now that we are in the heart of the dog days of summer, we are at the point where the summer perch season can really take off! The perch are schooled up and have been feeding aggressively most days! The bite has remained steady for weeks now and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Perch fishing has been great from many of the common summer areas in Michigan waters all the way to the Lake Erie Islands. With the schools this plentiful and scattered for this many miles, anglers are having good luck landing on top of fish, without having to be in any exact location. Cut shiners with Perch Fly Rigs and 1oz - 1.5oz weights have been the most productive approach overall based on the feedback from many captains and anglers that are focused on perch fishing right now. The cut size or "chunk size" of the shiners used depends on the size of the shiner to start with. If you get scoops of really big shiners, you get more chunks. The average size shiner is usually getting chunked up into halves or thirds. Now that we have covered the perch bite in a quick recap, we will get into some more specific details from some of the captains that have been steady on the fish!
Location: Oak Harbor, OH
Species: Yellow Perch
Report Provided By: Captain Greg Kipps
Charter Business: Twisted Lines Lake Erie Charters
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Perch fishing is still on fire! The Fishing Addiction Gear Perch Fly Rigs remain the most dominant setup I have. We have been targeting 19 to 22 fow still for perch. For the most part, the cans and the toledo water intake have been the best areas for us. Goldies or shiners have both been working. 1.5 to 2 oz sinker have been great as well. Watch your fish finder, there are perch all over right now! If the school you are on doesn't get going, try a new area or change depth. If you are interested in a perch charter and want to jump in on the action, give me a call!
Good luck fishing - Captain Greg!
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Location: Oak Harbor, OH
Species: Yellow Perch
Report Provided By: Captain Brandon Westerman
Charter Business: Fully Involved Sportfishing Charters
Hey everyone! I just wanted to drop a quick report on our first two days of perch fishing for this year! As some may know, I decided to take the month of July off for personal time, and enjoyed a couple vacations and the opportunity to visit family, as well as days with my boys while they are out of school. We got to work on Perch fishing this week with trips on Monday (7/31) and Tuesday (8/1)!
Monday I had a walk-on day open and filled 5 of the 6 seats. I tried to get shiners for my crew at a shop close to the marina, but the employee refused to give me more than 5 scoops for a 6 man trip. I’ll refrain from sharing my feelings but when I’m running a business I need a credible bait source. If you have a scoop limit then do it the same all the time. I regretted not making the pit stop to the faithful Butch and Denny's Baitshop instantly.
We headed to the east side of the can line and fished 22-23fow. I stopped at some marks I had from last season to stay out of the pack. The first spot didn’t show as many fish as I wanted, nor did the second stop really, but I deployed the anchor on the second waypoint to give them a shot. Fishing Addiction Gear perch fly rigs did the damage in purple, pink, and “Mountain Dew.”
The action was steady but many other species were in on the fun for the first half hour or so. We caught many white perch and smaller drum, but did find some quality yellow perch as the day went on. We had Joe, Scott, Mark, Xavier, and Greg on board for the day. Each guy caught their share, and I landed mine for 180 Lake Erie Yellow Perch in a fine box of fish! It took us about 4 hours. We cut our shiners in 1/3s and 1/4s but we’re able to make it work on what we had for bait. Xavier had just graduated his school and is headed to Capital to play college baseball. He really enjoyed his time on Lake Erie. He had a great feel for the perch bite as well!
On Tuesday I fished with long time friend Jenson, his father, my oldest son Connor and one of his friends. Butch and Denny’s was able to provide the Emerald Shiners, big thanks to Brian for keeping in contact so I knew bait wasn’t a problem. We returned to the same spot, but once we fished the first half hour we only had 5 keepers. We couldn’t keep white perch off the hook. I moved another mile south and we got back into great perch there! We had quite a few doubles and non-stop action. The box was full with 150 great perch at in just under 3 hours! It was great quality time with family and friends I consider family!
I will be back in action Thursday and Friday this week. I’ll have a few scattered perch trips for August but be back to a regular schedule come September as my boys get back to school! Check out the scheduling page for availability for your trip!
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Location: Port Clinton, OH
Species: Yellow Perch
Report Provided By: Captain Tim Joseph
Charter Business: Lighthouse Fishing Adventures
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We launched out of Catawba just before sunrise. A great day on Lake Erie today chasing Gold Nuggets! At first it wasn’t down and up but after a couple moves we found some very active fish in 28 fow all by ourselves on the east side of the firing range. Use your electronics and don’t just look for the packs. 
Fishing Addiction Gear Perch Fly Rigs dominated. Some perch hit as high as 8’ up off the bottom!
Fishing Addiction Gear Perch Fly Rigs dominated. Some perch hit as high as 8’ up off the bottom!
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