Personal best perch

[RACKER]

Was out fishing at South Buck yesterday and had a good day of fishing.I was targeting perch with my little ice rod with 3 lb test and was lucky enough to land a big one.I was suprised to catch walleye in 5 fow on a sunny day darn near right in the weeds.Had to quit using my little rod cause walleyes kept snapping my line!Also managed to catch a keeper walleye as well.It was a good day on the water except for the massive build up of algae.

[58thecat]

That's a fatty, light rod and line too, would have been in for it if 40" gator slipped in for a bite!

[Fishing4Trophies]

Very nice Perch, congrats!

[Deep]

Well done, so much more challenging to find a good perch spot.

[Red Bullets]

Nice meal. I've come to the conclusion that the big perch of south buck are loners. Very hard to catch more than one or two big perch any given day of the year, open water or ice fishing.

[Sask Bearman]

Dandy looking fish!

[OpenSights]

What were you using for bait?

I tried a new one with using whole canned shrimp. They are tiny little shrimp.

Caught a few off the reed beds on the east side of Buck in about 6-7 Ft of water 2 weekends ago.

[RACKER]

What were you using for bait?

I tried a new one with using whole canned shrimp. They are tiny little shrimp.

Caught a few off the reed beds on the east side of Buck in about 6-7 Ft of water 2 weekends ago.

I was using the heads off of minnows. Didn’t have a chance to buy maggots. I use a small hook called a forage minnow. Never tried shrimp before. Probably a lot cheaper. Best of luck to you next time out.

[NSR Fisher]

I was using the heads off of minnows. Didn’t have a chance to buy maggots. I use a small hook called a forage minnow. Never tried shrimp before. Probably a lot cheaper. Best of luck to you next time out.

Interesting, I use the forage minnows during ice fishing... do you cast them in open water or just vertically jig?

It would be fascinating to use a forage minnow as a drop shot weight, and tying a small octopus hook with a piece of crawler on it maybe 18 to 24" above the forage minnow? Could be deadly type of rig to fish the perch who are laying right on bottom as well as the big boys who sometimes suspend 2 feet above bottom. You might end up with a few double headers using that method!

[RACKER]

Interesting, I use the forage minnows during ice fishing... do you cast them in open water or just vertically jig?

It would be fascinating to use a forage minnow as a drop shot weight, and tying a small octopus hook with a piece of crawler on it maybe 18 to 24" above the forage minnow? Could be deadly type of rig to fish the perch who are laying right on bottom as well as the big boys who sometimes suspend 2 feet above bottom. You might end up with a few double headers using that method!

I just jig it vertically. It worked great during winter so I thought I would give it a try and it performed well. Only downside is walleye and northerns like it just as much as perch. I think your idea is great. Just have to see how to rig that up. It would be nice to come home with 5 instead of 1 or 2. Best of luck and thanks for the advice.

[wildbill]

Was out fishing at South Buck yesterday and had a good day of fishing.I was targeting perch with my little ice rod with 3 lb test and was lucky enough to land a big one.I was suprised to catch walleye in 5 fow on a sunny day darn near right in the weeds.Had to quit using my little rod cause walleyes kept snapping my line!Also managed to catch a keeper walleye as well.It was a good day on the water except for the massive build up of algae.

Nice slab, as you stated with the walleye, seems they can be unpredictable, but I guess if they are hungry they will be where bait fish are, bin catching some big walleye this year on the fly rod, floating line no less, when people hear that they look at me like I'm on crack, hahahahahaha..........

[barbless]

What a beast of a perch :47b20s0:. I bet the walleye was scared :scared0015: to hit your bait until you pulled that beast out of the way. Yummy :tongue0017:

[NSR Fisher]

I just jig it vertically. It worked great during winter so I thought I would give it a try and it performed well. Only downside is walleye and northerns like it just as much as perch. I think your idea is great. Just have to see how to rig that up. It would be nice to come home with 5 instead of 1 or 2. Best of luck and thanks for the advice.

You are familiar with a drop shot rig right? Take your Floro or mono or braid or what ever and tie a palomar knot to the little octopus hook , leaving a tag end long enough to leave that hook suspended your desired height above the weight (or in this case a secondary lure)

Take the extra long tag end and loop it back through the eyelet dwnwards, this is very important in order to make sure that drop shot hook is staying "erect" instead of drooping. It helps with the hook up % (that last sentence was hard to type with a straight face, but I hope you are following)

With that tag end chop it to your desired length and tie on the forage minnow, or a small jig head even. Tip each with a small piece of crawler and send er' down!

Report on the results!