Perch Still Present in Channel in Good Numbers.

Today was a beautiful spring day and I decided to head down to the South Pier.  The water temperature in the bay warmed up a couple of degrees and now the invasive round goby is active and stealing the bait.  My brother and a friend Randy went fishing with me and we sat there for quite some time just catching gobies.  About a half hour before dark, the perch starting biting.  The size is smaller than just a week or so ago.  Most of the fish were around 8 inches give or take an inch so quite a few that we caught were thrown back.  We managed to put two jumbos in the bucket along with 9 keepers.  My brother also caught two mud puppies which is a good sign.  Mud puppies are a great indicator of a healthy ecosystem.  Pollutants that sink and stay in the substrate tend to kill the sensitive mud puppy.  The more mud puppies the cleaner the channel substrate.  I would have loved to take a picture of the mud puppies but did not have my camera.  They were both very large for mud puppies with no sores.  Both of them very healthy.  Good luck fishing and if you catch mud puppies, please toss them back in the water.  The gobies;  well, you can feed them to the seagulls as they love to eat them.