Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! > Perch

Jigging for perch

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Jeff-:
I mostly jig for perch, but on a slow day I will set up a few tip-ups.

When I jig I let the line with a bibbit on the end sink to the bottom. Then I will usally real it up about two or three feet. This allows the bibbit to hang freely. I usally like to fish with a wax worm or a pinhead minnow on the bibbit. I slowly jig it up and down untell something bites.

Rayne:
Try using the eyeballs from the previously caught fish.
Remove the whole eyeball with the tip of your knife CAREFULLY. They don't like soft broken ones.
Be careful removing them though they break open easily.
Here in Utah this works well. Usually you can catch a limit of 20 perch in a couple of hours. So much for a LONG DAY on the ice. It sure is fun though if you catch and release. Tight lines and good luck. Rayne

Todd:
Here in Utah most say to use meal or wax worms on a small ice fly. I've found that once you catch your first one cut a small strip of meet from the tail and put that on. I like this because it isn't quite as easy for the fish to steal you bait. Good Luck

Karl S:
I like to use red jigs tipped with a lip hooked minnow for my jigging stick. On the other set pole I'll use a bare (dark, light wire) hook with a bigger minnow hooked lightly behind the dorsal fin. On both rigs I like a small bobber that can be pushed around by the minnow. I don't mind using 6 pound test for these rigs on Perch because you often hook a walleye or even a pike and it gives you a chance to get the bigger fish through the hole.

Old story time...

I remember when I was a twelve year old living in Minneapolis. The city lakes there are not known for large perch. I was talking to a guy and he told about a sunken island he had found about a week back on a lake called Harriet. I loaded up the pickle buckets and ice auger and took a city bus over there. Walked close to a mile across the whole lake and found some little windswept snow mounds out in the middle of nowhere. I was the only person on the lake. The hump was maybe 30 or 40 feet across and surrounded by 40 foot water. It topped out at about 14 feet. Sand/gravel bottom. As soon as I put the minnow/bobber down the freshly drilled hole it just kept going down. The bobber never stopped on a slow descent through the dark water. One BIG perch after another. They were all big. One pound to a pound and a half. Looked like little footballs with very orange fins. Got 30 of them as quick as I could bring them up. I had brought my newspaper bag with strap (like paperboys used to fill with newspapers) and filled it up with all the big perch. Long walk back to the bus stop with the fish on my back and the strap around my forehead hauling the 30 pound plus load. Both arms were killing me as I switched the auger and buckets back and forth.

Never did find that little hump again. Easy to catch perch at Harriet. Just not easy to find the big ones. In fact, I had never caught big ones there until that memorable day. Almost like two separate populations in that darkwater/deep lake. The smaller/typical perch didn't have that bright orange look. Their fins were dull greenish or brown (even from deeper water). One of life's mystery's... Might just be a function of age or diet.

JACKEL:
THE BEST BAIT I'VE FOUND FOR ATTRACTING AND CATCHING PERCH IS CRAYFISH MEAT. JUST TAKE A CRAY FISH TAIL, CUT IT OPEN AND TAKE OUT JUST ENOUGH MEAT TO STAY ON A SMALL J-HOOK. PERCH LOVE IT! IT WILL BRING THE THE PERCH IN AND ATTRACT BIGGER PREDATOR FISH SUCH AS PIKE AND WALLEYE. 1 CRAY FISH TAIL USUALLY LASTS ME A COUPLE OF HOURS.
GOOD LUCK.

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