Perch????

[SirFishALot]

I never saw no perch!:D

Actually I love them when it's ice fishing season. A few fat ones for the fryer is a GOOD thing! I have some pics to scan, but I only have one now. My buddy and I were fishing last week for prespawn largemouth and some BIG chain pickerel, but caught several perch in the process, the biggest a very fat 15" one. We were fishing #4 and #5 inline spinners (Mepp's Bucktails and SonicVibraxes) and 3-6" jointed Rapalas in black/silver and black/gold (thriving pop of gold shiners in this lake;) ) and the perch were hitting them. So we took a few home to fillet and fry, wouldn't you??

He does look so enthused over the little one, huh??:D :D
148
We had a good day. We caught a total of 24 pickerel (the longest 28") and 13 bass (heaviest was 6.5#). Not a bad day, huh?

[Timotha7]

Looks like a great day! An far as I am concerned you cannot beat yellow perch for table fare , best in fresh water for me
Tim

[gofish]

i agree on that.good eats weve got one pond around here that has them up to 15/16 inches but 12 is more average.catch quite a few thru the ice on swedish pimples and bladebaits along with tons of bass

[Timotha7]

15 to 16 is a real nice perch! we gets them that size but they are pretty rare

Lake I generally find them on seems like best time to get on the perch consistent is through the ice..
Occassionaly will get on them good during the rest of the year, always at nite and real "hit and miss" as to wether or not we find them..

Sal Jr (with the smoked cabbage) has some spots up in MI that I definitly would like to go and try out this winter if I can make it happen
I generally prefer to do my winter fishing in spillway where the water is open, but would definitly sit on the ice for cooler full of jumbo perch!

Tim

[gofish]

timotha7 catching perch at night is kinda strange.always thought they hunkered down at night (keep from being lunch themselves)try early spring on windswept rocks or shallow weeds (45 to55 degree water temp)sunny shore if possible and deep weeds in summer once you find them theres normally a bunch.biggest one i caught here was almost a state record

[SirFishALot]

I have also caught them at night. Right along with bullheads and feeding in the same places. That is during the warmer parts of the year. The lake I took the pic on is full of perch. There are some nice ones, too, the largest I've seen was 16" and over a pound, caught through the ice on a 5" shiner on a jig. There have been MANY that size, and near it, from that lake. The same day I caught the 16 incher I caught a 27" brown trout out of the same hole, same rig, right beside the same springhead in 22 feet of water. Lucky day.:D

Since this forum is "Where I Fish", I'll show you my favorite fishing hole. I took my avatar and many other photos there. You might want to zoom in.;) I took the pic 2 weeks ago before all the eaves were out. Keep in mind the lake is on top of a mountain, so it greens up later than in the valleys. The lake is 59' deep, 44 acres, springfed and not man made. I actually saw a bald eagle there the last two times I went fishing.:cool: I even got to see an eagle grab a fish for the first time. There has not been an eagle here in my lifetime!! So I call it a good day. I'll get pics of him next time.
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[Timotha7]

During warmer months I seem to find them at nite more than during the day....fishing on drop offs in about 15-18 foot of water where there is some rocky bottom above the creek bed..but like I said, very inconsistent
.
course I don't fish much during the day either and when I do it is generally with the boys and we are fishing for crappie along that dam face..

that windswept shores sunny side with weeds deep I got that covered east side of lake
Do pretty good on eater size eyes in that area at nite, might be that the perch are down below that flat and come up day times

I will have to get out there early morning sometime or just fish through the nite an see what I can find fishing till late morning or early afternoon

Gerald,
that is a beautiful looking piece of water you got there! Just the right size to get to know it real good

Would love to see pic of that eagle!

Tim

[gofish]

unless you guys went thru old posts you havent seen me talk about my favorite lure thru the ice. works great year round for all species especially bass and walleye.try the reef runner cicada.you need to modify it slightly to get the best action and hooking power but you wont believe what youll catch on it. timotha7 used to guide years back for walleye,musky and panfish up north and always carried a flyrod that i hung over the bow of the boat with a piece of nightcrawler and splitshot.if i pulled up on a spot and caught a perch right away the walleyes werent there really heavy (as a general rule)but if it took a few minutes to catch one id have the clents rig a crankbait that dove just slightly shallower than the depth i caught the perch.worked extremely well for me to find the most productive spots.try it with the kids to find the perch sometime. base of the drop is where they should be if inactive so that makes sense.should move into the deeper scattered weededge when feeding. ill try fishing at night for the perch this summer for sure.

[Timotha7]

GREAT INFO JOE!
We will definitly try it..the shelf area where we find the eyes has exactly the kind of structure you are describing..and I will check out the reef runnen cicada..guess I am going to have to figger a way to get the wife to let me "gear up" some..

