Where are the larger perch?

[mikefishing]

So i have been finding tons of perch in the 6-9 inch range. most of these fish are in less than 10 fow. but i cannot seem to find anything larger so where should i look? I've tried out deeper off the drop off all the way down to 30 feet but nothing.

[trappingaddiction]

I see one of your locations in your profile is the Metro. Very few lakes in the Metro area have large perch in fishable populations. On the other hand, your other location is Brainerd, so you may have to find where the smaller perch are in lower densitys, and try there, in between 10 and 30 ft possibly if oxygen levels are high enough.

[OnAFly]

There are a few places in the metro you can find them...but not many.

One that I know of is where a deep hole meets the shore. On the point of the hole (making an inside turn), where it's closest to shore in about 14 FOW, there are decent perch. Look for places like this.

This one is in a particularly popular metro lake. Sometimes even the hardest hit lakes have overlooked spots.

[Lakeside_Nelson]

Earlier this year I did very well on Leech for large perch. We had an afternoon of fish in the 12" range. Good thing too considering the walleyes weren't cooperating. We were just using your standard jig and a minnow.

[JohnMickish]

Last weekend I was on Devels Lake and just got back from Leech. We where fishing for eyes but caught more than enough keeper perch by accident. If you want big perch you have to fish lakes with a fishable population of big perch. Not the easiest thing to find nowdays.

[tacklejunkie]

LOTW grows them big

[MN BassFisher]

My buddy caught a jumbo perch on the Croix 3 weeks ago, trolling gumballs and worms for Eye's or Sauger.

[fishin58]

not that I have fished a ton this ice season....but we fish shallow for perch, we have not seen a perch over 8.5 inches.....we fish the same area a lot...the conclusion I have came to is...it is all males in the area....where are the girls???

[trappingaddiction]

not that I have fished a ton this ice season....but we fish shallow for perch, we have not seen a perch over 8.5 inches.....we fish the same area a lot...the conclusion I have came to is...it is all males in the area....where are the girls???

Many lakes seem to have no perch over 9 inches, including many of the lake around me. Try looking at LakeFinder at the survey and see which lake have either good growth rates with strong year classes of perch, or lakes that have had quite a few over 9 inches. These will show you what lakes are capable of supplying numbers of larger perch.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

Out here in SD it's been all about the mud bottom the past few weeks. Doesn't matter on the depth, they are grubbing up worms in the mud. same with the crappies. could be 9 ft, could be 22 ft., but regardless of depth, if its a mud bottom, the chances are better you'll find fish.

[Lakeside_Nelson]

I was out a week and a half ago and we did very well on perch 10-11 on Miltona.

[Hoyt4]

Been doing well on Mille lacs for jumbos. Most weekends they are 12 to over 13 inches.

Just got back form perchin in SD we brought back a lot of big perch. Fished from 12 to 20 ft on mud bottoms. We did not get any over 13 but most were at the 12 mark like cookie cut fish all looked the same. Love looking for perch.

[Acemac]

set up off on the break out from the gov. acsess on gull and you will catch perch.