PIB CONDITIONS AND IS ANYBODY CATCHING ANYTHING ON THE MAIN LAKE

Walleye opener, I'm guessing there will be guys out looking for the shallow eyes. Perch are usually scattered this time of year but you can find them. If I could I would be out there...

I fished a charter last weekend out of Conneaut and also had a very short shore fishing trip around PIB. We only caught 6 smallies on the main lake, and nothing in PIB. What we did land had some size, posted the best smallie (4.5) in another thread. But we also caught about 20-25 perch, many were kept. Caught them in a few areas in 25-35ft. Very slow couple days, extremely light bite on both the bass and perch.
 
Water was extremely stained. About 2 ft. visibility last Friday, and maybe 4-5Ft. by Saturday. Water Temp went from 47 Friday up to 52 Sat. Conneaut is not far at all from PIB area so I'd think thing were pretty similar temp wise. After this week I'd expect the smallies are on fire. Probably going to be awesome bay fishing too. Just gotta work around that awful cloudy water condition. And from a few reports I read, the bass are already in the bay, feasting. Both LM and SM.

william h

This upcoming warm weather ought to set up a more consistent bite.
Lets hope so. The weeds are growing each day with all the decayed fish feeding them.
Chief willy h

 
I think you're right. A little consistency with the heat would be nice.
And, wow, the shad do stick to the korkers.

The smallie action to the east is good. The water color is great and temp have them in a prespawn feed.

As far as the perch goes they are there. There is enough perch in the lake to be worried about bay perch if you wanna fish the lake. There on plenty of perch to be had east as well. I would start looking in the 30-45' range. Use your electronics before you drop anchor. They should be wrapping up with spawning. Once they are done is game on!

They are spawning hard. They come into the shallow "sea-weedy" areas and get aggressive. All the males we caught were leaking milt. 
 
Keep an eye out as you clean them. A fair number of the ones we caught had parasitic worms in the guts(none in the meat). I doubt they are of any health concern. They looked like little white leeches with a dark stripe down the middle. I bet someone else could tell you more. It's the first time I've seen this particular worm.

These were not int the meat. I assume it's an aquatic round or flat worm. As long as you don't eat the guts, you should be okay. I doubt an aquatic parasite could handle a human digestive system anyway.  I soak my fillet in brine overnight before freezing. I assume the salt water helps to kill unwanted hitchhikers.