Sportsmens park Help?

[jimpete525]

I am going to head to sportsman park on monday.I have never fished there before. I would love to get some perch. I am new to ice fishing this year and I could use all the help I can get. If any body has any advice on where to go, what to use, or what to look for. It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for any Help.
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[prvrt]

Straight out from the dock towards the east side in about 40' of water. Fish about 6" off the bottom with a worm or jig and keep it moving. I will be out there tommorow so if anything changes I will let you know.
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[snakeriver]

good luck to you, remember if your not catching fish move. sometimes another spot can make all the difference.
Prvt, 40 ft was the ticket? where you catching bigger perch deeper? I'll have to give that a try? I had a great time out there last week and can't wait to try out the new shelter.[cool]
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[prvrt]

That is my best guess, since I did not have anything to measure with. I drilled two holes about 40' apart and when one hole started to produce better than the other I dragged the pole over to the other hole without reeling the line in. When the pole was at the other hole, the jig had just barley came out of the first hole. I can measure it today and be more accurate. I caught anything from 3"-12" at that depth.
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[prvrt]

Made it back from AF. Fishing was a little slower today, but not by much. Temp was 7 when we got there and 18 when we left. I missed quite a few I should have had, so some day I will learn Spider Wire does not stretch. Biggest perch today was the first one in the first test hole. He was 10.5", but we caught everything in size down to about 4". Landed a 14" Bow, but threw him back to grow up. The other half pulled out a 24" sucker and lost another about the same size at the hole due to it getting wrapped around the camera cable. She also landed a 14" chub that was very fat. After getting home and looking at the records, I'm pretty sure that Chub was a record, but he went back for somone else to catch. Ice is about 13" and there was 2 trucks on there today along with a plane that landed and took off on the ice. We were fishing 30' of water, so my guess of 40' was off by ten feet. I had the camera down there and the bottom is bare, just silt. As soon as you drop your bait down and jig it a bit, perch come out of no where. There were times I was watching 20 perch or more on the camera. I did see some nice big perch here and there. Every once in a while the perch would scatter and along comes a nice trout or fat sucker into the picture. Watching that thing all day is quite entertaining.

Oh, and the camera does add a few pounds to the fish.[laugh]
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[CPperch]

Nice job! The bite was very lite today, but managed to land 54. Can i ask where you were fishing? I was mostly out from the dock, slightly north nearer the east shore, 27 feet of water.
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[prvrt]

That was about where I was. We were in a red Eskimo Pop-up and a black Honda Rubicon with shiny wheels.
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[CPperch]

Yup, Saw ya. We were just north of you when the plane landed. Driving the green Grizzly ATV / black sled. The plane was a trip, huh!
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[prvrt]

Ok, I remember seeing ya there. That plane had me wondering sitting there in the dark. It just kept getting closer and closer, so I pulled open a window and there he was, about 2' off the ice and 50 yards away. I have not seen that since I was in Alaska.

I need to get some BFT stickers as much as I am out and about fishing. I seem to be at the same place as quite a few others from this forum are at least once a week.
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[CPperch]

Next time I see you there, I'll come and introduce myself. I try to get there or Magic at least once a week.
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[snakeriver]

Nice reports fellas that Plane deal is wild. I will be heading out today with my new red eskimo 3 man popup. I need to get a bft sticker as well.
CPperch have you been to Magic this year icefishing? Is the perch average size up this year? I had a trip there 8-9 years ago that was stellar, the whole bucket full of 8-10 inch perch and several doubles that day.I have heard that it's been on a down cycle for perch the last few years. I would love to head to magic but it's a long drive for small perch that I can get right here. Your the only one here I have heard that has fished it. So what is it like this year?
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[CPperch]

I've made 3 trips to Magic this year. Trout bite has been good. Perch are slow. I caught 6 last week, but all were greater than 8 inches. The info I hear is that they are spotty and starting to pick up. What is being caught is good sized though. Call West Magic Resort at 208 487 2571 for most current info.

CPperch
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[flyguy66]

prvrt and cperch,

I was also out there yesterday when the plane landed. I believe we set up about
50 yards away from prvrt. We were in a green eskimo shack. We were there from
1:00-5:00. Caught about 50 perch, most were in the 4-6 inch range but we did manage some keepers. My brother caught a fat 12 inch female that was full of eggs, one of the bigger perch i've ever seen. The bite was very light, the ultralight rods came in handy.

Cole
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[DeeCee]

[] jimpete:

My son and I went over to Sportsman's Park on Christmas Eve. We walked straight out from the dock and most of the way across the bay to the other side. To yearly perch fisherman had set up their ice shacks across the bay. Both are unpainted and one is the size of an outhouse and the other a large ice shack nextdoor. Both are grumpy about others fishing close by. Anyway we fished in about 23 feet of water and just inches off bottom with wax worms for perch. We drilled three holes before our fish finder found a hole that frequently had fish moving thru. In about three hours we iced 19 perch. The average was 8" with one or two smaller. My son caught the three largest with the biggest at 12" and 8/10ths of a pound. The other two were 10 and 9 1/2" long. The lure we used had a horizontal hook with three round sinkers painted chartruese yellow with a neon red dot and they glowed in the dark. The jig had a vertical eye for the line. The perch wanted the bait gigged. We had alot of bites when a school of fish moved thru about every fifteen minutes or sooner. Most were probably minnow sized perch.

DeeCee
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[jimpete525]

I want to thank everyone that gave me advice on fishing for perch on sportsman's park. I fished today for about 6 hours and I caught 39 perch 4" to 9" long and 1 -12" chub. I fished 25' of water and like you said 6" off the bottom. I only fished with one pole so I think I did Ok for my first time perch fishing. I will be back! Thanks again.
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[prvrt]

Glad we could help. Sounds like you did fine. I hit it again today in the same area and did ok. Largest was 11" and brought home 14 that were 7" or bigger. I hooked a very large perch right at dark. It had to be close to 14" by what I seen on the camera and felt on the pole, but as all fish stories go, it spit the hook half way to the hole.
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