bagpipes and black suits?

[CrappieJohn]

What happened to this forum? Has everyone died? With this much activity I guess we may as well all dress in black and call out the bagpipes to play the death march, eh.

[CALVINIST]

I'm still alive...I think

Hey Tom, I was just pondering the Ultimate Panfish League, particularly the ice fishing events. To focus on crappies, sunnies, AND perch in one six-hour event ought to make for some fun competition. I know your name isn't "Perchie Tom" (Thank goodness!) but where do you think I could find some perch come hard-water time in mesotropic/eurotropic lake environments? My ice fishing experience is somewhat limited, and I'll probably get smoked by the pro's (unless I get Cyberfish as my partner-working on that). Do Perch and crappies/sunnies hang close, or should they be fished "seperately", as in a seperate location? I was thinking of signing up for the december and march events on Linwood lake and Rush lake respectively.

[catman71]

i think posting is losing out to fall fishing, ducks, bows and watching the Vikings lose!

I fryed up some sunfish last weekend! How's that?

[delmuts]

i haven't done any fishing lately! ( but i'm healing fast!) will give the weather a day or two, then maybe i'll have a report from here.

[Matt Johnson]

Calvinist,

Cyberfish isn't allowed to fish in this league Just kidding, it would be nice to see Mike again. He's one heck of a stick! Always seems to land his fair share of winter pannies.

And just a heads up, the March event is on Turtle Lake. The Rush event is in February...

As far as winter perch are concerned, I tend to look for them over transition areas near mid-lake flats. Sometimes they can be found shallow, meandering around the weeds, but that bite usually tapers off once mid-winter rolls around. I’ll target them with a jigging spoon (tipped with either a minnow head or maggots) to start things off. That’s mostly because I’m fishing deeper water and I can get the bait down faster with a jigging spoon. And sometimes you’ll have to punch 20-30 holes over a flat to locate the fish, and waiting for a size 10 jig to drop 30 feet while trying to cover a large area can get frustrating real quick.

In the Metro, I look for soft-bottom areas if I can find them. Right where the bottom content changes is where you can expect to find perch, and usually the bigger ones as well. At least that’s what I’ve found to be the case in the Metro in recent years during the winter. They use those transition lines as an “underwater” highway if you will. They will feed off organisms and bloodworms that settle in the soft bottom.

Sometimes you can find perch over a hump or reef in the Metro too. Rush Lake should be a good one for perch, same with Medicine if you can find them. Linwood and Turtle are going to present some tough perch conditions. Mostly little guys... However, they do present some excellent crappie and sunfish opportunities...

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[united jigsticker]

Matt fish Perch.....what's going on here...is he feeling OK?

[CrappieJohn]

Cal....Perchies are one of those incidental fishes for me. I usually will trip over a mess of them during the course of the winter, but I don't ever target them unless I fish with someone who knows how to. I sure as heck don't! lol

I'd listen to what Matt has said. The lad can catch fish in a pail of water....or so he says. lol

The few times I have actually really been doing the perch thing that hookless spoon with the dropper hook/jig has been the ticket for getting them. Just a minnow head though for bait.

Where to fish'm? I couldn't begin to tell you. Sorry!

[The Grebe]

Hav'nt had much time to fish pannies, so not much to contribute. Was nursing a really sore back, it's down to a dull ache now and we are still doing storm damage work on trees, etc.

I for one will probably make a pest of myself again, as soon as I can go out fishing and muster up some fresh info!

[hanson]

Calvinist-

If you're looking for Perch on Rush, I don't know where you CAN'T catch them. I have not been able to fish Rush as much as I like but I've been impressed with the overall size and number of perch in that lake.

Ratfinkee with some Eurolarvae & you are set.

Tom- The title of the post caught my eye and I figured it had to be your topic. Do we still have some walleyes on the agenda in Dec.?

[CrappieJohn]

You are at the top of the calendar Chris! Water temps are taking a nose dive now so the fishing should begin to heat up within the next 2 weeks and get better as the fall progresses.

[CALVINIST]

Hanson,

I guess catching bigger perch on Rush shouldn't be a problem then. When we fish for sk's on Rush, we have had some luck using Super Shad-Raps in perch. In Linwood, the perch might be sparse and run smaller, which may pose a bit of a challange, but that's why they call it fishing, eh?

[lars0926]

Tom. I posted a pic a little over a week ago. I agree with one of the other posts that everyone's out doing their thing right now. I was up in the Brainard Lakes area fishing crappies this last week when the temps crashed from 84 degrees down to the 50s. Not anything to be proud of there. Then I went down to New Ulm to hunt some pheasants. I'll be fishing crappies again for the next three weekends (until the deer hunting opener).

Note: Several of my friends have substantially cut down on their fishing/recreation because of gas prices. They seem to be much less willing to travel.

[Matt Johnson]

The perch on Linwood are everywhere, but like you mentioned, they run a bit on the small to tiny side The best place I've found perch on Linwood were out on the flats in between the dam on the northeast side and the 23 foot hole. The neck-down area between the 23 foot hole and the underwater bar towards the access can be good too. That is usually a good bet for a few early ice walleye too.

The 23 foot hole is a panfish mecca during early ice, and I'd expect to see a stack of crappies pulled out of there during the league event. The surrounding area in 18-20 feet can be a sleeper spot as well. While most people are hitting the 23 foot hole hard and heavy, I like to slide off to the outskirts and punch holes in about 18 feet of water and hole hop for crappies. I usually see some bigger fish doing this as well. And then of course you have the 40 foot hole on the west end of the lake that produces pannies all winter long as well.

I'm really expecting to see every team bring in their share of crappies out on Linwood, 5 of which should be decent in size. White crappies included...

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CALVINIST]

Matt,

Thanks for the good perchin'tips. I talked to Cyberfish last night, and it looks like we'll be doing the Linwood event together, and maybe the Rush event. It'll be cool to meet you and the rest of the UPL'ers. On friday I'll be heading up to the Big Pond with Cyberfish for some Big eyes !

[Matt Johnson]

I'll probably be out on Linwood sometime during the week prior to check on ice conditions and make sure everything is good go (oh yeah, I'll probably get in a little fishing too ). If anyone wants to meet up and fish you're more than welcome. I don't know if I'll be chasing perch, but I'll be chasing some sort of panfish...

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson