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Panfish Week: Cool Water Perch

The right presentation in the right spot at the right time will yield jumbo yellow perch.

Panfish Week: Cool Water Perch

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Perch are a unique fish to chase. On the surface, they generally seem easy to catch and not very particular. If you want to catch the sumo size perch, however, you often need to both look in different areas and not fish them with the same presentations that the masses use.

Here a few tips on how to both locate and present lures for the biggest perch in the system.

Location

While they can be easy to catch, like their cousin the walleye, quality perch can be difficult to find and stay on. Perch are generally thought to be bottom oriented, but forward-facing sonar has taught us that the bigger yellow perch often suspend. Depending on the type of water you are fishing, they can literally be found in anywhere from one foot of water to as deep as 60 on a regular basis.

As summer ends and perch move into their fall patterns, they often can be found on deep mud basins. One of the easiest ways to locate perch schools is by running at speed with your electronics. Fish that are truly on bottom can be difficult to mark, but when you get into feeding perch schools that are of a decent size, they will show themselves, just off of the bottom by several feet to be visible on sonar. Much like locating walleye, this is a quick way to narrow down productive areas. Once you get in the general area, Down Imaging is a great tool to get a clearer idea of what you are marking.

The buzz words of forward-facing sonar seem to be getting used a lot, but that’s because it is so effective. Using FFS on the deep open water basins offers two distinct advantages. First, it allows you to stay on the school as they move. No more guessing which they went. The second is seeing those fish that are suspended high and often out of the traditional 2D sonar cone below the boat. These higher roamers are often the sumo perch that we all desire.

01-perch-robertson-baits
Choosing the right presentation is key to finding and catching big perch. Bright colors are typically a good idea.

Weather driven or just a different personality, big perch can also often be found in the backwaters. These fish are typically in water so shallow that electronics really don’t do much good. This bite can even extend into the winter on river systems as well. On inland bodies of water or even larger systems like the Great Lakes this can mean perch pull back into channels, around break walls and into marinas.

It should be noted that these super-shallow perch can be ghost like, there one day and gone the next. This is also the case when fishing in marinas. They can quite literally be under the docks one minute and then in the deepest holes or nearby channel the next. While the deep fish can be finicky, the shallow fish are there to chew and if you aren’t getting bit after a few lure changes, move or look to deeper water. These patterns can be found on a variety of systems. I personally have done it on the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Simcoe, St. Clair and Cascade Lake for jumbos.

Presentation

The colder the water gets the more presentation seems to matter, both in the lures we select and how we actually present them. A lot of rigs such as a spreader or crappie-style rig baited with live minnows will catch most things that swim, but that is also part of the problem. Non target species and all the runt size perch also love these rigs and is a good reason to look at other options when targeting big cool water perch. Here are a few of my favorite baits for cool water jumbo perch.

01-perch-robertson-baits
Choosing the right presentation is key to finding and catching big perch. Bright colors are typically a good idea.

Lipless Baits—ice fishing, shallow water, deep water, it doesn’t matter as small size lipless baits like the Rapala UL Rippin Rap are must haves. One of the biggest mistakes can be fishing it too aggressively or moving it too much within the water column. These noisy baits bring fish in from a distance and seem to do a good job with keeping small non keepers off. When ice fishing or in ultra cold water don’t be afraid to dress the front treble hook with a couple maggots or spikes.

Rattle Spoons—One of my favorite all time walleye lures in smaller sizes happen to be dynamite perch lures too. The VMC Rattle Spoon is great lure to transport a perch eye, part of a minnow or pile of maggots down to deep water quickly. One of the most important parts of deep-water perching is to be able to get back down quickly while the school is fired up. When the perch get finicky try removing the treble hook and replacing it with an VMC ODC Octopus Dropper Chain to get the light biters.

Jig & Plastic—A great option for fishing both deep and shallow. Look to use a VMC Tungsten Moon Eye jighead to show up better on forward facing sonar as well as make a much more compact presentation. Pairing it up with panfish or often ice fishing style plastics is effective. The Z-Man Baby Ballerz, Tiny Ticklerz, Larvaz, Stingerz and my favorite the Z-Man Micro Goat, will help keep junk fish off and keep you from dealing with and spending a fortune on live minnows. An added side effect is that big gills, crappies and even bass will stretch your string with them as well. Z-Man’s Elaztech plastics are unique in that they float and stretch for extreme durability, but make sure to rig them perfectly straight for peak results.

Recommended


Jigging Rap—One of the most fishing-catching lures ever developed, the Rapala Jigging Rap size #2 and #3 work extremely well for big perch. Casting it out and working channel edges with or without forward-facing sonar is effective, as is fishing it vertical to semi vertical in deep water. I have also done very well with Rapala Jigging Raps in marinas close to docks and drop offs near dredged channels. In extremely cold water don’t be afraid to add spikes or maggots to the center treble and even swap out the treble for a chain hook like is done on a rattle spoon.

I like to say that anyone can catch perch, but it takes some thought and effort to catch keeper or sumo size perch on a regular basis. Knowing where to look and what to use will get you that much closer to jumbo perch on a regular basis.

Capt. Ross Robertson

Bigwater Fishing





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