Pequod1

I have fished Keuka for a long time and totally agree with Gambler on what happened. A die off of food for alewifes or a pollution problem with toxic chemicals would take a much slower progressive reduction in the population of salmonids. There was a sudden crash of alewifes on that lake following those two winters. Apparently, they do not do well in very cold winters. Those of you that know me know that I am not a big fan of lake trout but I do care a lot about the overall health of that lake including lakers. Starting in the spring of 2017 something bad was happening. Every perch I caught that May had 4-5 baby perch in their bellies. It was great fishing, but I knew it was going to get bad real soon. In 2018, we still had pretty good perch fishing but they were again loaded with perch fry. The winter ice fishing changed a little earlier than that when as Les stated, we were catching lakers in 20’ off Indian Pines and they also were filled with perch young. I tried a few more times after 2018 for perch in both the east and west branch. It definitely is not what it used to be. The best thing right now for that lake is to reduce the laker population. They will eat everything they can catch but eventually, their numbers will hit a level that the lake can sustain. That is if all those population charts I learned many years ago in grad school are correct. Once that happens, the population of other fish should increase too barring any other unpredictable environmental event. Unfortunately, it will take some time.

Definitely what happened on Sodus. I think you should try those two fingerlakes ski dooz. They are not quite as big as Lake Ontario Rockies but with a little weeding out, you can have a bunch in the 1 lb class. In addition, you can get some perch in either lake and maybe even a walleye in Skaneateles

I gave up on finding them in big Sodus yrs ago. Just not there like they were. But, I would suggest you try either Keuka or Skaneateles lakes. They are loaded right now

I have an update for this thread on spot lock/perch. The past two weeks I have been perching on a very clear lake. Visibility down to around 22’ . I wondered if the Minn kota would have any effect on the perch clearly visible under my boat so I watched how they reacted to me turning the Minn kota on and off. Nothing! I was quite surprised. I did this as shallow as 15’ with no effect on the perch. This was not a one day incident. I experimented on 4 separate days even in glass calm conditions with the same results.

Nice report. Your technique of slack line fishing is right on. Early spring perch react like this everywhere I fish for them. Expect them to get more aggressive after the spawn and then begin to actively feed..

I remember a story that Gambler told me about tying a ballon to a perch in a local bay. If I’m not mistaken, the ballooned fish started taking off like crazy. Turns out a pike got it !

It really depends on where you are, the clarity of the water and depth. Less is correct for most of the fingerlakes . I have watched them “ fly away” when someone makes a noise on Seneca or canandaigua. But letting the jig pound the bottom in other lakes , bays and Erie seems to trigger a strike at times.