Ah yes ..... perch .....
Simple answers is YES, all of the above.
Large Perch, the Jumbos are found cursing suspended in very deep water chasing forage, or right under the ice chasing scuds, and you can often set your watch as the school feeds through your area, steady action for 5-10 minutes then dead silence for 40 minutes then back they come through the same area slamming anything that moves ....that's kinda the deeper water scenario.
I've also caught some very big perch shallow, right in the weeds through the ice in a few feet of water ....
But typically, any weed edge, drop off, ledge or change is a great place for perch (and most species).
If there was one general rule to perch .... I'd mix it up to see what is working - small and subtle, to loud and large .... don't underestimate how aggressive they can be sometimes. I have used a 1" to 1.5" rattling rap type bait (what you would think to be too large for perch) and had some jumbos come in and crush it - you could hardly see them on the camera they smashed it so fast.
Usually I start with a jig or maybe a rattlin' flyer tipped with a minnow head and go from there. Watch the reactions .... if they are skitish I downsize if they are taking it you can stick to it or upsize to get the area buzzing with some bigger perch. Often times if you play around with medium and small ones the big ones come in and bully the small ones off the bait.
I always have a small baited presentation set up, whatever I'm using like the rattlin' flyer, and always have a rattlin' rap there too. Whatever the situation calls for, I can drop the next presentation down the hole and it's on a rod ready to go.
Good luck ...
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