Racine Harbor ( perch only ), Racine County (all postings)

Guys, the perch came much earlier this year, and the heat wave around the 4th of July pushed them deep. They'll be back next year, and lets hope the weather isn't as crazy as it was this year. I remember in May at one point it was impossible to not catch them, I was getting them on crankbaits and 3/4 oz trout spoons, and you could see huge schools of them. Better luck next year guys.

Many people are contributing to this in a respectable manner and there is no arguments going on. Except for one now. I started a perch thread in the general fishing forum so Edward can have all his reports back. Now back to the reports...

You guys ever think about starting a whiny perch thread in One of the forums?

I can see that. I do remember there also being a huge number of crawfish everywhere also. I don't even see those that much anymore. Always just caught my own for bait. Now we have to buy it.

I've fished the Chicago area for many years. Believe me, there are many more times the gobie numbers than you will find in Racine. You will find all sizes of perch and they co-exist quite well with the gobies. This past year some of the bigger perch I've caught have had gobies up to 4" in their bellies.

Recent studies by U Michigan have shown 90% of the Zo-Plankton has disappeared from the lake. There remain just small remnants, one being in extreme southern end of the lake and the other being the deepest part of northern Lake Michigan.

When the fry hatch out, they live off of their egg sacs for about 10 days. After that they feed on the plankton. When they grow to fingerling size, they move into the shallows and feed on the tiny crustations (Shrimp). Here's the problem, if the winds are too strong and the fry are blown too far off shore with no plankton to feed on, they will perish. The ones that make it to fingerling size move inshore and feed on the crustations. Here's the other problem, crustations also depend on the plankton to survive. End result, no plankton, no crustations, no perch.

It's just my opinion unless you plant perch to a survivable size, what's the point in planting fry or fingerlings when most of them will perish anyway?

I thinks its gobies. Seeing a carpet of them everywhere you go in shallow is crazy. And they literally eat everything they can put in there mouths. I used to just walk shoreline rock areas almost anywhere and at least see schools of dinky perch. Of course that was over 10 years ago. I haven't seen a single one this year, I did get my limit twice by the boils last year with some beasts. But this year? WoW! How about netting a mess from some area lakes and transporting them to lake michigan. I would think that could be easier then raising them in hatcheries. Some lakes are loaded with tiny perch. Look at wind lake even.

Veratis, here's a site you might be intrested in, lots of good info. http://www.lmyellowperch.com/index.html

Check out candlestein stocking pt.5 it might help answer some of your questions. By the way, they stopped netting perch in Wis. in 1997. What is your opinion to the rapid decline of perch numbers over the last few years?

I got no problem with a $10 perch stamp as long as it goes toward some kind of perch stocking if possible. Also they need to make it were if its' 5 perch for Wisconsin, then it should be 5 perch for all other states and closed spawning season for all the states. T'sFBS.

If the DNR donated perch spawn, raised to be stocked in Mckinly then I bet Paul Smith would like to hear about that. I haven’t heard of any hatchery on Milw. north side and the DNR have said they haven’t stocked perch in Lake Michigan since 1980’s. So i find that stocking hard to believe without more info. Michigan has mussels too and a 35 perch limit, so let’s stop blaming them for our 5 perch limit? Paul Smith's article for perch stocking didn’t say anything about stocking to a catchable size. The petition asks the feds to stock perch, like they did Lake Superior. Weren’t their 1.2 million raised as a make work project for some hatchery, right? If the DNR can raise 1.2 million perch at the old Lake Mills hatchery for 5 years for Rock River how much can it cost to raise 2 inch perch at the new Wild Rose? I’m willing to bet the cost difference between hatchery walleye and perch is negligible. Red Cedar Lake, Pike Lake (2), Green Lake, Long Lake & Beaver Dam Lake got over 17 million walleyes 2010-2011, Lake Michigan Milw. Co got 3 million 4-inch walleyes and for some reason we perch fishermen are supposed to believe stocking perch would cost too much? To expensive is just an excuse and a poor one at that, Lake Michigan would only need a fraction of public hatchery space. Racine offers more public access then all the lakes listed. Big perch eat baby carp, so more perch equals greater protection from big head, which might not even make it. Since Commercials removed 90% of the fish from Lake Michigan, let them pay 90% of all the money needed to protect their future profits from Big head. I’m with petrescuerealtor, let’s start a $10 perch stamp. To cover any costs from shifting from a few walleyes to perch, or did anyone have a great summer catching perch, did their kids spend a lot of time at the lake front on summer vacation having a great time catching perch? Mine didn't. 16 years of excuses is enough, time to try something, that’s what our fishing license money is for, for us and our kids, for stocking, not for netters. There’s over $400,000 per year becoming available for perch stocking by just having netters pay their own way.

