i happen to live in the land of giant specks, and every year our lakes produce specks in the 6-10 lb range, the odd one bigger yet.
Rule of thumb amongst the hardcore speck fishermen is to NOT use small bait.
specks are vicious and will attack anything in the water that they think they can stuff down.
switch to 6 inch minnows, sucker, chub, dace, not sure what you have there, but go big or go home. This should take care of your perch problem, but you will probably surprised that the perch will tackle a big minnow like that every now and then too.
Also, specks come right in shallow to feed, and we fish in 2-5 ft of water most often.
Get you line or lines in with this live bait, and then either get off the ice to shore and watch your rigs from there, or move as far away as legally possibly and become a statue. Generally though, fishing in that shallow of water you should be able to get to shore.
a little trick the hardcore speck guys use here, quite effective, is to set up a big 6" minnow on a bearpaw off your main line, or on a hook tied with a palomar knot.
1.5 ft below that, tie on an octopus or circle hook and on that use a strip of fresh liver, 4"L x 1/2"W, wacky rigged (in the middle).
youg big minnow will be swimming or dancing above, causing the liver to dance and gyrate ON THE BOTTOM, which emulates a big leech.
Great combo, proven effective.
Good luck.
