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corney

Fishing for Perch

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Curious whether any of you have tried bloodworms or Chronomids for perch.

 

Couple of my buddies caught some perch ice fishing a couple of weeks ago and kept some to smoke. They said they were full of red little worm and that was all they appeared to be feeding on. We have a ridiculous hatch here of midges which leads me to believe this might be a good strategy opening day on May 5 to catch some perch.

 

We have a good population here in the lake I live at, up to 13".

 

Not sure on method or depth?

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I've caught a few on white estaz bugs. Biggest was a 13 inch female full of eggs. A lot of tidal rivers over in New Jersey have a spring run of white and yellow perch. The guys who fish for them use grass shrimp and pieces of blood worm. The few guys who fly fish for them use small clousers, surf candies and small shrimp patterns In fresh water I've caught them on small minnows, worms and leeches. Patterns to try, larger San Juan worms, squirmin' wormies, leech patterns, damsel fly nymphs, small clousers and bait fish patterns.

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For midge imitations, try small wet flies (soft hackles) with a black or red body, wire ribbing, dubbed contrasting color thorax and a grizzly hackle - tie these on wet fly hooks in sizes 12 to 16. Most of the fish taking midges are feeding on emergers - these flies are perfect for fisning in or under the surface film.

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Perch 'run' up tributaries about now. The big egg layers.

 

Roco

 

This is a reservoir, canals bring water in and take it out depending on the water demands of Potash mines and irrigation downstream.

Basically a dam at both ends of a flooded valley. The old river channel is right in front of my house, drops to about 30' from 10' on either side.

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Caught a bunch of walleye on a about 4-6 Mickey Finns. The Walleye here are about 12" right now and plentiful. That is because we are close ( 25 minutes) to the biggest city in Saskatchewan and every Asian catches and keeps instead of releasing. There is limits but it gets lots of pressure.

 

Oh well!

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If you have 30ft or more of water in that reservoir, does it hold trout ? Trout will be on those midges for sure. Once the midges head to the surface as pupa or emergers I think it's less likely perch will key to them if minnows are around. Bluegill will and trout will. I would stick with weighted minnows or even intermediate or slow sinking line and smaller minnow patterns for the perch. A difference in perch fishing from some other fish is they like a slower retrieve, slow down your streamer patterns.

 

Size 10-6

Mickey Finn.

Black Nosed Dace.

Marabou streamer patterns ( include Woolly Buggers in this category).

Some craft fur streamers (with a holographic tinsel wrapped hook shank for a center line of sparkle should work).

Small bunny strips in various colors.

And already mentioned by someone, Clousers.

Thunder Creek minnows.

If You want to fish deep, try size 14 scuds over and through weeds ( if you put mono antenna on some of them they can pass for shrimp).

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I remember fishing for Perch ...

yellowperch.jpg

 

But I also know that in many States, people call all the sunfish family "perch".

 

So I am not sure which fish you are speaking of.

Yellow Perch, if I remember correctly, are mainly "minnow" eaters. But they are generalists, and WILL eat anything. I am just going off memory, though, as we don't have them down here in Florida.

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I remember fishing for Perch ...

attachicon.gifyellowperch.jpg

 

I am just going off memory, though, as we don't have them down here in Florida.

In my opinion Mike, you're lucky !! But hey, it's just an opinion.

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Thanks for all those good suggestions!

 

It is Yellow Perch Mike.

 

I have a couple boats to get fixed up before Spring so I am ready to go May 5.

 

I think I have all the above bugs tied up or something close.

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Ah so a boat is available, then slow trolling will work. It's a matter of depth, we once marked fish 50 ft down in a trough off the shore of a lake up north in the summer. Understand that this lake is 11 miles across in any given direction in the shape of a clover leaf and we marked fish only in that trough. Doesn't mean they weren't elsewhere but that's where we marked them, about 2-3 miles from the landing. I let the boat drift on the wind and let out lead core line till we started picking up weeds, then picked the pace up slightly. I thought for sure the marked fish down that deep at that time of year would be salmon or brook trout and of course in my wildest imaginary picture, I thought for sure they would be Huge LOL ! But we caught one yellow perch after another on marabou streamers. Turns out that basically that whole end of the lake is yellow perch haven. The salmon hang in a hole off a place called Black Point another 4-5 miles or so west.. Why am I saying all this ? You probably are going to have to learn that reservoir.

 

The boat we have now I don't think would troll slow enough to get perch FWIW, and I can hold it at about 1.8-2 MPH on the engine ( GPS readings and that's fine for salmon). A good gauge is a 1/6oz spoon, if you can feel that on a slow wave or wobble you got the right speed to catch perch or retrieve at if reeling in. Then it's a matter of depth. But if you retrieve a bit fast you might have perch schooling up with your streamer or lure . They're kinda funny that way.

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White perch or yellow perch? White perch in New England / Atlantic Canada are brackish water I use grass shrimp patterns. Yellow perch I do well in ponds and lakes with peacock body wets, small streamers, and most pan fish patterns . Both are delicious and a lot of fun to catch. But after reading your post I'll tie up some and give them a try.

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It's interesting how the name "perch" gets assigned to two entirely different species. The white perch is in the same family as striped bass and white bass. Like it's cousins it is anadromous and runs up tidal creeks and rivers to spawn but it does adapt to fresh water and can be found in lakes. The yellow perch is in the same family as walleye and sauger. Found mainly in lakes and rivers. Where there are walleye, there are yellow perch. The only place I've ever caught them both in the same place and on the same trip is in the Delaware River above Scudder's Falls in the non-tidal section of the Delaware River.

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We have yellow and white perch in some of our ponds and lakes locally. I suppose the white perch came up the herring runs. In terms of scrappiness per lb I'll take the white perch. They're a bit dull tasting though. It's clean fresh white meat, just needs some seasoning IMO. Yellow perch all you need is a little butter and pan, good to go. Given a choice of all the junk fish around new england I'll take Crappie and by junk fish I mean non classic game fish. It's all eatable but I'll actually fish for Crappie to eat and go to the ocean ( I only live a mile away) and fish for sea bass to eat. And throw everything else back. I used to flounder fish but the restrictions will kill you now. Stripers here get nice and big but eating them doesn't interest me either unless of course I had to, then they would be fine..

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