Sshhh…There are perch out there

Allseasonangler · Post by **Allseasonangler** » Mon Feb 27, 2023 9:53 pm

Sunday morning, headed out of portage and targeted perch for the day. Hit Gary light area around 5:45am and was the only boat until 7am or so. Boated 11 nice perch before I had to leave around 9am. 75+ boats around me when I left. Smallest for the day was 10” and largest was 15 5/8”, good quality fish if you ask me. Tight lines!

Post by **bob** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:35 am

Great job! Thanks for the report

go4bigfish · Post by **go4bigfish** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:42 am

Good looking batch of perch - those are bigger than some of the Coho that are being caught!

KJK · Post by **KJK** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 8:27 pm

Mostly pre-spawn females........ Maybe take picture and let a couple of the bigger girls go to spawn. KJK

MC_angler · Post by **MC_angler** » Wed Mar 01, 2023 7:53 am

Letting perch go that are caught out of 45+ feet of water is inadvisable, due to the barotrauma from being pulled up from depth.

Best approach is to keep your first 15 fish and call it quits. Catch and release will kill more fish since mortality rates are likely to be high for fish caught in the 55-60 foot depths that they are currently being caught from

Ltrain · Post by **Ltrain** » Wed Mar 01, 2023 12:01 pm

100% agree with MC_angler.

Allseasonangler · Post by **Allseasonangler** » Wed Mar 01, 2023 12:52 pm

There is not a good option for effectively releasing those fish. All of their air bladders had popped out and I wouldn’t take the chance they would survive. If you haven’t fished that deep for perch before maybe it’s not common knowledge. A good learning moment.

Trent · Post by **Trent** » Wed Mar 01, 2023 8:39 pm

Totally agree!

ezduzit · Post by **ezduzit** » Fri Mar 03, 2023 11:29 am

great

BODA1 · Post by **BODA1** » Fri Mar 03, 2023 1:29 pm

Wow, totally awesome. Is this the norm for catching perch there? Usually l don't like about perch till July 4th.

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