Jumbo Perch Around Piers.

Today my cousin and I ventured down to the South Pier just after sunup and were attempting to catch some jumbo perch. The current in the channel was really strong making fishing difficult. We moved out to the end of the pier and in about 15 minutes I caught a whopper of a perch. A big fat 12 incher. My cousin then caught one of the smallest perch I have ever seen caught:) We had a couple more bites within the next half hour but by 9:00 am forget it, the bite was off and the wind began to really pick up.

One other fisherman caught 3 nice perch and that was about it for today at the South Pier. The nice perch are moving in with the colder water temps and there should be some good days coming up before ice starts forming. Good luck fishing the piers and make sure you bring enough weight to keep your bait in the water if the current is like today.

Perch Fishing Improves Off of Local Piers.

This past week I have been scouting the piers and looking to see what the fisherman are catching. Quite a few perch are now being caught, many are small but there are jumbos mixed in. Steelhead are now in all of the local streams in large numbers. Out at Walnut Creek this past week there were an estimated 1200 fish from near the mouth up to the hole just above the first bridge. Fisherman are catching quite a few steelhead with those using lighter lines faring the best in clear water conditions. Steelhead fishing around Erie will continue to be very good to excellent from now until the end of April unless the streams become frozen later on. Happy Fishin'

Perch Fishing Slow in Channel.

It's name is Perca flavescens, common name yellow perch, and this is the fish that is most sought from the fishing piers surrounding Erie, PA. Today, I went fishing for this tasty fish and the weather really was not cooperating. The wind was blowing hard out of the northwest and there was a bad current in the channel which kept moving my bait towards the lake reminding me of river fishing. Then it started raining and right before I was about to forget fishing and go home and watch football, it suddenly quit raining and I was able to fish until dark. I managed to catch a whopping two fish: one nice sized 10 inch perch and a round goby.

I talked to several other fisherman who did not do any better. It appears that there are a few nice perch moving into the pier waters but the vast majority of them are still out in the lake. Crappies seem to have disappeared from alongside the piers. Steelhead appear to be moving closer to shore in decent numbers as I saw quite a few splashing the surface before dark. The weather has not been that cooperative for fishing the past few days. I plan on getting back out this week scouting for both returning perch and steelhead. Happy fishin'

Returning Perch Starting to Show Up in Buckets

Yesterday I ventured out to the South Pier to check on the perch fishing. Only a couple fisherman. I talked to two of them that were fishing for about an hour and caught 3 perch. One was nice around 10 inches; the other two they released. The lake erie water temperature is falling fast, thanks to the colder than normal weather. Perch fishing should be improving and I am going to give it a go this weekend. Hopefully, I will be showing off my catch in my next update. Happy fishin'