For perch I normally start aggressive with a 1/16 ounce buckshot and a minnow head, maggots, waxie or a one of the 2 smallest sized Hali's packed with maggots. If the fish are hitting these then I stick to them all day and normally use eyes on the buckshot and keep maggots on the Hali. My dad did really good with the Hali tipped with eyes last year. If the fish are not hitting the spoons I normally down size to small horizontal jigs like a diamond jig, ratso, rat finkee or something similar in design packed with maggots or waxies. I have caught a lot of perch on swedish pimples tipped with eyes, minnows and maggots too though before the buckshots came on the market and you could finally find Hali's outside the great lakes areas. I always fish with a fish finder when on the ice so I know how the fish are reacting to the baits. If they will come up and look at the bait and not bite I just keep switching out lures and bait until I find something that works. With that said I have had days where nothing seems to work. One lake I fish in particular is normally and aggressive fishing pattern with 50+ perch caught per person per day. Last year I was there and my boy and I only caught about 20 in 4 hours of fishing. The perch would come up and look at live minnows for 5-10 minutes before they would bite if they would bite. The lure/bait combo that worked the best that day was the smallest Northland tackle forage minnow jig tipped with an eyeball and not moved at all. If you jigged it the fish went right back to the bottom. My top 3 perch lures would be buckshot, Hali and diamond jig. For crappies I have done really good with 1/10 ounce swedish pimples or castmasters with the treble tipped with live minnows. I have also done really well with ice ant jigs with meal worms. Unfortunately here in Montana where I live there are no crappie lakes closer than about 300 miles. I have also done good with small horizontal jigs with maggots at times for crappie. For sunnies and gills tear drops with waxies/maggots and other horizontal jigs and same bait have produced well for me. If the fish get super picky I have done better using 1/100 marabou jigs tipped with maggots. If you are a fly tyer you can get the perfect jigs for these from Cabela's. Brown with red wrapping and gold head has been the best for me but have also done good with other color materials. For pike I have caught them using jigging raps. In Alaska when I was there I did well using 3/8+ krockidile spoons with a smelt fillet tipping the treble hook. I have not done to good on walleyes but I know some friends that consistently catch them with buckshot spoons and minnow heads.
