Yellow Perch
Kelso's perch don't take a season off — the fishery is open year-round on paper, and in the water it's the most dependable catch a shore angler will find here. The boardwalk shoreline margins are the everyman spot: reachable on foot, holding schoolfish through the warm months. Want bigger water? The mid-lake basin sits deeper off the middle for anyone in a canoe. Either way, they school where the food is, and they school in numbers.
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Perch school, so finding one usually means finding a pile. Along the boardwalk shore and the shallow margins they hold over the weed edges and flats, picking off invertebrates, insect larvae, and small minnows — light-tackle, small-hook fishing that suits kids and beginners.
The season never closes, but the practical window is the park's own: Kelso runs day-use from roughly May through October, so that's when shore access lines up with the bite. For a change of scale, the mid-lake basin holds fish out over deeper water — reachable from a canoe or kayak, since the reservoir is non-motorized with electric trolling motors the only exception.
Perch double as the reservoir's forage base, which is part of why the bass fishing holds up.
Structure
Shore-accessible edges along the boardwalk shore where perch school through the warm months — the most community-confirmed catch on the reservoir and the easiest fish to reach on foot.
The deeper water off the middle of the reservoir (anglers report roughly 20 feet); perch have been taken here over the open basin, reachable from a non-motorized boat.
Regulations
This is a summary, not the legal regulation — confirm current rules with the official source before fishing.