kevin

Surface water temp has large fluctuations on Lake Erie during warm spells, but the water temps themselves are stable. In fact it's colder right now than last year. Follow Buffalo's water temperature, which is taken 30ft down off buffalo. You can pull up the last 100 years, for each month. Lake Erie July Temperatures Buffalo (weather.gov)

6 color will bottom out in the depth you're looking to target.

You could always make up a couple specialty short lead cores for targeting your 20-30 foot depths. My guess is, you'll find it will keep up with or out perform the jet setup. Less drag, won't float up on inside turns, and its a stealthy presentation.

I personally only ever run a slip float if I'm fishing depths as deep or deeper than my rod length. If fishing 4 to 5ft depths, I don't think you're seeing any advantages by using a slip float. If you do run a slip float, a simple string and bead stopper would work fine. I run a small bead or a small section of silicone tubing under the slip float as a barrier between any weights or barrel swivels. It freely moves up and down the line, without all the wear and tear on the bottom of the float. With a fixed float and a proper shot pattern, it should cast quite far. With fresh line.

Ya they work pretty good under the right conditions. After a little rain or a good lawn soak, and the worms are up a bit higher, they work well. Dry ground not so much. But under the right conditions I've collected an entire flat of dew worms in under an hour.

I just use my worm grunter and they come right up. If it's cool and wet enough.

Pick your own, the price per dozen out of the ground has remained stable.

There are plenty of areas for you and your son to enjoy with that boat set up. The upper and lower Niagara river are both good options. You don't have to count out Lakes Erie or Ontario simply due to having a smaller boat. If you watch the weather and are cautious, you can enjoy days on the big lake as well. Inner bays and near shore areas on Lake Erie will get you into some bass and other species. Towards evening you'll even hit some walleye. The Niagara river has countless opportunities drifting near shore and casting along weed beds. On Lake O, gentle south wind days provide calm waters on the south shore. You can flatline for some trout all along there. Get out and enjoy. I put more hours on my 14ft aluminum boat in a year around here than I put on my 25fter.

I'm a member at the BBC. The basin itself is closed to fishing. The yacht club next door, which was traditionally the perch fishing side, is also closed off except for at the end of the pier. The yacht club also leaves docks in, which are all supported with ropes criss crossing the basin which would make it tough to fish anyway.

Well, given the abundant walleye population which continues to grow even with substantial commercial and angling pressure, you might see those limits go up. There is talk on the US side about raising walleye limits. That high population of walleye alone, can have a big impact on perch. I'm not saying it's recreational anglers having the biggest impact on perch. But I bet you'll see recreational limits drop before any major changes to commercial fishing.

The commercial fishery takes it's fair share. And with the dollars it generates, it's not going anywhere anytime soon. On the other hand, recreational perch angling has evolved 10 fold in the last decade or two. Back in the day, when a much smaller percentage of anglers chased them, with much less effective methods, the congregated spawning fish had more of a chance. We used to use 150ft anchor ropes and buoy markers to attempt to stop over top of small schools. Today, it is common to see boats right on top of each other, all running top of the line equipment. It's no longer perch fishing, it's perch harvesting. So it's only a matter of time when recreational angler limits will be dropped I think, as there's already talk of it state's side.

They aren't enforcing any right to enter. They're enforcing fines and 14 day quarantines. Two separate things. You'll enter, just with some added problems.

Exactly. The history of species stocked in the Great Lakes basin is pretty interesting.

I'm not going to argue with you sir, because there's no need to. Cutthroat trout have been stocked into migratory tribs of Huron, and Michigan. There are still some caught to this day in certain areas. I'm confident if you take even 5 minutes of your time to read about the history of cutthroat plantings in the Great Lakes, you'll find more than enough to keep you busy reading for a while. Regardless, this is an 11 year old post about Palaminos. I was simply pointing out there have been several strange stockings over the years. Cheers, and tight lines.

Thanks for the follow up. I fully understand how hatcheries work. I studied aquaculture, and worked for the MNR as a fish culture technician. There were plenty of cutthroat that were stocked into the upper great lakes. You could refer to this, directly from the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. "CUTTHROAT TROUT Salmo clarki Richardson. Michigan was the first state to propagate cutthroat trout, a native Western North American species, and stock it into waters of the basin. The federal fish hatchery at Leadville, Colorado, began active propagation of the species in 1889 and was primarily responsible for distribution of cutthroat trout to various state fish commissions (McDonald 1893, 1894). The Federal Fish Hatchery at Northville, Michigan, was an early recipient of fish from Leadville, and had 940 cutthroat trout on hand in 189 1 (Worth 1895). In 1892, the Minnesota and Wisconsin Fish Commissions both received small numbers of fish from Leadville (McDonald 1895). Although most cutthroat trout produced went to western states, the Leadville Hatchery also distributed small numbers of fish and eggs to various state fish commissions in the Great Lakes basin until the early 1900s, but whether any of these states, besides Michigan, stocked cutthroat trout in the Great Lakes or in the basin is uncertain. In 1895 the Michigan Fish Commission began planting cutthroat trout in the south branch of the Pere Marquette River, a tributary to Lake Michigan (Michigan State Board of Fish Commissioners 1897). Michigan continued to stock cutthroat trout in state waters from 1895 to 1940. A total of 105,000 fish were stocked by Michigan, but apparently all introductions failed because no fish were reported caught from waters of the upper Great Lakes basin (Holcomb 1964). Cutthroat trout may also have been introduced into Canadian waters of Georgian Bay, but the year or years of introduction and the outcome were not reported (McAllister and Crossman 1973)

Dip nets seem to work alot better than the cage styles. Just tour along the Niagara, and along any dock or back eddy you should be able to find some bait.

Here's a pic of a cutty, or cuttbow, whichever way you want to word it. Just a cross between a cutthroat and rainbow. I'll see if I can dig up a picture showing the bright slash marks along the gill rakers. There's actually quite a few around, but unless you're really looking, you won't notice the slash marks. From the information I've been given, from the MNR, is that quite a few cutty eggs were mixed in with one of the original transplants of Mcleod river strain rainbows back in the 1800's.

The fish that people commonly call "Goldens" around here, are Golden Rainbow Trout. They're just a colour variation of a Rainbow Trout, and not a golden trout. Most call them Palamino's. There's tons of info on them if you google it. They're still around, one's hanging on my cousins' wall.....

I've caught a couple cutthroats locally, which were accidentally released years ago in Lake Superior. A few have made their way down this way. I have a couple pics laying around somewhere.