Five perch-fishing tips
Dick Horstman, captain of Reel Bad Habit Charters, offered the following five tips for Lake Erie perch fishing:
1. Concentrate. Some bites are very light. The best way is to watch the rod tip. You are likely to see it twitch before you feel the bite.
2. Use a rod that is suited for perch fishing, something with a sensitive feel.
3. Use a low-stretch line. It can be a braided line, or some of that low-stretch mono is very good, too.
4. Try using a crappie rig (with three sharp hooks attached on a vertical display with a sinker close to the bottom). That’s my personal preference, rather than the traditional spreader.
5. Use solid bait. Bait that’s left out to get soft will be stolen right off the hook. If you use shiners, I think a half-shiner works just as good as a whole one, maybe better. Dead shiners work as well as live ones. If you use dead ones, keep them on ice to keep them firm.
PORT CLINTON — It was a perfect day. Almost too perfect.
The morning sun painted a pink sky behind Perry’s Monument and waves of 1-2 feet greeted our 30-foot Sportcraft as we headed north out of Fenwick Marina on Lake Erie’s Ohio shore.
The steam rising off of the Davis-Besse tower showed a slight northeast wind, which is not supposed to be ideal for anglers. So what?
Veteran charter captain Dick Horstman, a Springfield resident, said he could have looked for a closer spot, but he knew we were interested in catching some “real perch,” so he set his course for the north side of West Sister Island, about 10 miles out.
“A lot of guys look for fish closer in, but I know the perch are bigger out past West Sister,” Horstman said. “We went over to fish around Kelley’s (Island) earlier this year because we heard there were some good-sized perch, but they weren’t any better than where we had been fishing for them.”
After passing West Sister, Horstman slowed the boat and began his perch search. He settled on a spot and his friend Tom Brown dropped the anchor.
In a matter of seconds, baited hooks hit the water with sinkers thumping the bottom in 28 feet of water.
The first perch, a 9-inch keeper came up a minute later and the fun was on.
Horstman moved three times and each spot produced about the same number of fish. With five anglers in the boat, we hit our limit of 150 keepers in about five hours of fishing.
“People started fishing for perch early this year, probably in June,” Horstman said. “The size wasn’t all that great early, but it seems to have improved.”
Of the 150 in the box, about 20 were jumbos — 11 inches or more. The rest were 9s and 10s.
Horstman, who has been fishing Lake Erie for more than 40 years, the past 16 as captain and owner of Reel Bad Habit Charters, said he thinks perch size in the Western Basin has improved over the years.
“To me, it’s much better than when there were no limits or even higher limits,” he said. “And it’s always better if you can get away from pressure (areas where many people fish). Personally, I liked the 25-fish limit with no commercial netters (as it was in 2009).”
Horstman can be reached via reelbadhabitcharters.com or by calling (419) 260-2539.
Outdoors columnist Jim Morris can be reached through his
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