Where are the perch

[webster]

A lot of complaining around Georgia shore this year noone is catching many perch. The ones we do catch are small. I hear alot about alwives and i hear white perch eat all the little perch what is amazing is not many people feel selling them by the ton the last 20 years has had any impact on them . What do you all think . By the way fish out of my portable shanty all the time the perch i do see bite like they are Hungry not like they just ate a alwive. Also have not seen or caught a white perch off Georgia shore since August

[Jim111]

Well, I think you know how I feel about commercial fishing. But then again, like Letterman and Leno point out every year on their late-night shows.... "where else in the world can you still shoot fish with a deer rifle" either???? VT tends to take a while to change things, it seems. There's a few smaller ponds over this way that have been absolutely decimated by guys who sell fish. Many of them don't adhere to limit rules, unfortunately. They'll take their 50 fish back to the truck or even home, then return an hour later and do it all over again. On Champlain, of course, there's no longer a limit on perch to slow them down. Don't know what to tell you other than maybe search out some new spots and if you find fish, keep mum about it? Good luck. -Jim

[razzledazzle]

I've been "swinging" in and checking Georgia Shore results. Not good. Most fisherman are not doing well as you have said. I heard there's been another alewife die-off in the Inland Sea...Maybe that's part of the problem.
I fish north, north of St Albans Bay where I have a place to park on a private road and hardly ever have other fisherman around me.
Thursday, Cathy and I fished four hours over ten feet of water. We kept 17 Yellow Perch and let a bunch of smaller ones go back to grow for next winter. Fish would come and go as there was a nice northern (8 pounds?) cruising around below us, chasing our quarry. We see this same scenario all the time where we fished. Fishing seemed somewhat normal for this particular spot although sometimes it's more consistent action. I don't mind inconsistent action if the quality of fish is superior to other places I frequent.

Nice colors on these fish too...Very healthy.




I'm fishing over a bed of snails/mussels. The fish seem to like to come in there and feast. The fish I took home and cleaned were full of brown snails and small crayfish. Funny how they showed signs of feeding on the bottom, yet our best fish came from about 18" up. At one point, I moved out to 20 feet of water and could only get strikes with slightly slack line, bait directly on the bottom. It was an interesting day...our first "real" trip out.





We ate 'em up Friday night! Yummy...the first fresh perch meal of the season!

[Jim111]

Nothing like a meal of fresh perch to get a body interested in going out again! Sounds like you had a great trip!

-Jim