Perch ?

[ceo32312]

on a lake i fish, i see large schools of perch on the cam, but dont seem to ever get the jumbos to bite, just the nice eater size. I havent tried mins yet but was thinking of a small jigging rap or buckshot tipped with a head?

any ideas?

[bigdave1018]

try a larger jig head and get some bass minnows for the bigger perch. it works where i fish. hope this helps.

[fiesty]

catch out all the small ones...leave only the big ones...then you'd only have big ones to catch....

[PERCH_INC.]

I would try bigger jigs and bait!! Good luck!!

[AugustWest]

On some lakes this just happens. Try the larger baits, as previously posted.
If you are catching large predator fish in the same lake, always let them go, and maybe the year classes will even out.

[bigredonice]

If the big perch are in with the small ones, there are 2 things you can do

1.  figure out an approach that will select for the larger perch

2. try to find schools of just large perch

If option 2 isn't possible, I will switch up techniques until I can find something that selects for larger perch.  The best thing I have found for that is small live minnows.  Cup bait aka perch bait. Hook 'em onto a hali spoon or #10 ice jig.

Jigging raps and jigging spoons will also select for larger fish

Lastly, If I can, I will watch the perch with the camera, and pull the lure away from the smaller perch, and try to fish for just the large fish.

[GAMBELL]

Small swedish pimples tipped with a minnow head or perch eye.  I have very good luck for big perch on this combo.

[reelbigfish]

I have my best luck for jumbos on one lake i fish with a silver teardrop and
wigglers for bait.  If minnows are what the big boys crave try a thin wire hook
and a small sinker.  Sometimes bigger presentations scare larger fish and they
want a smaller more natural presentation.







Ted

[lester]

Had to add to this post after my day today.  Was fishing Lake Champlain with a few guys.  At one point me and another guy got into a good school of perch, we were in two holes, not more than 10 feet apart in about 30' of water.  I'm using my standard perch rig, a large swedish pimple, without the treble hook, with a 12" drop off the bottom eye and a 3" dropper on top.  Both droppers have teardops lures with perch eyes on them.  I'm catching fish like crazy, at least one every drop, many doubles as well.  Problem is that at least half of mine go back down the hole 'cause they're dinks.  Of the keepers, quite a few were hogs.

My buddy is using a single, heavy "bibbet" lure, white and chartreuse, must weigh at least 1/4 oz, with a bare hook.  In two hours he pulled up nothing but large fish!!!  As the bite tapered off I changed to a white/chartruese large demon, also bare, and got some hogs on the tail end.

Moral of the story, sometimes the big perch don't want their lure tipped with anything.  Try it sometime, I know I learned a good lesson today!

Lester 

[jmillo]

My biggest always seem to come on medium minnows, but quite a few have taken a Hali jig tipped with a meal worm.