Pesky perch.....

[bmc]

I was out yesterday around Deer River and hit 2 lakes that I usually fish this time of year for crappies and gills. I fished yesteday afternoon and caught TONS of perch from little one's to keepers, but couldn't find the crappies or gills like normal. I fished the first lake starting on a hump in about 10' of top, down into the saddle that bottomed out around 22'. Then I hit a drop off area 18' and moved out into the crappie hole. The 2nd lake I only had time to fish for an hour and set up on a gradual flat and fished 15' and 18'. 1 8" gill and tons of perch again. Very frustrated by the perch yesterday! How often do you guys get bothered by those pesky perch when trying to target pannies and what do you do? Move deeper, shallower, move to an entirely different area?

Brian

[Icefisher23]

What kind of jig were you fishing with?

[Icefisher23]

Like I said in a different topic last weekend I was using ratsos/shrimpos. Probably caught 60 sunnies.

[slurpie]

I had The same ? in crappie location drilled alot of holes and only found little perch.

[Icefisher23]

Ya thats fishing for ya.

[lotsofish]

I've noticed that if all you are catching are perch (and a lot of them) you probably need to move a little bit, but I can't say if you should go shallower or deeper. I've caught them both directions, depending on where you started and the conditions. I wouldn't necessarily move to a whole new location right away without trying the nearby areas first.

I would say if you are fishing in 15 feet or less and are only catching small fish or small perch, I would try moving out to 20-25 feet first. If you are fishing in 20+ feet and only catching those small fish, I would try in around 10-15 first. The depth of the lake and the area you are fishing could change those numbers quite a bit.

One thing to remember is those crappies like to suspend a lot. If you have a flasher, you can see what depth they are at and fish there. I don't have one yet so this is what I do. I usually start fishing 1-2 feet off the bottom. I will give it at least 3-5 minutes per hole. If I don't get any bites, I reel up 3 feet and give that a couple minutes. I keep repeating the process until I get to the top. No fish, time to move.

I dunno, if you are catching keeper sized perch I would probably stay put!

[tisosy11]

Yeah - its the mini perch that are annoying!