Yellow perch trip

[mkeller]

Thinking of bringing my son to iowa this winter to ice fish on spirit lake.  Anyone recommend a guide to use for the 1st day to get us on some perch, crappie, and bluegill?  Thanks in advance.

[Buckshots]

I’d recommend John Grosvenor. He really knows his stuff. Check out his page at fishokoboji.com

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Thinking of bringing my son to iowa this winter to ice fish on spirit lake.  Anyone recommend a guide to use for the 1st day to get us on some perch, crappie, and bluegill?  Thanks in advance.

Seeing you are from Kansas, You might want to look into the lakes area in NE South Dakota. The numbers and size of perch up that way are considerably better. To give you an Idea....the entire iowa Great Lakes chain is around 11,000 acres. Up in NE SD Bitter Lake alone is like 15,000 acres

[mkeller]

We have went to n.e. sd the last 2 years for perch.  We also go to wahoo nebraska to catch bluegill and crappie.  Wanting to try somewhere new that we could fish for all 3.  Also iowa would be 3 to 4 hours closer than we for us.  We have all the gear needed to do it ourselves,  just thought getting a local guide for the first day of two of the trip to show us the ropes would help for future trips and get my son on fish.

[GB 83]

IGL is a great choice. Year in and year out and year round 👍🏻

[Agronomist_at_IA]

We have went to n.e. sd the last 2 years for perch.  We also go to wahoo nebraska to catch bluegill and crappie.  Wanting to try somewhere new that we could fish for all 3.  Also iowa would be 3 to 4 hours closer than we for us.  We have all the gear needed to do it ourselves,  just thought getting a local guide for the first day of two of the trip to show us the ropes would help for future trips and get my son on fish.

The Blue Gill are nice sized7-10in, the perch.....will be disapointing if you have done the NE SD trip. 7-8in perch is about what to expect...when a 12in is caught the bait shops go nuts posting it on their website. There really isn't much need for a guide at the IGL if you stay at Kabel's and talk to the bait shop guys they can put you in the directional area of fish, acess points, and where to fish. Lake maps and GPS make finding the spots pretty easy. Most the time if there is a bite the herd of people will be on it. The one thing about the IGL that you would learn from a guide is the gear to use. The water is very very clear, so clear line, light lb test, and keeping shadows off the ice are a must. A camera pays out big. When panfishing set a tipup out for the Muskie and pike.

If you can't tell I'm not a fan of the IGL....way to much fishing pressure on the lake causing the quantity and quality of fish to be pretty low. I live pretty close and fish it maybe 2-3times a year if that since a friend lives over there. I've found our ponds and gravel pits to have better numbers and quality of blue gill and crappie. It's not a bad lake, just over hyped IMO.

[Royalwapiti]

They don't call Spirit Lake the Dead Sea for nothing...there's fish there but man are they tough to find.

If you want to hire a guide then go with Kabeles, you can stay there as well.

[IceAddict87]

I have hired a guide to fish for perch at the IGL’s, it was worth it to get us on some fish. There are fish there but there is a lot of sorting involved. I like fishing for perch since it’s a fish that’s not as common here in central Iowa but I don’t think I would hire a guide to fish IGL again.

[matzilla]

A lot of mud getting slung around here for such a simple question

Here are some options

https://www.bojiguide.com/about Shane Akin
http://www.fishokoboji.com/  John Grosvenor
http://ryanhale.net/e107/news.php Ryan Hale
http://igloutdoors.com/about/ Chad Loreth
https://www.fishnfunokoboji.com/about Doug Burns