Northwest Fishing Reports

I hear Lake Washington is a great perch fishery so I was wondering if anyone has tips they could share.

when it warms a bit more, the perch will come shallower and be more eager to feed.
A fish finder is really helpful, but they can be found all around IME.
They tend to school up in holes, so once you find 'em, action can be hot for awhile. I've caught them on pumpkinseed yamamoto flatworms cut in half so they're shorter. Maggots, mealworms, Gulp! maggots, pink rubber worms(Racfish slayed 'em on one of these when we fished last summer)...good ole worms, they're not too picky.

I think I saw G-man say they are deeper (like 30') right now, but as the weather gets better, you can get 'em at several of the fishing piers. My biggest ever came off the fishing pier @ Seward Park last August.

Hi Jim,

The perch fishing on both Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish can be ridiculous! If you launch out of coulon just head straight to the southeast tip of mercer island, get out in 20-30 ft of water, and start looking for schools on your depthfinder. At times you'll see your screen look like it went over a giant blob about the size of your boat. That's what the schools look like, and you can set up on top of that school with just about any small bait and catch fish.

If I have a hard time locating schools, I'll find a deep weedline, and start fancasting a crankbait around. It doesn't take long to have a school of perch following it back to the boat. You can either cast directly into the school with small reaction baits, or set up with a small jig or dropshot and crush em!

There are tons of places on both lakes, but sitting on coleman point or just about anywhere around mercer island will get the job done on Lake Wa.

Good luck!
Dave

Check out Tom Pollock's latest report on Salmon University. He was catching perch in Lake Washington last weekend in the standard 16' to 20' depth range, which happens to be the weedline in this lake. To weed out the smaller fish I tend to use a 2" to 3" tube jig tipped with worm or perch meat. You can also dropshot a small bait or strip of perch meat, it works just as well. The thing to remember is bring two anchors, to keep you from moving around too much, and tip your lures with worm or some kind of bait.

Perch are definitely coming up shallow. They'll be everywhere on the 17-21' weedline once the water gets warmer. The bigger ones are the ones you want to go after, typically they bite morning, evening or low light conditions. Look for any points on the lake.

If there big enough to bite ,they are big enough to eat. Simple....