Spririt Lake methods revealed...

[BojiHawk]

Spirit Lake perch condensed version:

1.)  When your Vex shows perch (fishing with 2 rods):

a.) Start with a dead stick - red hook (smaller) on Red Cajun line.  Teeny split shot 4" up from hook.... 8-10" from bottom....14" to 18" after sunrise and daytime with teeny minnow.  Set it and forget it....if they prefer this...it will set the tone for the bite...as in "get another one of these in the water asap."e

b.) Perch pattern pilki - use smallest minnow you can get, tail hook it.  Not important how or if you use a bobber or not, just make sure it stays on and freaks out.

-Jig the pilki slowly and high above perch you see on the Vex.  Let them rise...when red covers green....twitch it 1/2 an inch....slowly lower and raise it watching your rod tip.  Be ready with a second rod if that doesn't work and go tiny minnow head on the same pilki set-up.


2.) When your Vex is blank (fishing 2 rods):

a.) Use Lindy Darter or Cicada (along side the dead stick baby minnow on teeny red hook).  Use rattling and vibrations until the bottom moves from a rising fish.  When you get separation, pull it up keeping it above the rising bait.  Then, Drop pilkis perch pattern with tiny minnow tail hooked.  Twitch, but don't jig.  Use yellow foam float barely balanced to float it.  Have N-Land rattle spoon standing by with minnow head.  Slowly roll up Pilkis first 3 feet (about 30 seconds per foot - trying to get rising fish to rise)...if no hits then drop N-Land rattler and don't let it hit the bottom.  That is plan B.  If they dont hit those....back to cicadas and chubbys.  Yes....they bring fish in huge.  Work them at least 3-4 feet off the bottom.  You call goose and deer...why wouldn't you call in perch?  You didn't expect the deer to hump your doe bleat...so don't expect those lures to do anything but bring them into inspect.

b.) (dead stick should be a very small gold hook under a tiny split shot ( at most).  The split shot will keep that little freak in the strike zone.  Plain hooks seemed elusive last time...they need an anchor.

I normally say "move, move, move".  Kind of true in SL....kind of not true for perch this time of year.  I would change baits more than move.  I rarely had an empty camera or vex.  They are just simply picky and fickle.  And until mid march...they will be the same way.

Sorry for the wax worm reports I see.  They tend to produce fewer numbers of smaller perch than the 3-times-since-new-years-method-on-4-diff.-lake-spots method I detailed above.   These are the techniques that slowly plucked and extra 8-10 fish during the off-bite times.  And it was very frustrating...I can tell you the only thing that really stunk for me was grubs of any kind.  Waxies, silvers, etc.  Minnows and parts of minnows were my deal....yes, blood worms, bro bugs, gulp, silver wigs, waxies, etc...nothing over 8". 

..but that was 9 days ago...LOL....they could be back on star wars action figures.

*BTW - if you don't see perch in 15 min on your vex... move....the lake is basically a layer of sand and rock....under a layer of perch from what I saw. 

[esox_magnum]

I must be doing something wrong, not using any of the above except a micro chewie, 80's version not the crappy new ones..  My deals been a med minnow on a spoon under a bobber, and the same jig I tied on Christmas Eve, baited of course.... Somedays better than others, location seems to be key for us... I'd post pics but not sure how to get them off my Droid yet....

[BojiHawk]

Esox...this is an amateur board,  :-)   You should know better....but at this late ice, I think we need to get a lot more of these 9" pulled out.  I'm convinced that the harvest is what is making the healthy recruitment and bigger avg. length fish.  I have never caught a 25 fish limit of perch spirit.  But...we always set the bar for keepers after the first 10.  This year it jumped pretty good.

[esox_magnum]

Yesterday was my first ever perch  limit myself, but we did keep them down to around the 9 mark, maybe a hair less if they were the fatties. We also used to hold the bar at nothing under 10 but after last year decided to lower the bar to get some of the smaller ones out. Still see the majority at the bait shops keep down to 7".  I'd bet 90% of the guys out on any weekend getting limits have a few 7-8" in the mix. Nothing over 12 yet for me this year but we had quite a few in the 11+ and alot over 10.

