The yellow perch fishing out of the Port of Erie can only be described as a super experience.

I joined the Boyers Sportsmen’s Association on the Edward John Head Boat as part of their 65th Anniversary monthly outing. The club has picked one outdoor-focused event for every month of 2012 to help celebrate their 65 years of being in existence. This event was a home run as the group chartered the Edward John and hit the waters of Lake Erie seeking as our target the delicious yellow perch.

The action started out slow as the crew headed for the canyons several miles off Presque Isle where the perch had been located off and on for several weeks. The boat crew reported the group before us had rounded up over 500 perch in the morning run but we were determined to overtake them on the late day and evening trip. The rigs we would use would be light tackle with perch rigged double- and triple-hooked lines. The emerald shiner — which is fine bait — was used as an offering for the perch. Due to a hemorrhaging disease that showed up several years ago the emerald shiner is no longer used on inland species and is confined to the Great Lakes.

Men, women and children composed our group and the method was quite simple: Bait your hooks with shiners and drop the line with a lead weight until it hits the bottom, then jig it off the bottom. The perch were compliant and we started to catch fish in earnest. The action picked up later in the day and many doubles and triples were caught to help fill the 30 fish limit.

The sporting nature of the anglers came out and a biggest fish pool was started. At a dollar all the anglers in good nature agreed to participate, and with perch a fish measuring in the teens is a contender. PK Thompson landed a decent fish and took the early lead with about a 13-inch long perch, but his lead was short lived as Greg Anderson scooped up a perch that was a chubby 15-inch beauty. It at first looked like a small mouth bass, but was confirmed as a jumbo perch. In the meantime, Greg had figured out the strategy for catching the colorful fish. He did a fish count and was at 28 fish, my count at that time was 13 fish … yikes! I needed to quit feeding shiners to the perch and start catching them in earnest.

About the time I started to feel sorry for myself I had a tremendous tug on my line. I knew that it was either a really nice perch or something other than my regular hits.

My rod bent over with the weight of a fish and the battle was on as I tried to bring this fish to net with the light tackle. People started to yell for a net as I agreed it was a good one. I concentrated on not horsing this fish as he made several small runs while I kept the pressure on him. I knew that the small perch hooks on my rig were delicate and a lot could go wrong before we got him to net. Then I saw the fish through the clear depths of the lake and the silver green flash of the fish told me that I had a walleye.

The mate of the Edward John had a net on the ready and sure enough he made a nice scoop of the fish and we had a very nice walleye on the deck. The fish was easily over 2 feet long and the group groaned as I chuckled with self-satisfaction. My friend Kathy Crawford yelled out, “Anyone but Hewitt!” I replied with a grin, “That’s a good one boys!”

The walleye held up as the biggest fish caught and the 15-inch perch held up as the largest perch caught. The group broke open the record for the day as everyone landed 30 perch and we easily surpassed 600 perch for the evening trip.

The Edward John sails off of the docks on State Street twice daily and is happy to take groups or individuals for an enjoyable and safe Lake Erie fishing experience. Contact them at www.edwardjohnperchfishing.com and Captain John will hook you up!