During this period, the perch swim in 50 to 65 feet of water in areas off the Chautauqua County shoreline. The fish-finding focus zones become the bottom areas where undulations of a slight rise in the bottom with sand/gravel are found.

Ex-FLW expert angler Ashton Laird, fishing with partner Devin Pleace, used minnows and lures to score big on the perch in recent days. Fishing off Cattaraugus Creek, this dynamic duo found the best action in 58 feet of water. Using a Garmin 1286 Live Scope with GPS and an LSV34 transducer, they set the unit for a 150-foot search pattern to locate the fish.

“The schools are large and roaming all the time right now,” Laird said. “But they should settle down as soon as the water temperature goes up a few degrees to around 50.”

The water temp was 44 on this trip.

Plentiful Lake Erie yellow perch were biting in recent days in 50-60 foot depths off Cattaraugus Creek. Photo by Ashton Laird

Once a school was found, they would use their 36-volt Minn Kota Terrova electric bow motor to slide over the fish, then turn on the Spot-Lock function to hold the GPS position without dropping anchor.

They would immediately drop rods set up with 2-hook crappie rigs and a sinker on the bottom to dangle emerald shiner minnows to see if the fish were on an active bite. If they were, they switched rods to drop a W7 Jigging Rapala or a Steel-shad blade bait with a gentle vertical jigging motion to provide action to the lures.

The jigging rods were set up with a 12-pound hi-vis braid (Power Pro) and 8-10 foot fluorocarbon leaders (Sun Line, 8-pound test, clear). Laird uses a simple double-uni knot to bring the braid and fluoro together. He says, “This knot is simple to tie, and I just can’t consistently tie the more superior FG Knot for the leader to braid union.”

He’s a humble angler who doesn’t mind sharing his knowledge with others. You can talk with Laird at Lime Lake Marine, where he is an associate.

“With the roaming perch schools out there right now, we stay away from other boats in the area to avoid problems with our boat movement as we trail and relocate active schools,” Laird added. “Too many folks out there like to engage in colorful conversation when they think you’re moving in on their secret spot. We have no intention of moving in on anyone, so we avoid all that color.”

Both anglers finished with their 50-fish daily bag limit in four hours of a dock-to-dock fishing day.

“Surprisingly, most fish we hooked were males,” Laird stated. “At the final count, there were only 20 females from the 100 fish we had at our cleaning station. We caught far more than that, some other species too.”

The Hanover Boat Launch is open, but the restrooms and fish-cleaning station are still closed to protect from possible freezing weather.

Outdoors Calendar:

Mar. 31: Last day for NYS Coyote hunting season. Season will open again on Oct. 1, 2024.

Apr. 1: Opening day for the NYS Inland Trout Fishing season.

Apr. 6: Southtowns Walleye Association of WNY, Gun Raffle, STWA Clubhouse, Hamburg, NY, visit www.southtownswalleye.com for address and details.

Apr. 13-14: Little Valley Vol. Fire Dept. Spring Sportsman’s Show, Cattaraugus County Fairgrounds, Little valley, NY, call 716-609-0500 for info.

Apr. 20: 1-Day Lake Erie yellow perch derby, Southtowns Walleye Association, 716-796-5372 for info.

NOTE: Submit Calendar items to forrestfisher35@yahoo.com.