State record yellow perch caught off Fairport Harbor

State Record Yellow Perch .jpg

A potential state record yellow perch caught by Dave Berg of Mentor measured 15 3/4 inches, more than an inch longer than the 32-year-old former record holder. (Photo courtesy of Don Moore, Harbor Bait and Tackle)

Print Email D'Arcy  Egan, special to cleveland.com By D'Arcy Egan, special to cleveland.com 

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on May 07, 2016 at 4:04 PM

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Dave Berg is a hard-core fisherman and he needed some angling action a couple of weeks ago to boost his flagging spirits.

Berg just had a surgery to remove a kidney after a biopsy had revealed cancer. Chemotherapy was in his future. Berg called his brother, Fred Berg, and had him pick him up. The brothers headed to HTP Rack and Marina in Fairport Harbor, where they dock their boats in summer.

"The game plan was to get some sun, drink a Corona, try to catch a fish or two and spend some quality time together," said Berg, 46, of Mentor.

The pair began casting from shore on April 18 with perch rigs baited with emerald shiner minnows. The brothers figured if they were lucky, they might hook a smallmouth bass, catfish or sheepshead from the prime fishing location.

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Dave Berg shows off a potential 2 pound, 14 ounce state record yellow perch he caught on April 18 while casting from shore in Fairport Harbor. (Photo courtesy of Don Moore, Harbor Bait and Tackle)

"After catching a couple of sheepshead and a catfish, I hooked a really nice fish on my light-action St. Croix spinning rod," he said. "The drag was set light, and this fish was really taking line. When I saw a yellow flash in the water, at first I thought it was a nice smallmouth bass."

Instead, a green-and-gold yellow perch appeared and, after a careful battle, Fred Berg netted his brother's fish.

"It was crazy big," said Berg. "I knew it was a Fish Ohio perch, and had a feeling it might be a state record. We took it over to Harbor Bait and Tackle (on the Grand River in Painesville) a few hours later, and owner Don Moore weighed it in at 2 pounds, 14 ounces."

The yellow perch was substantially larger than the 2.75-pound, 14 1/2-inch record setter caught April 17, 1984, by Charles Thomas of Lorain. And it might have been even more of a record.

"The perch was dripping a lot of eggs, and might have been a 3-pounder when I first caught it," said Berg. "It looked to be 16 inches long when I put it against a tape measure."

To be safe, Berg listed the perch as 15 3/4 inches and Moore weighed it in at 2 pounds, 14 ounces for the entry form submitted to the Outdoors Writers of Ohio, the record-keeping entity for Ohio, and is awaiting confirmation on the record. Moore afterward had the county auditor certify his scale.

"The scale was right on the mark, all the way to 30 pounds," said Moore, who is spearheading a meeting at the Fairport Fisheries Unit in Fairport Harbor at noon on Saturday (May 14). Local sport anglers are upset with a proliferation of commercial fishing nets off the mouth of the Grand River that have made both perch and walleye fishing difficult.

The yellow perch beat all of the line-class records listed by the International Game Fish Association in its 2016 record book. What might never be beat is the all-tackle yellow perch mark, one of the oldest in the IGFA books. That 4-pound, 3-ounce monster was caught more than 150 years ago from a Bordertown, N.J. pond in 1865.

"I stopped at HTP Marina the other day, just to say hello, and everyone was buzzing about the record perch," said Berg, general manager at Metal Seal Precision in Mentor. "I laughed and let them tell the story they'd read on social media. Then I admitted I was the one who caught it."

Berg's surgery had foiled plans to launch his 28-foot Amberjack three weeks ago and dock it at Fox Haven Marina on Catawba Island, hoping to take advantage of the early season fishing for trophy walleye. Facing chemotherapy, he's now resigned to having to wait for the summer season and fish closer to home.

"I grew up in Painesville, with our house overlooking the Grand River," he said. "I've fished here my whole life. While everyone always says they'd like to move away to escape the winters, this is one of the best fishing locations in the country and I'd never leave.

"I was also happy to get some attention for the Lake Erie perch fishing, which was pretty bad last year. I hope this big fish, one that was caught from shore, will be an incentive for people to get out, get some minnows and go perch fishing."

(D'Arcy Egan, the long-time Plain Dealer outdoors writer who retired in 2015, occasionally writes columns appearing in The Plain Dealer and on cleveland.com. He can be reached at darcyegan@roadrunner.com)