Fishing the future now: Up & down Lake Shore Drive, 4- to 6-inch perch

It took 22 minutes for me to feel the light bites of small yellow perch by Northerly Island. I made my first cast at 7:04 a.m. and caught my first perch at 7:26.

The 4- to 6-inch perch are everywhere on the Chicago lakefront. Keepers are somewhere, just nowhere where I was on a tour up and down Lake Shore Drive.

Perch fishing is closed from May 1 to June 15 in the Illinois waters of Lake Michigan. This year, the word was out in the days leading up to the opener Friday that perch were in. Size was the question.

‘‘I was at Montrose on Saturday, and 90 percent of the fish I caught were in the 6-inch range,’’ Juan Luis Munoz messaged. ‘‘Only managed six keepers between two of us.’’

‘‘About the same size I’ve seen in the harbors since ice fishing this season,’’ Michael Muniz messaged. ‘‘Where, oh, where are the jumbos hiding? Hmmmm.’’

I planned to bounce around 31st Street, Northerly Island, Diversey and Montrose, but Steve Palmisano at Henry’s Sports and Bait suggested I focus on Northerly Island and the Museum Campus.

There is good parking immediately north of the Northerly Island nature center ($4 for two hours). During events at Soldier Field or Huntington Bank Pavilion, that lot might be off-limits.

In 1½ hours, I caught 12 perch and missed many more off the fishing pier. The 10th perch came on my only double of the day. Two were borderline keepers (7½ inches).

Onward. I skipped Diversey, though Dennis ‘‘Bigbo’’ Ocasio later messaged he had loaded up on jumbos there Sunday.

Stacey Greene at Park Bait said Norm Stroz led ‘‘Perchapalooza’’ with a 23-ouncer caught opening day. On Tuesday, she texted that he upped it with a 27-ouncer.

‘‘There are jumbos around, just have to keep going through the little ones,’’ messaged Kenny Maggiore, the young man who caught the Illinois-record burbot and whitefish on the same day this spring at Montrose. ‘‘Bigger bait is key.’’

I used a double-jig rig on braided line and switched among soft shells, fatheads and spikes. My biggest perch came on soft shells or minnows, but I landed the most on spikes.

Ken ‘‘The Lakefront Lip’’ Schneider is a perch master. He uses a double-jig rig with a 16th-ounce Mini-Mite on the bottom and a 32nd-ounce a foot above. He strictly uses spikes.

Keepers were not in, but plenty of fish were. Schneider caught gobies, a dozen small perch, rock bass and small trout in an hour. I caught a mess of gobies and three perch.

Hall of Famer Don Dubin fished past us, casting a Shad Rap for jumbos.

At 11 a.m., Schneider moved to Foster pier and found a bunch of small perch. I drove south to Steelworkers Park to fish the slip north of 87th Street.

The west wind was too strong to feel my line, so I moved east to the harbor side. Years ago, I fished a weed bed within casting distance of shore. After I found the weed bed and figured out how to tick the weed tops with the bait, I had a bite on nearly every cast. Every perch was 4 to 6 inches.

Rain started spitting. It was time.

In my email at home was a photo a friend of ‘‘Jumbo Jimmy’’ Baczek sent of Baczek’s opening-day limit of 15, weighing 16.05 pounds. He usually fishes deep weeds at Burnham Harbor with whole soft shells.

‘‘Can’t wait until those 4- to 6-inchers turn into jumbos!’’ Indiana assistant Lake Michigan fisheries biologist Ben Dickinson messaged. ‘‘Should be an amazing fishery in a few years.’’

Stray cast

Listening to Terry Gross interview Joe Biden for an hour last week reminded me of perch fishing at Montrose in 1985.

Follow me on Twitter @BowmanOutside.