My buddy and I kicked off Spring with a very succesful late afternoon on a private pond out in the country. The Bass were lethargic and small (they have been caught over 10lbs in this pond), but the Shellcrackers and especially the Bluegills were VERY aggressive and very big. The popper would barely land before it was immediately smashed if I landed it in the right spot. While taking a break (tying on a new fly) my buddy threw out a spin-rod plastic worm rigged weedless by a downed tree. Short story, he landed a HUGE yellow perch. I would guess it to be 1.5-2 lbs. It was the only one we caught all day, and the only one I have ever seen come out of this pond. We threw him back, but next time Im looking for dinner, my question is how do you target that species on a fly rod?
This pond is about 5 acres, temperature was about 70, light wind, sunny. Water was probably high 50’s, fish were active except for the bass which were biting but barely even putting up a fight. Normally, the Bass run the pond, and a typical day on it is a 30+ fish in 2-3 hour day. This perch came out of nowhere and I would like to go back and try for a few more for the dinner plate, preferably without having to go thru 100 bass to find him. Any suggestions? Fly? Tactics?
I posted the same question last spring. There are folks here who are quite knowledgeable. I only went after perch a couple times, but here is what I learned. A Prince nymph seemed to work in shallow water. when you can see the fish. When you see a cuising pod approaching, put the nymph on the bottom in their path. When they come close, give it a little twitch. Inevitably one of the group will turn on it. Usually the biggest one. Kind of like bone fishing. :lol: In deeper water my best searching pattern was a yellow muddler minnow in 6 and 8. All done on a sinking line. The Crappie Candy is alledgedly also Perch Candy. Now that I am tying my own we will find out if that is true this spring. I know that when bait fishing if you want to catch the big Jack Perch, leave the worms at home, and bring the big minnows.
put a Clouser style squirrel tail minnow( weighted with bead chain)24 inches behind the popper.
I would recommend a size 6
Yellow Perch are schooling fish so if you find a school you can rig with multiple flies and catch more than one at a time. The biggest perch become more solitary
Do you think they school in water this small? This one behemouth was probably solo, several other small bass and panfish were caught under the same brush but no other perch.
What about areas to typically seek, shallow or deep? What are their behaviors? I know they are known as a good bite for ice fishing, why is that? Are they more active in the winter vs summer? Do they sit in the deepest waters during the summer? Spring spawn?
We read and know so much like this on other species, its occuring to me I know very little about these perch.
Funny I had the opposite problem last week. Trying for bass and gills but only ended up catching perch and pickeral. Would have kept the perch but they would have been like eating sardines.
I used a tiny brown squirrel tail, nymph/streamer.
I am no expert on perch, especially on the fly rod, though I spent alot of time catching them for fish frys that Mom and Dad had at our camp on the Saint Lawrence. They are definitely schoolers. A) if you are catching and the bite cools off, move. The school you were into is gone. B) If the water looks “perchy”, but there is no bite, wait a bit, a school may show up. Though they do school, they seem to travel about within the school in small 4 to 8 fish groups. Weedbeds, and lily pad areas are always good. Escpecially if you can find little gaps to drop into. I think 6 to 15 feet of water is pretty typical. We used to float right into weedbeds, and using bamboo poles drop bait into any gap in the weeds where you can see to the bottom. It was always cool to watch from above as the fish would appear out of the grass, and take the worm/minnow. This website
[url=http://www.execulink.com/~environm/Fishing/perch.html:312a8]Outdoors Fishing Perch[/url:312a8], has this quote regarding small water bodies.
You will find however, that some perch populations, especially in smaller ponds/lakes, may not school up a lot. These fish are the exceptions to the normal and general perch population. These more solitary fish can be caught easily though, once you’ve found the depth that these fish are in - stay within that same depth during the whole trip out, and cover territory by trying various places within that waterbody.