When I have been out along this in buddies boat and he had graph what I could not get over was the big fish that seemed to suspend right over the creek bed hanging off the shelf area out in open water..

The lake has a population of tiger musky in it, don't seem like they get caught very much, and I have always wondered if those suspended fish there aren't tiger musky

Be perfect place for them just kinda sit and feed as fish stage up and down that shelf line night an day

Tim

[gofish]

quite possibly monster "eyes" theres a website for reefrunner.1/8 oz is my main one thru the ice and the others work best in warmer months.dont worry about color take the stickers off and throw em away,same with the hooks.replace the hooks with split rings and regular trebles and use a snap on the top for tieing your line to.try one before you modify it and after......youll feel the difference.theyre cheap too.

[Timotha7]

I found the site and bookmarked it!
Reading the "how to" on the cicadias they look to be and very versatile lure
and very reasonably priced at under 2 and 1/2 bucks and I do a great deal of fishing with UL set ups
so these little jewels will fit right into my pocket boxes..

they have some real good looking crank baits too, and ya gotta like manufacturer that has a lure color titled "monkey puke" !

(gonna have to "boost" paypal up a bit and do lil ordering ;) )

Thanks again for the tips and info I reckon I might have to broaden my horizons after all these years and start fishing a bit more with artificials than I have in the past
Tim

[gofish]

warning those little buggers fish heavy for theyre size.i throw the 3/4 oz on a med heavy 7ft baitcasting rod with 17 lb test.best two days with that size this year was 18 largemouth in 20 casts( 2 over 6lbs)they had shad cornered in the back of a main lake cut.and white bass that averaged 14 to 16 inches one about every other cast for 4 hours straight.ive caught 7 lb walleye on the smaller size so i mainly use them on 10 lb and a 7 ft med. or med.light spinning rod.most of theyre cranks are hard to cast but the ones you can are dynamite(i dont troll much rather chunk and wind)

[Timotha7]

I don't have boat so trolling is pretty much out of the question, definitly will get a couple of the crankbaits when I get the cicadias
Gonna get a pay pal windfall for Fathers day ...gonna do a little shopping :-)

They look like they would cast pretty good, I use spinning gear
mostly either 6 or 8lb will have to get a few of them an experiment with them
on some of the flats on the lake, water is still pretty clear, so should be able to see them reasonably well an try to get a feel for how they fish that way
They look like they would be real good on wipers too

[gofish]

ive caught smaller ones on them (wipers) but i just got some 5 inch long bladebaits for stripers . 2 to 4 oz each.lol youll have to play with your retrieve but most of the time you cast ,count down to the depth you want the snap the rod tip and use a pumping retrieve.theyll take the rod right out of your hands at times.shore fishing i stongly suggest you use the bass pro branded trebles and a little heavier line.the bass pro ones are lighter wire and you can bend them out if you get snagged.if thats not a problem go with quality trebles (rotating).ive got em rigged both ways.im trying to find a place to buy the small 2 inch lindy shadlings know of anywhere?use to be able to get em unpainted but cant find em anywhere

[Timotha7]

I don't know bout those Lindy Shadlings
Know that Al Linder is back on the air an has a website as well
bet that you could go through the website and get some answers as to where they can be got if they are still available??

An thanks for the tips on those blade baits, I am looking forward to adding little variety to my fishing style this year, you got me all fired up to try some new things
I have been pretty "lazy" not working at it much past few years, grab a worm an wet em kinda fishing stead of actually getting serious about it

Be good for the boys too
Tim

[gofish]

nothing wrong with that i get worn out from work about mid summer and do a lot of catfishing with the boys then.pretty relaxing ,dont have to duck as often,just have to take off fish every once in a while.they get old enough to drive the boat and truck ill have it made lol.glad to see the linders back on tv. infishermans sure gone downhill though.the linders are really good people.i was lucky enough as a boy to have breakfast with them ,ray scott ,bill dance,tom mann and a couple others at a fishing seminar weekend and never forgot that they actually took the time to talk to me especially al linder.base a lot of my tactics on the infisherman tactics.especially ice fishing ill drill up to 150 holes a day picking off the active fish or fine tuning a spot.lol lindys website was the first i tried but no luck

[Timotha7]

That is a fact Joe, when the Linder's left Infisherman it got real commercial and really changed
Back in '87 I was working with my friend (fishing partner on MWC) and guy out of Colo that made a specialty hook (Super hook) ..in-fisherman had done a write up on it a few years previous and we went up to Brainerd to see if we could get some info and some old mags
Met Al Linder and Doug Stange on that trip and they were both true
gentlemen..

I will check around at a couple of places round here on those shadlings,
got a couple of stores been open seems like forever and they have stuff
no one else seems to have
Tim

[gofish]

thanks a lot i appreciate it. if you want to see something that will blow your mind go to total coarse fishing forums section and check out the predator forum howd you like to catch a 6lb perch?