Perchin western style.

[markkstanley]

Heard rumors of a good perch bite so decided to give it a whirl today. First adaptation - can't use live minnows. Can't even use a whole frozen minnow. Have to cut them up. Can use perch eyes and meat go figure. And bait stores here tend to have only worms and waxies. We also don't have Lakemaster or Nav charts but do have some paper maps with 10ft contours give or take. Anyhow the info I got was to look for perch in 40 to 50ft depths in bays. That's on the shallow side here since those depths are usually a stone's throw from shore. Not unusual to hunt for perch in 70ft. I guessed that the map was likely 10 feet off as reservoir was slightly down from usual. Drilled my first hole and I was in 40ft. Excellent. Popped another quick 10 holes out to 50ft and began to fish. Dropped a 1/16 oz Lindy red glow Rattl Flyer tipped with waxies down and two jigs later had my first perch. Nothing special just 8" but that was a nice start. The fish keep coming for the next couple of hours - everything between 6 and 10". Then the snow stopped and so did the bite. Time to switch gears and I opted to drop a red diamond jig down the hole. Didn't take long and the perch were hitting again. I did some hole hopping just to see if I could find some bigger perch but no luck. Did find two cigar walleyes though so I might have to try a sunset ice trip. This body of water has produced 15lb eyes and the DNR has netted a 20lb eye during a survey. Just trying to figure out what I would use for walleye bait. Probably perch eyes or a chunk of perch meat.

The zoom feature on Marcum LX5 was key to seeing how fish related to my jig. Don't leave home without it!

[tunrevir]

I look foreward to each of your new adventures out there Mark. Sounds like you have been having some decent luck and alot of fun getting on the fish out there. Keep it up!

Tunrevir~

[monstermoose78]

berkley gulp minnow heads might be something to look at.

[markkstanley]

Tried them. Thing is Utah just doesn't have a minnow forage base. Small perch and chubs and stocked trout fingerlings are the main fare along with crayfish. I need to catch some bigger eyes and empty the stomachs to make sure. The perch here live off plankton and small perch. Always spit up a greenish goo. No mayfly larvae etc to speak of. Has been fun adjusting. Been up to Deer Creek twice since last post. Got into the 9 to 10" perch but only a couple of hours after sunrise. Total shutdown after 10am although I was still marking a ton of fish. Could get them to chase the Rattl Flyer 8 feet off the bottom but they just wouldn't bite. On the other hand the rainbows had no fear in whacking the jig. A 2lb bow on a ML ST Croix Legend is quite the battle.

[monstermoose78]

How about using a drop line off bigger jig like the flyer or buckshot then I us a tiny sunfish jig tipped with a waxie or euro