perch on purpose

E

erienewbie

Member
Up to now, I've never caught perch on purpose. On canoe trips to Algonquin I'd catch them while chasing speckles and, annoyed, immediately throw them back. Now that I have a small boat and motor and can fish Long Point Bay, I am going after them, so far unsuccessfully.

I went out to LPB this past Sunday to give perch fishing a try. (How hard can it be? I thought. I got scads of perch when I wasn't even trying up north.)

And thanks to your excellent board and knowledgeable posters, I now know I was right in the glory hole at EC 10. (I just headed out to where I saw all the other boats.) Too bad I didn't study this board before I went out. I now know I was doing almost everything wrong so I only got a few small fry. Funny thing, though, I don't think anyone else was doing great so it didn't bother me.

But thanks to this board, I'll know what to do the next time - anchoring technique, rig-ups, etc. But I still have a couple of questions.

Like, if I am in the EC 10, should I be anchoring over the weeds? Are there weeds out there?

And, if I do catch 50 perch, like some of you guys do, what should I use to bring them home? A cooler? I mean, 50 perch is a lot of fish.

I'll be crossing my fingers ... and a keeping a light touch on my rod.
 
:)Yes a cooler is the ideal container,but moreso is to make sure you have plenty of ice on the fish...fish on the bottom ice on top,fish will keep this way easily a day or 2 and you can clean the fish next day if you get in late. fish keep the best with ice..:)
 
So, armed with my knowledge about perching gained from this site, I went out yesterday to EC10 with my nephew and a scoop of Hiway 24 minnows. I anchored and rigged up as was suggested and we started pulling in the perch by the dozens. Trouble is they weren't much bigger than the minnows. We caught probably 80 fish but only had a four 10" keepers. Is that normal?

Is there such a thing as getting bigger minnows somewhere else to catch bigger perch?
 
personally i have had the best luck if bigger minnows. 2-3 inch. you won't get as many, but youll get more larger perch, i have to bring my large minnows from woodstock.
 
Yeah, I go with the big bait, big fish theory in this case. Anyone know where to get bigger minnows close to the lake and LPB in p#817;articular?
 
Hi all.
Just for fun I have to disagee.

I want the smallest shiners I can get when fishing the Bay. We usually get Jimmy's finest. We then break them in half so as to make it much easier for those little devils to eat. I use small hooks as well. On my Saturday report I mentioned that the shiners we got were real nice, and they were. we actually cut them into thirds.

Kind of makes the "live" thing and the "bigger" thing moot.

To put things into perspective. I am a Walley Tourney kind a guy. My partner and I won a Tourney on the Winnipeg River which includes part of the Bay on Lake Winnipeg. The flow was so strong that even four miles into the Bay we could not get a one ounce jig to the bottom in 18 feet of water. Three of us were pre fishing and not catching a thing. I got stupid as my partner likes to say. I took a 3 ounce Jig,( yup, that is big) and put a 1.5 inch shiner on. The shank was wider then the bait. Within a minute I had a Greenback, about 20 inches. I kept doing it and catching fish almost as fast as I could bait. My friends realised that they weren't catching so they did the same. Next thing you know we were hammering fish for the rest of the day. We caught over two hundred Walley that day and nobody else came close.

Now the Tourney comes and we do the sane thing. Tourney guys watch each other. Boats come and go watching us catch fish after fish. They get so close that I can watch their fish finder. They don't catch, get frustrated watching us and move on.

We won with a coule of fatty's and two perfect slotties each day using 3 ounce Jigs and 1.5 inch shiners.

To add insult to injury. My cottage is on a lake that is 1.5 miles long and 1/2 mile wide. We catch Walleye that are to big to eat. 4 to 5 lbs. We do so by using shiners caught in the lake or worms. I caught a 29 incher on a 1.5 inch Shiner.

All this being said. Do what gives you confidence and enjoy doing it.

There are no rules.

Cheers, Clark
 
perch are like any other fish and prefer different baits and presentations. some days you'll need to use small minnows and some days you'll need large. sometimes the minnow has to be very lively and other days they prefer a dead minnow sitting on bottom. hook color can even make or break your day if the bigger perch refuse to bite. ive had a few days where id have a red hook up top and chartreuse on bottom and the fish would only hit one color.

that said, its best to have a few different plans for the day. dont sit in one spot for more than 30 minutes as you can be sitting in a dead zone. its normal to be in a "dead zone" not catching a thing before moving 20ft to start nailing them fish after fish.

experimenting is key...
 
ill take small minnows anyday. a small perch is still going to go after a big minnow, its how they are wired. the amount of throwbacks is remarkable right now, we went almost 40 straight without a keeper. i dont think an extra inch of minnow is going to change the demographics...would be great if it did!
 
It’s good to hear, sort of, that what I experienced the other day is "normal." But if bigger minnows isn’t the answer is there something I can do to improve my odds of getting more bigger fish? Like, fish outside the bay? Or fish at another time of year? Or what?

Oh, by the way, after I caught a couple dozen small fry, I tried the Gulp minnow but they produced only 1 for every 10 on a real thing.
 
I'd go to the deep side and stay on the fringe area,the bigger ones might be there or ...bring an U/W camera and pick and choose lol
 
I'm of the same mind of Clark & others that minnow size has nothing to do with perch caught size...I find cutting minnows works well for me & keep moving till you get something,,then anchor.... My 2 cents worth...

If Cans r flyin,they will b dyin...
 
As that is all there seem to be I have been using the little minnows.
First of all I find the hook set is easy ,you set as soon as they take. This makes the catch rate a lot better for the 4 yr old grand-daughter.
Re size I found a lot of little perch as did everyone, especially when anchored. It might be my imagination by I thought that with a very slow drift with drift sock the larger perch seemed to be more aggresive and I caught fewer small ones.
As well the slow drift seemed to set up the little minnows really well with a bit more flash from them and more active movement.
Most of the time I cut the big minnows in half anyway, like many others.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
✖
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Advertising is what keeps Channel 6-8 on the air. To this end, please take a moment to disable your AdBlocker. If you would prefer an ad-free experience, but would still like to help support site operations, please consider making a donation.

I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks