Perch on a fly...

I've caught many perch on a fly – using streamers of various types.  The biggest perch were caught at New Croton Reservoir in the late ‘80’s.  Without targeting perch in particular, I caught a mixed bag of crappie, bluegill, white bass, largemouth bass, and yes – perch.

However, living in Western New York near Lake Erie, perch on a fly is a joke at best. 

Perch fishing on Lake Erie – a Perch Factory – is serious business.  Not a fly fisher’s dream trip for sure!  But, I love fishing and my buddy, Dr. Ron, loves perch fishing so every season I give it a try.

This was the first trip for me this year.  Typically, I don’t bother bringing my fly rod since the standard depth is 60 plus feet – a little deep even for a full sinking line.  However, we usually spend a couple of hours fishing for smallmouth bass, so I decided to bring my fly rod and a bunch of bass flies I tied.

DFB Bass Flies

We had a beautiful day – clear blue skies, comfortable temps, and no lawn to mow!

Capt. Ron at the Helm hell bent for Perch!

Leaving the Cat on a Perch Quest!

 We headed out of Cattaraugus Creek at about 8:30 am and met the armada soon after. 

This was the place for perch - or so all the reports reported!

Everyone was at the prescribed 50 – 65 feet, though spread out over the horizon looking for the schools of perch.

We hit it hard for about 4 hours with little success – if you call a 4 inch white bass "success."

White bass on a gold Rippin' Rap - I need a bigger lure!

So, Capt. Ron finally gave in and we headed to the shallower spots where we've caught smallmouth in the past.  

Capt. Ron is NOT happy - the perch bite never happened - for anyone!

We found a lot of chocolate colored water in the 12 foot range so we went out to about 17’ where the water cleared and we marked fish.  I was itchin’ to break out the long rod, but never got the chance – the wind kicked up and it just wasn't in the cards.

We pulled anchor a couple of times, but, long story short, in 17’ of water, we were into fish!  

Capt. Ron got the first three fish and to our great surprise – they were Perch! – of the jumbo kind! 

In the next hour or so we caught yellow perch, white perch and sheepshead up to about 5 lbs.  However, not one smallmouth bass was weighed in!  

Total Perch – 7 up to 14 inches – a nice dinner or two for Capt. Ron and his lovely wife Audrey.  If we’d just gone for bass – no tellin’ HOW many perch we would have caught!

If anyone else has any mixed up trips like this – I’d love to hear about them!