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16 perch (more than half 13-inch-or-better jumbos), 4 sheepshead, 38-40'. Fished back and forth between two packs of boats sitting one and two miles north of harbor.
Started off blue water tower out of MC (water clarity at MC and to west looked very silty for this time of year, and not much better at tower), then state line, then south of New Buff harbor with nothing on minniows for two hours until started trolling.
Pearl wonderbread was best, but just about every walleye spoon (mostly copper-backed) or small plug took perch.

We're u targeting the lower half of the water column??? Thought about trolling my self but didn't want to go buy small spoons just to experiment!! Sounds like I should

x2 Mike, tell us how you were presenting these walleye spoons! I would love to try trolling and weed out the 4-5 inchers

x3 I've used bottom bouncers last year with 2-3' leaders and all I caught was sheephead

ALSO, THANKS FOR THE REPORT

I've never trolled for perch before. What speed?

There is a story forthcoming, of course, but let me qualify that I am about as non-expert as can get when it comes to trolling for walleye, which is essentially what we were doing, presumably quite similar to the way a lot of guys fish Erie. So I'd read up on that stuff or I'm sure there are plenty of You Tube vids to view.
We used the same salmon tackle we dragged some perch around on a couple days prior, just downsized the spoons to the two-inch Stingers and Silver Streak, Jrs. A few, three-inch Rapala-shaped plugs caught perch, too.
Two 150' coppers, two slide divers and two, eight-ounce Torpedo weights hung over the back instead of downnriggers with the spoons running 25' behind. All lines were set to fish within five to 10 feet of bottom.
Had the same 17 and 20-pound monofilament and large snap swivels used for salmon, so there is plenty of room for refinement/improvement.
Trolled 2.2 to 2.5 over ground, which is as slow as boat ever goes for salmon unless drop bags or sea-anchors.
All rigs caught large perch, but he Torpedo weights were the most efficient because you could see the bites and they were relatively close to the boat. The coppers and divers needed regular checks to see what might be dragging - unless a sheephead hit, then things became a bit sporting.
Also, seems the Mik-Lurch guys, who generally caught bigger and more perch than most, swore by trolling with spinners ahead of soft craws, albeit at a much slower speed.

Thanks for the info Mike. Pretty amazing to be catching that many nice perch on basically salmon gear!

I am wondering if trolling a 3-way rig with a 1 oz weight or a bottom bouncer at 1.8 to 2.2 would be pretty good. Say a 4-5 foot leader and a walleye spoon or a small floating rapala minnow bait, on spinning tackle

Or a spinner with a 3" gulp minnow. Or some alewife strips... hmmm

Right on. I certainly will be trying a few things. Here are a few words from the legend (2012);

Trolling is the way to put more big perch in the boat, according to Mike Starcevich, life-long perch addict and co-owner of Mik-Lurch Tackle in Hammond
Starcevich told a packed Skwiat American Legion Hall at Wednesday's Hoosier Coho Club meeting that he catches more jumbos - 12-to-14 inchers - by pulling spinners than any other method.
And, he spent a lot of time fishing just west of Michigan City last summer off Beverly Shores due to comorants decimating the perch population at his familiar haunts near Inland Steel.
"Long lines and light line - four-pound test - are a must," Starcevich said. "And speed is very important - it has to be 1.1 to 1.4."
Starcevich explained there are a ton of perch out there on bottom, but the big girls are usually suspended, especially in summer.
"The minnow-fish, the seven to nine inchers are almost always hugging the bottom, while the jumbos are usually six to eight feet above," Starcevich said.
He even had one day, where the schools and the perch fishing crowd were in 50 feet of water and he kept marking good fish just under the boat, but couldn't get them to bite.
"I started trolling and we caught jumbos - down just 14 feet over deeper water."
Starcevich says a piece of soft-shell crayfish is the ultimate bait behind a spinner, although bits of cooked shrimp soaked in the soft-shell juice also work.
"I usually start out with different colors (spinner blades) on everyone's rods until the fish show a preference - orange, green, glow can all be good, and firetiger (pattern) is a staple."

I've trolled spinners for perch few years back with their spinners and some soft shells or shrimp and it is a very deadly tactic. How ever we only did it in July and over weed beds cal park is a classic spot for this as well as navy pier on the north side we used 1/4 to 3/8 ounce weights with a swivel 12-18" leader n a rather large size blade n obviously some beads gold blade and green beads were always the ticket soft shells were preferred over shrimp POND CRAWS are no where near as effective as soft shells from bait shops there's a difference between them I don't know it... I thought about bottom bouncers 2 out the back of boat two of the sides and two mid level rods with a mixture of spoons and spinners