A good friend of mine, the founder of Wis. yellow perch uncovered some intresting data. Back in early 2000 the DNR donated some excess spawn taken from the Tin Can reef off of Milwaukee. It was given to a small fish hatchery on the north side of Milwaukee, they were raised to finglering size and released in the Mckinley harbor, they did quite well and the fishing was pretty good for a few years. Back then the Quagla mussels had not entered the lake and the bottom food chain was in much better shape. It's one thing to raise a few thousand perch from 8 to 10 inches and dump them into a few park lagoons.It's another thing to raise a few million perch to a catchable size and stock them up and down the harbors of lake Michigan in Wis. I think the cost would be much to prohibitive. We have a much bigger problem with the big head carp, better resources be spent on stopping their spread in to lake Michigan.

vertias,for what it is worth,here's a site you might like to check out http://www.uwsp.edu/cols-ap/nadf/All%20NADF%20Documents/Yellow_perch_RAS_production.pdfhttp://www.uwsp.edu/cols-ap/nadf/All%20NADF%20Documents/Yellow_perch_RAS_production.pdf

check out the charts,just to set up a large enough faculity and raise a perch to 5" is mind boggling.

As to blaming netters, if the DNR officials listed on Dr. Wilberg’s cover page don’t deny it, then yea, I’ll blame the netters too. Does anyone really believe that nets empty oceans and not Great Lakes? I also blame netters and their friends for the over $6 million taken from WI sport licenses to subsidize their nets, money better off spent stocking perch. As to sport violating, it just can’t do the same damage as nets. From 1986 to 1996,DNR says WI Lake Michigan sportsmen harvested 1.4 million lbs. of perch, commercials 3.1 million lbs. CanAm verified 400,000 lbs illegally harvested by commercials in 4 years (89-92). It took all sportsmen all of 1989, 1991 and 1992 to catch 400,000 lbs. of perch, the small 8 inchers, and not the bigger 9+ inchers the commercials took. It’s estimated that WI commercials illegally took 1.9 million total pounds in just 4 years. That’s 40% more then sportsmen kept in all 11 years mentioned and since we didn’t keep 50 perch every time we went out, then those few guys that did violate don’t compare to the netters. Changing the law in 1989 to quota, the DNR made it so easy for netters to violate. As to IL perch not doing as well, maybe it has something to do with no perch left in Wisconsin’s waters, numbers so low the DNR stop publishing them 3 years ago. For 10,000 years Lake Michigan adapted to perch spawning/producing from all the reefs, not just a few. Maybe that’s the real problem, an easy answer, just stock $1 million worth on SE Wis. reefs to find out

Sorry for the delay Herb, have you checked out that website mentioned by Paul Smith, lmyellowperch.com under, The Interference, they mention the futility of trying to go through the Wis. Conservation Congress. No removing perch as a commercial species like Pike. No protecting perch reefs from nets, no reducing the perch harvest split from 50/50. A 2010 resolution in Milw. to stock perch turned into a joke, the DNR said it would cost too much to stock perch, when asked how much, he said, I don’t know, why don’t you tell me. The final committee meeting being held in Brule, can you believe that, 10 miles from Superior, it’s like they didn’t want Racine people at the meeting talking about stocking perch. I hear the DNR rep brought up an old report claiming that 100 million perch would have to be stocked, not the 16 million claimed in 2004. If 10 days of Sturgeon spearing is worth $3.5 million, what’s a summer of perch fishing worth to Racine? The DNR refuses to answer that too. For a one time stocking cost of $1 million, the return would be so much greater each and every year after. So Herb since the DNR won’t advance any changes that threaten commercial perch fishing despite public demand, we have to sign petitions and write to our Legislators or vote them out.

I agree, close the season till after the spawn. I was just trying to point out that man although he is not the main culprit, he sure helps to speed up the process.Unless the quagla and zebra mussels eat themselves out of house and home, perch fishing in the northern half of the lake as we know today is doomed. Maybe a better solution might be to stockpile lake michigan perch DNA in case this should ever happen or scientists could find a solution.

Perch numbers in the extreme southern end of the lake seem to be pretty good yet. You see many different year classes which means their survival rate is still pretty good. I think its due mainly to the sandier bottom which is not as condusive to the mussels. When fishing in Montrose I find far less mussels then up our way. Here's something intresting, lately I've been finding gobies in the larger perch I catch down there. They say the gobies eat the mussels,god only knows there's enough of them in Chicago. Maybe there is still some hope.

Perch chaser I hope by your post your of the opinion we will never get the population back until we have ALL states that border the lake close the season till after spawn. As to my earlier post we should consider a 10 dollar stamp with the money double or triple the facilities from the house of correction and adult perch planting in area county parks and start planting most of them in big pond. Forget planting fry or fingerlings that only becomes goby food.