[BojiHawk]

Yeah man....I kept hearing of 13" perch from some bait shops.....uhhh.....no. ...no there.  I brought a tape on this one. 10" are nice.....11" are the top 5%.....tickle 12" and you hit in in about 500 in SL.  Now think of the Devils Lake 14".  Hard to get through to Iowans...as an Iowan...that a 14' perch will make you suck in wind and let it out in awe....for anyone.  And it doesn't matter if it's your first or 51st.   It's the equivalent to a 12 pound walleye as far as the "awe" effect on your senses.  I would have to see it moving gills in a bucket or live at a bait shop before I say there are 13" in Spirit. 

..yup...it's a challenge.  Just like someone pulling an 11 pounder in eyes.  Doesn't matter your skill guys.....you need a fishery that can make it happen.

[huntaholic]

Some good info there for those who fish spirit, but I'll take 'boji any day over spirit

[BojiHawk]

Dude....

I gotta tell you...I'm never really blown away...but that is as close as I come.  Very nice job there.  I do have some spots on West....just like going back to my home waters of BS.  Those are, on average, very very nice perch anywhere in the country.

[huntaholic]

Thanks, the area ice fishing has got to be the only thing I like about going to college in E-ville. Been on the fish all year, but that particualar week is one that i will never forget. Fished a spot that produced lots of smaller perch the year before and there was a particular small hump we were trying to find. Drilled all over and couldn't find it so said screw it and set up in 20fow on a flat. Wasn't marking anything so i dropped down a bare pilke to stir up the bottom and man did it work! You could pull the schools up to 7-10ft below the ice and sight fish them with five or more fish trying to hit it at once. You would look down the hole and see nothing but 10ft of solid jumbos. Truly a once in a lifetime expieriece with the sheer numbers and size of fishin and there willingness to bite. Can't wait to hit it the same time next year and see if it was just luck or if we got a pattern down .  Day 1 was a 2 man limit in 2hrs, Day 2 was a 2 man limit in 45min, Day 3 was a 4 man limit in 3hrs, Day 4 was slower with 5 out of 6 limits in 5hours, came back a week later by myself and limited out 2 days in a row in about 4hrs.

[toothfish]

Pilkie with a red hook/minnow is my "go to" Perch rig when I ice fish Spirit.
 Good to hear I have been doing right !

[esox_magnum]

Thats alot of eating to stay under limit when you limit 5 days in a row... West  does have bigger perch but what you lucked into is not the norm for the majority on West. Now gills on the other hand are a blast on West and always the potential for putting a true hog bull on the ice, bulls most dream of but never see. Personaly I like Spirit for perch in the winter eyes in the spring summer, West is gills in the winter muskies during season almost daily....

[huntaholic]

Thats alot of eating to stay under limit when you limit 5 days in a row

Didn't eat a single one, just lots of happy relatives and co-workers Still trying to break the 10" mark on a gill on west, caught plenty 9 3/4" but it seems like I can't get 'em any bigger Still can't beat a big purple gill thats 9+" and you can barley fit you hand around!

[esox_magnum]

10.5 is our best gill so far this year, several just over 10. Guess if I wasnt going to eat a fish I wouldn't keep it to give it away.

[BojiHawk]

I have monster fish fry's.  Server up my bounty in huge portions at parties.  These parties are attended to early and people stay late.  I don't server 24" walleye or 18 LB northern.  I serve perch, crappie, and gillls....enough to feed 30 people 50 filets at a time in my turkey fryer.  Isn't a coincidence that as pressure has increased by monster numbers on BS that the length, quality, and consistent bite has increased?  I believe in perch cycles...and watched in through the 80's and 90's.  The only thing I have seen that have dramatically improved that fishery is pressure.  It may be something else...maybe heavy snow fall and spring melt has their spawning ground ripe for reproduction.  I'm not a qualified fisheries biologist...but I do have a degree in biology.  The single best rule of thumb for any body of water is to eat / harvest whatever there is the most of.  Spirit lake makes it obvious that it is perch.   If it was 9" perch...with an occasional 11"....and you sort to a limit of 11" er after releasing 10 little ones to get one big one....you are hurting that system.  If you have almost all 10" ers....and an occasional 8".....put the 8" back.  There are dynamics such as recruitment, mortality, predation, larval blooms, algae concentration, spring time hydrology, nitrates. etc etc.   Spirit Lake (what I know from 30 years) has benefited from the DNR's program...or it could be dumb luck.  I know you fish muskies...but I can remember a bunch of people freaking out over the hybrid stocking of tigers there in the 80's.  And I would have to agree with it anecdotally, but I was very young so I wouldn't have research on my side without pulling a sampling.  But I can't stress enough that, on any given body of water, when you find a spiked population of any fish of any uniform size....might be 7" crappies, 6" gills, 3 pound carp, etc.   It sounds harsh...but throwing those carp on a bank might help.  I don't mean spearing them against a fence in the spring or migratory / spawing impedements.....I mean fishing.  At any given time...any location may appear to have an abundance of a certain segment (species + size).  I'm just saying to me, personally, from observations, and finally putting more than 5 or 10 years behind those observations, I've been able to watch fisheries thrive, decline, die off, come back, recover, etc.  The term "fished out" is absolutely moronic on a body of water over 2500 acres.  I've seen a year class destroyed (Willow Creek, NE) of all walleyes due to stupid NGP policies (15" to keep / on over 20").  Really!!??  THESE WERE THE ONLY WALLEYES IN THERE!!!.  Should have gone 1 fish in the slot....now...it's ruined.   Their "limits" killed Willow Creek.   I enjoyed the best walleye fishing ever there for 2 days in 2004....now I don't.

