Locating Perch?

[walleye_master90]

This is my first year ice fishing and i was wondering how you locate perch? What kind of lures should you start with?

[WARRIOR_ON_ICE]

Walleye master 90, I am no expert on perch or any other fish the way others on this site either are for real or pretend to be. That said, I have had success locating and catching perch in lakes that are not familiar to me. I don't use any electronics or cameras, so I am always flying blind. Knowing the depth of the lake is good info. to have. If the water gets this deep, try 20 - 25 FOW on a flat bottom, preferably with muddy or weedy floor. On most days, the larger perch will hit a 2-3 inch minnow placed 1 foot from the bottom on a tip-up. Your tip-up should have a 6 foot leader of approx. 6 # test mono off the braided line, and with a # 10 treble hook tied on, with a split shot a foot above the hook just big enough to keep the minnow down.

Once you start catching fish on the tip-ups, you can try jigging them with a wide selection of lures baited with various natural baits. Keep the lures small and use a perch eye, spike, mealworm or other baits. Rod should be very sensitive to detect light biting fish. I'm sure others will contribute a wealth of info. that I have not covered and good luck. Once you get your perch, make skinless, boneless fillets and pan fry them to do them justice.

[Van_Cleaver]

Start with a lake that has a good perch population and move around a lot if you aren't catching, keeping an eye out for others catching perch. Most anglers will be willing to help, provided you don't set up right on top of them. There is no one surefire lure, but Swedish Pimples, Halis, Kastmasters, and Jigging Rapalas, are some good weapons in your perch arsenal. Also small maribou jigs and teardrop style lure can be effective, though a little more difficult in deep water.Most important, is to experiment IMO. One day, when the bite was slow, I caught a couple of real nice perch on a tiny pink maribou jig with a lip-hooked mediun shiner, fished deadstick. Good luck!

[bigredonice]

Start with a lake that has a good perch population and move around a lot if you aren't catching

you have to move if you want to jig up numbers perch...once you find a school of good fish, sit on it until they move, and then try to find the school again - some people say you can follow the school by seeing what direction a hooked fish went...

[iceintheveins]

In my mind perch will be on either shallow or deep flats that have some scattered rock cover or soft, muck bottoms that hold the invertebrates and small minnows that they eat. Often finding a subtle change in the bottom type, such as from clay to muck or clay to rock will find the perch for you. Perch are almost always within a foot of the bottom and they seem hesitant to take a jig much further than that off the bottom. They school so if you see others catching perch fish near them without crowding them.
The best lures are really small spoons, nuclear ants, shrimpos, ratsos, and small teardrops or jigging raps. The best bait in my mind are maggies and waxies, but lots of guys do well on fish eyes, small minnows, or nightcrawlers.
Perch seem to be both shallow and deep, but usually I start on fairly flat bottom areas with some rock cover. They are hard to hook so a camera helps and a flasher is almost a must in my mind.

Tyler