Great perching on Flathead Lake's East Bay

“We could have made today a lot worse than it is,” said Jim, replying to his wife’s question at home about how fishing had been last Friday.

Jim and I had just returned from a perch fishing trip to East Bay, at the south end of Flathead Lake.

What Jim was referring to wasn’t the weather (it was gorgeous) nor the boat’s first fishing trip of the season (it performed admirably.)

Jim was saying he and I were both proud of ourselves for not keeping any more fish than we had iced in our coolers, about a dozen and a half each.

So, more importantly, neither of us was facing hours on the handle end of a fillet knife!

In short, the perch fishing had been fantastic.  Maybe too good.

No doubt there are more than a few anglers in the 30 boats that day who were wishing they hadn’t kept so many fish!

It’s been nearly a dozen years since I’ve tried catching perch in East Bay in April.

Biggest problem is access, compounded by low lake level.

Most anglers use the public ramp in Polson.  Others opt to run several miles from Yellow Bay. 

The Finlay Point ramp is too short this time of year and launching, even a small car-topper from the DuCharme access involves slogging through mud dragging the boat.

Launching with a long bow rope worked well in Polson but shallow water and nasty submerged rocks makes loading more difficult.

Someone in most boats used hip boots or waders to help put the boat back on the trailer.

East Bay is between 3 and 4 feet deep.  Any small bait presented near the bottom will attract perch, most between 8 and 9 inches with an occasional foot-longer.

While a piece of worm under a small bobber is money, a perch eye or strip of belly meat will stay on the hook longer.

We fished for three hours and each of us caught nearly 150 perch.

And we didn’t make the day any worse by keeping more than a few meals.