Well you are opening a can of worms. My logic answer would be where you find them. But I'll share with what I have learned over the years. Every lake can be different. First ice I believe the moss is still growing and soon after when it gets covered with snow it starts to die. So I believe you can find them shallow at first ice. Then they migrate to the flats. That's where they roam eating the worms coming from the mud. If there is a minnow in the lake that they prefer to eat that being baby Perch or some other feeder minnow they might even stay suspended and follow the schools of small Perch. Some lakes I have found them as deep as 75 feet, and right on the bottom. Other times I have found Jumbos 5 feet off the bottom cruising the flats. I have also caught them 10 feet under the ice in clouds. Clouds meaning tight together 10-20 feet thick. The hottest jig I have found for Jumbo Perch is an orange gazillia made by maniac and the jig head is a 1/16 oz vertigo jig head. Now I fish all over Utah and I have had a chance to go to Idaho once or twice. I would love to try at Devil's Lake My combination. I got a couple of 151/2 inchers on the wall. I'm looking for a football one this time. Just my two cents. Tight lines.
