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As he does every year my brother, Pat, comes over from Spokane to visit and fill his ice chest with perch fillets. We pretty much only fish the south end of Mercer Island as I have stated in previous posts as the fish seem to be the same size no matter what area we have tried. Last year saw a big drop off in size as we caught very few in the 12"+ range (we actually do measure them) and this year is following the same pattern. The only difference we have found this year is that the fish are nice and thick and cut out a great fillet in the 8" to 10" size. We literally could not put more fillets in the 8 qt bags he took home. One big difference I also noticed this year is the size of the schools we see on the finder - some schools 20 ft thick and over 100 yds long. Takes a lot to feed this biomass and many times the fish "puke" minnows as we bring them in. I have to wonder how the perch and smallmouth affect the Sockeye fry that come out of the Cedar River. The finger always seems to be pointed at the cutthroat and I am sure they do feed on Sockeye fry, but........

If you decide to chase perch this time of year a couple hints. Search for the schools stating at the 45 ft depth. As the water cools (right now we showed 54) the fish will go deeper. Use the dropshot method with the Huckabee knot (see it tied on Youtube) and always fish the bottom. We use 1 oz white jigging spoons for the bottom weight and this and the hook above are tipped with perch meat with skin left on. Many times the bigger perch prefer the spoon.
For me an electric knife is a must for cleaning although I have seen guys clean perch just as fast with a good sharp fillet knife.

tleeMV

10/28/2015 12:45:00 PM

That is a lot of great info! Thanks!

MotoBoat

10/28/2015 1:50:00 PM

Does the ff screen shots show your jig as it is fishing? Biomass, that is a accurate term for what is seen on the ff screen.

kodacachers

10/28/2015 7:21:00 PM

Great report! Thank you!

buc

10/28/2015 7:23:00 PM

yep slabbin time >^*> ...

8theB8

10/28/2015 8:22:00 PM

On my bucket list for sure! Nice work!

N E 1 FISSION

10/28/2015 10:23:00 PM

Great report,!!

Hunter757

10/29/2015 3:48:00 AM

Thank you for the information and willingness to share you just don't see much of that going on now days. Great report and a pile of fish for the freezer as well. Nice going.

slabman

10/29/2015 9:33:00 AM

None of the shots above show our fishing lines or lure although I do have shots from directly below the boat that show what you asked.

the doc

10/30/2015 4:49:00 PM

its my understanding, that the last year we had a sockeye fishery, (and how can the tribe, have fishing rights, to a lake, that we created, long after the fact.....etc, etc., anyway. im not pc. losers are. i heard, that that year, the reason we got some sockeye back, is that the bc nets were on strike, and that their netting area, includes the lake wash fish, before they break away, and head inland. not sure. just what i heard.
I have never fished washington for perch. id like to know where. i have a 14' with a 20 hp. so i cant run too far from the launch, where ever that is. are the schools everywrhere? or just in certain areas? big lake, you know.

slabman

10/30/2015 5:21:00 PM

doc, below is an email I set up just for fishing. If you email me I will tell you exactly where we go and what are the closest launches. The fish need to be harvested big time and basically there are few fishing out there. When I first started about 5 yrs ago we settled for nothing less than 10", with many 12" plus!! Last year we really saw the size diminish. Now we sort between 9 to 10" but since the fish are fat and are top quality table fare it is what it is. And "thank you" whoever invented the electric knife.
jim1943p@outlook.com

reelinanrockin

10/31/2015 12:13:00 PM

Swedish pimple is a good jig for perch too. Catch a chub and cut it up for bait too. The smb will even take the chub meat on a drop shot rigg. Lots of doubles!

Ching1278

11/4/2015 9:43:00 AM

Hey Slabman,
Always read about Lake WA perch fishing but never been able to do it since I'm "Boatless In Seattle".
If you ever need a partner, please ping me...Chingwa1177@gmail.com.
Thanks

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