Jumbo Yellow Perch Fishing on Lake Erie and a Lake Trout, May 18, 2013

We had another great day jumbo yellow perch fishing on Lake Erie. Here’s the video of the day.

We started the day at Crystal Beach at about 7 am. Winds were east at about 7 knots (15 km/hr).  forecast was for winds to increase throughout the day to 20 km/hr so we thought we would get a few hours of jumbo yellow perch fishing on Lake Erie before we got blown off the lake. However, it didn’t turn out that way.  Winds died right down to about 2 km/hr in the afternoon, not 20 km/hr.  So much for forecasts!
We started out of Crystal Beach in 56 feet of water.  We anchored and started getting fish almost immediately. My buddies were actually catching all the fish early. I had the “wrong side of the boat” syndrom.  All the fish were caught on the left side (facing east).  I could not believe it.
They were also hooking the minnows through their back. I was hooking them through their lips.  As soon as I changed the way I was hooking the perch, I started catching. Strange, but who can argue.

Jumbo Yellow Perch Fishing Lake Erie
We caught most of our fish in the morning out of Crystal Beach to about 12 noon.  We later moved to Point Abino in 60 feet of water and we did pretty well there too, until we got our limit.
We noticed many of the jumbo perch we caught, were without eggs. Most males also did not have sperm. Both these observations appear to suggest that the Jumbo Yellow Perch on Lake Erie are finished spawing or near-finished spawing. That’s why we found many of them with several minnows being spit up at the same time. They appear to be in a pos-spawn feeding. They likely be feeding like this for about another week or so before it drops off.
Roger had a fantastic day, catching several double headers of jumbos.  He definitely had the luck of the day, hauling in the biggest perch, the biggest double headers and the only Lake Trout I ever saw caught on Lake Erie!  What a blast we had!

Maddalena Environmental Inc.
​Al Maddalena