IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Perch => Topic started by: PikeFisherman325 on Nov 24, 2017, 08:32 PM
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I was wondering where you guys look for perch? After watching many YouTube videos I've heard to look for sandy flats or drop offs? But my lake not having much of that, where should I look? But there are tons of perch in the lake, (caught some 14+ inchers)!
Thanks!
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Mud flats they eat the, blood worms
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near weeds, they eat the freshwater shrimp.
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near weeds, they eat the freshwater shrimp.
I'm not positive, but I think the water is more towards the acidic PH in The cheese state.......so I don't think they have freshwater shrimp......they need a basic PH.
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Perch are fish of the flats ... locate some sticky / muddy bottom on the flat good spot to start ...they could be in the shallow weeds at early ice ..the larger perch will look for minnows and act like their predatory cousins the walleye ..then as the season progresses they will move toward the basin ...fish on the flat just before the break and not the break itself...and after the break on bottom into the basin. On sunny days they may move up off the bottom ...so tip down with crappie minnows work well on cloudy days look for the flicker of your flasher on bottom this is where a bottom zoom can be key. On a large flat they will roam ...so you may have to move large distances or wait for them to roam through again.
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Figure out the food sources. They could be weedline or gravel based, chasing minnows, or out over mud eating bugs and worms.
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I like the flats too but I keep moving until I find them. If I'm on fish that are consistently small I'll try a larger offering to keep the dinks off but if that doesn't work I'll move again - usually deeper.
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first and foremost, find the food. perch are voracious, numerous, and tend to travel in schools. this means they're most often going to be concentrated around the largest food source. depending on your lake, that could be anything from minnows to bloodworms, and shrimp to crayfish.
so, ask around first. figure out what the lake has available, and different areas people generally catch perch. don't bother about specifics, just get an idea of where the fish are hanging out. then, i like to hop on google earth and look at satellite pictures of the lake. if you're lucky, the lake might be clear enough for you to pick out sandbars, flats, even individual weedbeds. mark interesting spots on your GPS and start drilling holes.
shrimp and minnows need cover to survive. look around weedbeds and sunken trees (though shrimp are less likely to live in sunken trees) and you should find perch patrolling the outer edge closer to deeper water.
crayfish may be less active in winter, but perch will still hunt them around rock piles with access to mud flats and/or deeper water. target these areas in early and late season when crayfish are most likely to be active.
bloodworms live in nasty, sticky mud. perch will literally graze their way across massive mud flats digging these tiny gnat larvae out of the mud. good news is, perch will be grouped up in larger schools. bad news, they're almost constantly moving, so either be ready to chase after the school, or put yourself in a high-percentage area, such as off the end of a point, or in a corner.
as for catching larger perch, i get the school riled up with a mid-sized jigging spoon before swapping to a larger jigging rapala, lipless crank, or other swimming lure. smaller fish can't eat it, and the larger perch will often see your lure as a small, injured perch that would make an easy meal. if they hesitate, add a small bit of cutbait, a perch eye, or a couple maggots.
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For me I always look for some flats like everyone else is saying. Perch are always on the move, so that means lots of holes. If you can figure out the pattern you can go hole to hole with them sometimes. When I perch fish I always use buckshots with rattles or Hali jigs and tip with a minnow head. Pound the bottom a few times, raise it up about 6 inches and if they are there they will almost always smoke it.
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Flats, bars, points, humps and basins. Each has its time. I almost never consistently contact perch on breaks.
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Flats is where I personally have had my most success .
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tell us more about your lake how deep ? how big ? name maybe ? so we can help ? ;D
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I found the perch yesterday at the bottom of a break, top of the break was 3’ and full of weeds. The break was very sharp and leveled off at 10’. Best advice I can give is drill a series of holes stretching from a break into the flats until your arms feel like rubber. Check holes with a flasher or camera until you find them. Set up shanty and let the perch slaying begin!!
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depends on the lake. some lakes I fish they are in deeper water 30-40' but most of the time I tend to catch most of them in 7-15 fow around weeds.
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I found the perch yesterday at the bottom of a break, top of the break was 3’ and full of weeds. The break was very sharp and leveled off at 10’. Best advice I can give is drill a series of holes stretching from a break into the flats until your arms feel like rubber. Check holes with a flasher or camera until you find them. Set up shanty and let the perch slaying begin!!
Look for the sticky bottom ...double echo technique
https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=334480.msg3544659#msg3544659
https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=363292.msg3895878#msg3895878