02-03-2014, 03:06 PM
[quote zman2]now the tricki is finding em when the ice is off... pat,,w/h anybody????[/quote]
[#0000FF]There is no sure-fire trick to fishing perch throughout the year...especially when water levels keep going up and down like they have. The only reason they have been more abundant and catchable this year is because they had a good spawn during one of the last good water years...about 5 years ago. The ice cover makes the water clearer and allows sight feeders like perch to forage better. The lower water makes it easier to find them because there aren't many options open to them.
The big fish we are catching now will likely spawn for the last time this spring and then die. And they are not likely to have a good spawn because of the lack of suitable vegetation and stickups in the lower water.
There are almost always a few perch around, but never big schools as there are in most perch ponds. There can be areas where you might catch more than one perch in a day of fishing but seldom multiples.
I generally pick up a few stray singles during the open water months, while pitching small plastics for crappies, wipers or walleyes. And they do slurp up the minnows I drag around on the bottom. But most of the perch I catch throughout the warmer months are small...under 8 or 9 inches. For some reason the jumbos seem to turn up more often through the ice.
Anglers who troll crankbaits around at mid-depth, at mach 5 speeds, aren't going to find many perch. But strangely, the guys who drag crawler harnesses at paint-drying speed do not score many either. Not like Starvation or other walleye/perch venues where both coexist and each takes lures/baits meant for the other.
I made a couple of specific perch searches during late fall last year...after a few of the jumbos started showing up for anglers near the north marina. I had one day that I scored nine nice perch on one trip. That is a personal best for me. The best I have done otherwise is maybe 3 on a single day.
In short, there are probably a lot more perch in Willard than we might expect. But because they do not have lots of perchy structure to hold them in any given area they roam around a lot and catching them is generally an accidental and unexpected thing. Fishing for perch, specifically, is best in late fall and under the ice.
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[#0000FF]There is no sure-fire trick to fishing perch throughout the year...especially when water levels keep going up and down like they have. The only reason they have been more abundant and catchable this year is because they had a good spawn during one of the last good water years...about 5 years ago. The ice cover makes the water clearer and allows sight feeders like perch to forage better. The lower water makes it easier to find them because there aren't many options open to them.
The big fish we are catching now will likely spawn for the last time this spring and then die. And they are not likely to have a good spawn because of the lack of suitable vegetation and stickups in the lower water.
There are almost always a few perch around, but never big schools as there are in most perch ponds. There can be areas where you might catch more than one perch in a day of fishing but seldom multiples.
I generally pick up a few stray singles during the open water months, while pitching small plastics for crappies, wipers or walleyes. And they do slurp up the minnows I drag around on the bottom. But most of the perch I catch throughout the warmer months are small...under 8 or 9 inches. For some reason the jumbos seem to turn up more often through the ice.
Anglers who troll crankbaits around at mid-depth, at mach 5 speeds, aren't going to find many perch. But strangely, the guys who drag crawler harnesses at paint-drying speed do not score many either. Not like Starvation or other walleye/perch venues where both coexist and each takes lures/baits meant for the other.
I made a couple of specific perch searches during late fall last year...after a few of the jumbos started showing up for anglers near the north marina. I had one day that I scored nine nice perch on one trip. That is a personal best for me. The best I have done otherwise is maybe 3 on a single day.
In short, there are probably a lot more perch in Willard than we might expect. But because they do not have lots of perchy structure to hold them in any given area they roam around a lot and catching them is generally an accidental and unexpected thing. Fishing for perch, specifically, is best in late fall and under the ice.
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