TOPIC:

I went for the first time on 8/10 with a buddy and we hit our limit across from the Washington Park beach and the Condos in about 35ft of water. We held up in a cluster of boats. Like most are saying, not jumbo but good eaters. I'm brand new to perch fishing as well as this area and it was awesome! We used spreader rigs and shiners until we ran out of shiners then switched to worms. They tore the worms up btw. We were pulling them in two at a time at times. I noticed that it seemed as though the perch didn't live long in the live well. Had to throw them on ice in the cooler. Is this typical? Is there any point to moving farther out to search for bigger Perch, or do they tend to say in this "zone" between the condos and Mt Baldy and you get what you get? Thank you!

Perch really dont stay in any zone specifically. It mostly comes down to water temps and likely some other little known factors. There are a few spots on the IN shoreline that are pretty reliable when the temps are right, else sometimes you need to go on a drawn out search for them. Often enough they are no where to be found.

I guess the way to find them is to follow the other boats! I imagine not too many a mile or two out into deeper water, but I don't know. I wouldn't really want to do that in my 16ft boat unless there were little to no waves.