how far do you move for perch?

[walleyefisher]

everyone says to keep moving for perch and when you find them try to follow them around.  are you talking about hole hopping every ten feet, ten yards, 100 yards or what.  I am going to waubay this weekend and will be fishing a big mud flat.  Just wondering how far and fast a school of perch actuall moves
Thanks

[fishcrusher]

What I like to do is run three lines of holes, 15 yrds apart, with the holes 10 feet apart- covering 15-40 feet.  Looks like swiss cheese, but once find the depth, can then go side to side or a touch deeper.  Once the depth is established, then I drill holes zig zagging outwards, every 10 feet, zig 3, zag 3.  Means a lot of drilling, but once on them, usually can keep up with them.  If they are pushing shiners around, its amazing how quickly they cruise around.  It might be wise to have a gas auger, I prefer the stealth 8 inch for this, just know a little extra time digging holes, can lead to a lot more fish and less spooking once on the run.

[crappieslayer22]

move and move till u find them and when u do keep ur line in the water because if they cant find something to eat they will move and then u do to

[jimski2]

Last August on Lake Erie , I chased around for 2 and a half hours looking for perch with my graph. I found them in 85 feet on the bottom. In 45 minutes I ran out of bait. Don't make the mistake of "they were here last week" and wasting your time. Use your graphs or if you don't have one, pull that damn anchor and move after 10 minutes.

[hali-man]

I'm glad I don't hunt perch on Erie. That's a lot of area to cover!
I usually have a good idea of where the perch should be.
Once located they don't move too much, a couple hundred yards at most.
I think it's more challenging discovering what they want for breakfast that day.

[fishcrusher]

Same here, under the ice they don't tend to cruise to far away, but our problem is darn pike continually pushing them around.  Means some mega hole hopping till catch the pike or pikes, and then the perch quickly move back in.

[TaterSalad]

Sounds like I need to move a lot more.  I thought I moved quite a bit already.  How long do you stay in one spot?  How do you know they are there and don't like your bait, lure color etc?  As you can tell, I don't have a vex.  Looking for tips that can help me catch more fish until I can fund the vex.

Great post BTW.

- Tater out

[fiesty]

move move move....cut the piss out of whatever ice you think the perch are hiding under, and try to stay one step ahead of their moves...sometimes when we are fishing in a group there are three or four jigging, and one guy cutting...works good...fishing alone it's nothing to cut a hundred holes a day fishing, looking, fishing, looking....catching... ..catching...catching. ....

[crappieslayer22]

stay one step ahead of them

[PondPro]

when u find perch put tip ups around u so when the perch move a flag might go up then go in that direction.

[fishuhalik]

On Winnie I've had to drill hundreds of holes in a day.  If I don't see anything on the flasher immediately, I move.  Just keep drilling and looking till ya find 'em.  One thing that has also worked once you find em to keep em in the area is this.  Keep a rod rigged with a big pike spoon, like the ones you use during the summer, in a hammered silver.  When you're catching 'em and they move off, give that spoon a couple of good pumps till ya see 'em move back in. 

[adkbrookie]

i like the spoon idea. if you don't think it will draw the perch in, cast one durring softwater season were you think they are holding and jerk it in fast. have looked down into the water after and seen literally thousands of perch.
will try it through the ice next time. need all the help i can get fishing blind (no vex or cam., the cash isn't there).

[rumdrinker]

I drill holes every 20 yards apart for 200 yards and get my vexliar out and just see if there is anything on the bottom, if there is not of course I move on but if I see movement on the bottom I really have good luck with the perch. Of course the best luck is in the deep flats for me about 40-75'......

[holeinhide]

Watch your line when the perch run (yes let them run even on a tip up) they try to get back to the school. Drill a hole about 10' to 15' in that direction and you should find more fish.

[CHRIS*]

Watch your line when the perch run (yes let them run even on a tip up) they try to get back to the school. Drill a hole about 10' to 15' in that direction and you should find more fish.

i like that idea... Thanks

[Big Dawg]

Like others say, punch holes like crazy then try em until you find the depth.

-Dave

[Incognito]

I rarely move at all in my hard-side.  Like PondPro I do have a method to get the school back though.  After I catch my first dink, I throw him on a treble hook on my pike rod.  Bringing him up to the surface and letting him swim back down really brings the perch in.  As a side benefit, when the pike come in and spook my school, I have about a 50% catch rate on that rod.

Inc

[adkbrookie]

i like that idea... Thanks

me too. i'll try it. thanks.

[holeinhide]

i like that idea... Thanks

This trick was taught to me by an old timer and has worked every time. I just follow them all day. Another tip when they stop moving for the night find the nearest deep water drop off and fish for walleye. They will come up and eat the little ones you have been sending back all day.

[Meatro14]

i usually hole hope in a span of 50yrds

[Meatro14]

i fish for perch until the pike roll in, once the pike slow down i start for perch again