walleye live bait tactics for a lake full of peckig perch

[brad coin]

Hey people Im not a regular walleye guy Im into muskies and steelhead,,,however I went out has a volunteer with the MN dnr on a muskie population netting survey on a local lake,,and couldnt belive the avrg size and abundance of the walleyes in the hoop nets so I thought I would give it a shot on walleye openner,,,however this lake has a "million" tiny perch that would nip any leech,crawler and probably a fathead,,,I realize you can troll crankbits and also eliminate perch bites by night fishing,,,,but what kind of live bait would discourage the small perch from constantly pecking,,,would Jumbo leechs discourage perch??? small sucker minnows or Shiners if avalable???

jigging tactics???

any info would be great

[tgruenke]

I have never had issues using leeches or Shiners. Typically I jig for them and if I do catch a Perch it usually is a pretty good size one. The other thought is try Gulp ALive, that is a plastic that would work just like a leech but panfish can't slowly eat it. Good Luck this season.

Tony

[PerchJerker]

I like jigs and shiner minnows or jigs and plastic baits early in the season --- you might get a few perch bites but usually it's not a problem.

[Acemac]

how do you deal with the small northerns when you musky fishing?

[brad coin]

I dont use live bait when I musky fish,,,and its not millions of Northerns like it is perch on this body of water,,,Ive actually Icefished this same body of water once and its almost the "second" your bait tipped spoon or bobber rigged fathead levels out theres a perch on it,,,and you can see a ton of tiny perch in piles on the ice around old holes that ended up hooked too deep

[KyleM.]

live bait....good luck, maybe you could use 3-4 inch sucker or shiner minnows on a minnow harness/bottom bouncers.

Other than that you may have to go with artificial/gulp.

[rattleL]

rig or jig with nose hooked shiners plain hook and a colored bead has worked well for me rigging early on in the year.

[leech~~]

Ditch the live bait! Never caught a Perch trolling a Rapla!

[BFJ]

Usually if you're working leeches or minnows on a jig the small perch aren't a problem. Cranks are an option.

[srfishin15]

Gulp!

[Northlander]

Pull spinners faster with crawlers and if that still dont help speed up more. If that dont help than use gulp crawlers. They do work.

[eskimo9]

You could try fishing deeper. Small perch typically hold tight to the weeds, get yourself off that weedline on a steep break and you should find some walters hanging on the break. All the above ideas are good as well. Good luck!

[Cicada]

I like these ideas. I wouldn't be scared to use a larger minnow. Try one about the same size as the perch. They are feeding on them so they are used to a larger bait.