[esox_magnum]

Recent springs with higher than normal water is partly why the huge perch bloom we are experiencing on BS. I remember my first year living and fishing here was nothing to go through a pound of leeches in a weekend with 2 guys catching walleyes and smallmouth left and right. I put 234 smallies in the boat that year with a 17"+ average and close to 2000 eyes, with 68 keepers. 09 was the last year I fished eyes to any extent and on a good day you might catch 15-20 eyes with 6 beeing keepers and the rest a mix of slot and dinks, and plenty of perch of all sizes. Untill this year have always had a 10" min on perch for eater size this year we dropped that to around 9" since the fish are meaty. Sure we keep some 8.5" fatties somedays, goal first is always a meal that takes about a dozen for the wife and I, after we have the meal in the bucket we tend to get a little bit picky on the size. My summer fishing style has changed in the past couple years so now my winter fishings for food and if we happen to get to much in the freezer a few good friends and the big fryer comes out and we thin things down a little. I don't think we will be seeing the perch go away for a few more years judging by what we have seen on the camera and have been catching on BS, West should be great to if a guy spends the time to find them judging by the schools of 2-4" perch we see in the summer, schools that make your finder go black.

[BojiHawk]

I get it.  I do.  But the sickness comes from moving buddies or hearing about "freezer burned" fish that get tossed out.  I can tell you I never threw a fish into anything but a person's mouth.  They email and ask when the next fry is.  It is a privelege and honor to share a bounty the same way it waw 200 years ago.  As long as these fish are consumed and fishery impact is minimal (as I believe it is for perch and crappie and gills) I relish the feeling of watching the "mmMMmMMM" from my guests from a spring time feed with some morels to round out the feeling of never involving a commercial vendor. Throw in some homemade wine or beer....and I prove the old way and organic method of the hunter / gatherer is alive and well.  If we lose that...we lose who we are.  That feeling of me and the hole in the ice producing that fruit of the water is affirming to me.  I think all sportsman come to a day end conclusion of "well...we would eat today if we had to".

...of course..the vexilars and power augers...even a Nils...is a heavy modern influence on our success.  LOL.

[holdem]

This has been an excellent read...thanks guys 

[DavidA]

I agree...thanks.  I am going to "finally" make my first trip up there from NE Ia the weekend of Mar 4-6.  Hope that there are still a few good perch to be caught by then!  So many questions....this post has helped get a few answers.  Appreciate it.

[schuttlr]

Fished there yesterday and got there at about 6 30. Marked fish the whole time but i couldnt get them to bite til about 9 930 am and caught a few all at once. Then waited til about 4 15 to get bit again. Kept 11 nice ones and let the few small males go

[esox_magnum]

21 Sat wife and I limited Sunday, lots of nice ones but also alot of smaller ones but they all taste good.

[dwmiller]

Heading to BS this next weekend for my first time ice fishing it. Does the bite still seem to be going on the perch.
Not looking for any hot spots but any pre-info would be helpful.
(ice condition,etc...)
Thanks in advance

[esox_magnum]

Bite varys from fisherman to fisherman, we limited on Sunday and guys around us had just a few if any.