IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Perch => Topic started by: troutslayer97 on Jan 31, 2013, 06:13 AM
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How do I find perch without a vexilar? What kind of water do they hold in? I fish a small lake about 40 acres and usually stick in this big cove. I catch about 1 perch a hole but I know I should be getting more than that. Any help/tips would be appreciated!
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move move and move... that's what I do, you catch one maybe two and the school spooks/moves on, seems like you just need too drill a ton of holes and move from one too the next as you catch them.... oh and you don't need a vex too catch perch, they hug too the bottom most of the time....
Matt
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Google Earth it now (hopefully it's an open water shot, check archive also) and spend some time on it during the summer running your locator and figuring out what the bottom make up is. Not sure what a big cove on a 40 acre pond is, Perch can easily do the 40 acres simply roaming about normally. Run and gun, tons or holes and keep checking the holes. They may not be there now, but 10-20-30 minutes from now you'll never know. Printing out a good Google photo and penciling in summer/winter details is very useful on small waters.........ie bottom type, depth, weeds........
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i fish a 45 acre lake in PA.
you dont need a vex to catch fish,
in coves. at least what i consider coves, i dont fish directly in the coves, by right on the outskirts leading to from the coves,
my lake has an island in the middle and i like to set up tip ups on either side of the island as fish have to pass to get from one side of the lake to the other,
if you have access to a boat/ff, its worth going over the lake to get depth readings in the off season.
helps identify and possible structure, or channels fish could use.
i have kayaked the lake many times with my FF, so know where the deep pockets are,
also if lake is being fed by a stream i sometimes have decent luck fishing closer to the source of fresh water, as it may be richer in oxygen and be bringing in fresh food for the fish
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I find electronics essential in icefishing. Too much wasted time trying to find a hot bite blind. No fish on sonar, move on drill more...
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Dont need electronics . Biggest thing is move around. Then move some more. Then move again!
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do some research on the body of water that you're fishing and swiss cheese it.....
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I always do research on all the lakes in my area. This lake has pretty much no information besides that it holds a lot of panfish and trout.
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There is a pretty extensive topic that started earlier on the Indiana board, it has some good info on the subject:
http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=244342.0
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Drill lots of holes.
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You'll find them in the deeper water in mid winter feb, they come to shallow water in mid march gettting ready for spawning, I cauaght about 70 perch out of 5ft of water 2 days ago
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move move and move... that's what I do, you catch one maybe two and the school spooks/moves on, seems like you just need too drill a ton of holes and move from one too the next as you catch them.... oh and you don't need a vex too catch perch, they hug too the bottom most of the time....
Matt
X2 although in my opinion a flasher or sonar can make a huge difference no matter what ur fishing
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Flasher will give you confidence to stay or move.
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How far typically do you move in between holes? 10yds? 100yds?
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I generally move 100-150 yards...
Matt
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On a perch assault I usually drill at least 15 holes about 200 feet apart before I even wet a line. Then you can move from hole to hole searching out fish without firing up the auger alot. In shallow water drilling spooks the fish away but if the holes are predrilled you can quietly walk up and up the odds of hitting them. We also have found not moving around while fishing shallow makes alot of difference. Onee more tip is we have extra poles pre- baited so we don't lose the school while baiting up........ good luck
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If you have a school beneath you, and they're being aggressive, raise the bait above the school. They will come up and get it and I can usually get a few more fish before they spook.