Got out for some perch fishing with my buddy Mike, who incidentally did well fly-fishing for pike yesterday on Cayuga. We worked a bunch of areas on the west shore. Perch fishing was very good once we found them - in 4' of water! We landed at least 50 fish, around 30 to 35 keepers (9"+.) A couple largemouths and large pickerel also were landed. Double-hook minnows worked well. We actually ran out of bait today - there were a lot of dink perch in the mix.
We did a quick check on laker flats near Aurora/Willets. We found a lot of bait from 130' to 160' or so, and some laker marks - though we didn't have time to fish them much. There are also lakers shallower.
A funny story I forgot to mention from our last Cayuga perch trip. I was working around 20' to 25' of water with double-hook minnow rigs. I was reeling in my rig and I felt a light hit or two. As I lifted the rod - raising the minnow rig out of the water I saw a huge "fish" rapidly following it in. It looked like a big white rainbow trout or salmon - maybe 3' long! And deep - 17lbs or better if it was an ounce. Then the "fish" crashed the surface and took off. It wasn't a fish at all - I had a large white LOON chasing in my minnows! Swimming for them! I'm glad I didn't hook it, but we had seen the loon working the area. There's a first for everything....