Fishing Forum

Fished DC on Sat. 2/5, in an effort to figure out the perch bite. It turned out to be a great day of fishing, but a bit of a slow day for catching. I found a good school of perch holding just off the bottom in 46' of water and was able to stay on top of them for several hours, but only managed to hook up with a handful of them. I was getting pretty consistent nibbles but had trouble getting them hooked up. The perch I did pull up were all 8" - 9" with one that was almost 10", and they all were filled with eggs when I cleaned them.

So that raises a couple of questions for me. First, for all you perch experts out there, what should I be doing to increase my hook-ups and catch rate? Second, should I be concerned about keeping these egg laden females out of DC? What is best for that fishery right now? To cull some of the numbers from the population or to return the spawning females to the lake?

For further information, I was using a couple of different set-ups. One with a casting/jigging spoon as a "flasher" with a dropper. Tried various shapes and colors of "flasher" and the dropper was everything from a scudbug, to a mud-bug, to a ratfinkee, to an ice-fly, all tipped with bait. My other set-up was a forage minnow tipped with bait. For bait I used meal worms, wax worms, and perch eyes. Like I said, plenty of bites, just very, very light.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm new to perch fishing and would love to improve my outings with a bit more action. Thanks in advance.

-Plugpuller
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DC perch have gotten progressively more skiddish for about a month now. I've watched my numbers go from 20 fish an hour to 2 fish an hour. One thing I've found that helps sometimes is using a camera and rapidly twitching the bait in front of them... you can use big motions to attract them but then keep it still and twitch it, more like vibrating. They're always down there staring at it, and it really entices them into getting serious about it rather than just nibble it like they've been doing to you. Of course, I don't know how you'd ever tell you were getting a bite while twitching it unless you had a camera. Hope that helps.

As for returning perch to the lake, they will more than likely die anyway when being caught from those depths because they spit up their swim bladder and can't get back down to the bottom. Might as well keep them and have a fish fry.
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Best advice for increasing your hook-ups on the perch is just plain practice. At the beginning of the ice fishing season when I got hit my perch holes I always have quite a few whiffs until I get into the groove of it again and then miss very few. No matter what I don't know anyone that lands every single fish that bites their line though, keep at it[]
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For getting as many nice perch as you did last weekend, you should get "Angler of the Year," and I'm not kidding. Bites, hook-ups & catch numbers all taking a dive to the bottom. And not only at DC, but Pineview , Starvation & mantua as well. I assume you're using a sensitive spring bobber, and maybe even 2# test. A bunch of us "experienced" perchers were there in force last weekend and didn't exactly tear 'em up. Again, you've got my vote.

Not giving up yhet, but a few more so-so outings and I'm gonna mothball my ice fllies, start cleaning out the garage and prepping my soft water gear.
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When ever I am missing hits the number one thing I always do is sharpen my hooks, they should stick to your finger nail when you just touch it. There's nothn like a sticky hook. I usually start new lures replacing hooks with gamakatsu, my favorite hook. The if the hook will let me I open the gap 1 or 2 degrees. A good freind told me this one day when we were float tubn the berry one spring when I was missing fish after fish. He loaned me a file and showed me how and now first thing before I ever put down is check my hook sharpness. The day he showed me that I increased hook up by about 75%!
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I stopped at DC on my way home from work tonight, and they were a little more cooperative... 11 perch from 4:30-5:30. Glow-in-the-dark swedish pimple 6 inches above a ratfinkee tipped with waxworm or nightcrawler. Just for fun I replaced the ratfinkee with a plain old hook tipped with bait, and they didn't hesitate to eat that at all...looked more natural maybe. They really turned on about 5 and died as it started getting dark. I was the only soul south of the island (only one stupid enough to get pelted in the face with sleet I'm sure). Anyway, fun trip until I had to drive home in a blizzard.
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That's great that you were able to find some willing biters, rustrob. You deserve it just for being out in that yesterday.

Thanks to all for the information, tips, and even the vote of confidence in my efforts. I guess I'll make a few slight changes to my set-up, but most of all just keep at it. Maybe I'll head up to PV next to try to get into better numbers of perch. Either way, I'm sure I'll have fun just trying to catch them. Thanks again to all.

Plug-puller
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