The screen saver on my cell phone is of our four kids at the end of Navy Pier with Chicago Light in the distant background.

Thursday morning, we found a good pod of perch on the inside of Chicago Light.

In three hours with Capt. Bob Poteshman of Confusion Charters and one of his other captains, Jeff Sobotka we boated 37 keepers.

We had tried on the inside of the north breakwall, off the end of the filtration plant and around off the end of Navy Pier to the south first without success.

But we only caught perch off Chicago Light. Once we got on them, we consistently caught them. The size varied, but we only threw back seven or so.

We were using crappie rigs with fatheads. I tried a jigging spoon from time to time without any luck.

Poteshman thought we might have done even better with soft shells. The perch hold in that area between Chicago Light and Navy Pier because of the crayfish. When cleaning the perch, Sobotka showed some of the crayfish he found inside.

Having perch to clean is good.

And I did something different last night, putting the perch fillets in a lighter batter and doing them in the wok, sort of like a tempura. The kids went for it much better than usual. Next time I may even whip up a sort of Thai or Japanese dipping sauce.