Perch situation on Lake Michigan

Michigan Pledges $8M for Asian Carp Barrier in Illinois

Grew up 3 blocks from the lake right by the filtration plant “metro”

We spent our summers fishing for salmon, trout, and yes perch. We lived down there the entire summer. Everything has changed and in my opinion for the worse. Everyone wants to blame someone or something for the decline but it is mighty hard to find an answer that will stick for Lake Michigan. I have fiends who still catch plenty of perch but I have given up. 

I will blame the decline on the wolves but it’s more than likely related to something else. 

Billions of emerald shiners were available in the harbors in the 60s.  There had to be plenty of food for them until the alewife infestation in the mid 60s.  After that a slow and steady decline.    CARPIO 

Zebra mussels combined with people taking ridiculous amounts of fish is probably what did it. When you have people harvesting insane amounts of fish and the fish cannot survive as fry due to the lack of phytoplankton, it will crash the population

No limit on perch in 50s , 60s.    CARPIO 

Zebra Mussels had an impact on the perch also by filtering out the plankton the perch fry needed.

Dirty? Water= more nutrients = more plankton = more food = more perch?   Years ago it was said that there was way too much phosphorus in the water.  This led to a change in the makeup in detergents that ultimately ended up in the lake.   But by reducing the phosphorus it vastly reduced the amount of nutrients in the water. When the alewives were accidentally introduced into the lake they started to overcome the food chain. This, I believe, is one of the main reasons for the current downturn in perch fishing.    CARPIO 

If perch are caught in Chicago and in Michigan why aren’t they up here?   CARPIO 

Last time I fished a Chicago (I was in my kayak fishing early season coho), we found a body. Doubt I'll be back anytime soon, but that late season perch fishing is insane.

Here's an update that was recently released

https://mdnrlmfmp.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/yellow-perch-and-inshore-fish-annual_2019.pdf

I’m with you on that, plus add Milwaukee to that list. Every person in the city of Milwaukee has indirectly taken a dump into the Milwaukee harbor.

I've heard reports of people catching quite a few around Chicago still.  Chicago river and calumet channel to be specific.  They were on fire at Navy Pier until the big storm around Thanksgiving which muddied up the water and scattered them.

The fish will be bred and raised indoors in tanks that resemble hot tubs in a vacant downtown building, said Ken Webb, a research associate at the university. Small fingerlings will be sold to fish farmers, who will raise the fish until they’re large enough to eat.

tommy never said anything about hot tubs.  I would have been all in if he had ........

https://www.outdoornews.com/2018/12/05/wisconsin-researchers-work-to-breed-yellow-perch/ 

Walranger5 (tommy) may have been on to something............

He’s not Jay Reed that’s for sure! Reed would snoop around by the lake and check things out for himself.    CARPIO