Techniques for Catching Perch

From bluegill to bass to muskie to tarpon, your best choice when you wish to catch fish is constantly to start with live bait, and perch are the same.

Their varied diet indicates that perch are incredibly opportunistic feeders who are more than going to move for bait even when it’s put outside their feeding area.

Your best bets for effective bait rigging are either with a worm, minnow, or leech set up beneath a float so that the bait hovers just above the bottom or sits straight on the bottom with a paternoster or “chicken rig.”

Float fishing for perch is a quite simple method to establish and is most efficient either in the spring or cold weather when the fish are feeding in shallower water.

Start by moving a slip bobber onto your mainline and then connecting one end of a small barrel swivel to the bottom of the line.

Add a bobber stop above the line and bobber about a foot above the barrel swivel.

Then tie a length of fluorocarbon leader to the other end of the swivel about 6 to 8 inches shorter than the depth of the water you’re fishing (i.e., in 6 feet of water, include 5 1/2 feet of fluro).

Connect a bait hook to the end of the leader and then add a split shot 6 to 12 inches above the hook.

You can bait the hook with a worm, minnow, leech, or perhaps some small maggots. Cast the rig out into some perchy looking areas and simply wait on the bobber to vanish.

A paternoster rig is slightly more complicated to set up however is quickly the most effective method to fish for perch in the summertime and early fall when the fish are awaiting much deeper water.

It’s a more effective rig for perch due to the fact that it permits your bait to float simply above the floor rather than simply sitting and soaking on the bottom.

Start your paternoster rig by connecting a 2-foot length of light fluorocarbon or monofilament line to your mainline using a dropper loop knot or double surgeon’s knot, leaving 1-foot-long tag end in place.

In places where it is legal to fish several hooks at the same time you can do with a number of times so that you have several tag ends of line hanging off your main line.

Connect a small bait hook to each one of your tag ends, and then tie a heavier ⅛- to 3/4-ounce casting weight to the bottom of your now extended mainline.

You can bait the hooks with almost anything, however I’ve discovered the best baits to utilize for targeting perch on a paternoster rig to be either small minnows or inflated worms, which will hold well off the bottom.

Drop the rig from the boat or cast it offshore into deeper water where you know perch are hanging and let the sinker drop the baits to the bottom.

Lures can be incredibly efficient perch catchers so long as you match the rig you are using to the water conditions.

When chasing perch in relatively shallow water without a lot of structure around for you to get snagged on your best option to find and remain on top of roaming perch schools is with an inline spinner, spoon, or crankbait.

Cast the lure into likely perch locations and after that recover it back to coast or the boat at a leisurely rate, increasing or reducing your retrieval speeds up until you start getting constant strikes.

In much deeper water, your best bet for putting the smackdown on a variety of perch is by using jigs.

This can be done either from a boat or off of shore along sharp drop-offs and deep racks.

There are a great deal of alternatives when it pertains to perch jigs, but my favorites consist of the Jig Rap, Hot Skirt, and classic Marabou Jigs in white, yellow, chartreuse, or black.

These lures can be fished on their own however appear to work better when tipped with a live or dead minnow, a worm, or perhaps maggots.

Fish your jigs by dropping them down to the bottom, either letting them land directly on clay, rock, or sandy bottoms or stopping them simply above weed beds, brush stacks, and other snaggy structures.

As soon as the lure has reached the preferred depth, begin “jigging” it by gently twitching the tip of your rod in little vertical pulses to bring in some attention.

While this is normally sufficient to call in some perch to smash the jig, when you’re over fish but not getting any hits typically it’s finest to differ your jigging cadence.

Attempt going from small pulses to rapid bounces to lifting and dropping the jig a few feet up until you find a rhythm that works for the perch.

 

Sources: advnture, bestfishinginamerica