If you plan to go ice fishing very soon, perch fish are the kind you must look for! Read on for some exciting and helpful ice fishing tips for perch and enjoy fishing as an activity even in a gelid season!
Blatantly starting off with the first fact of freshwater perch fish, these species are abundantly found in the North American region and have 165 sub-species in its category. They are freshwater fish found in rivers, streams and also in some Canadian lakes. Yellow perches are usually the ones that are spotted in the NA lakes and thus are called lake perches. It is mostly during the winter season when the activity of ice fishing for yellow or white perches gets exciting. Sometimes many anglers manage to catch jumbo perches as well.
You too, should definitely go for ice fishing and fetch a few perches for yourself! Moreover these species aren't very big in size and they tend to team up in winter seasons. So that is the best time you can try your luck on the ice and gear and fetch a school of them for a good meal! To become a successful angler all you need to have is some handy tips and along with that some know-how on the gear techniques to get a fish bite your bait!
Perch Ice Fishing Techniques and Tips
- Perch fish generally swim at the bottom of a freshwater body. Hence bottom of a river can be a great spot to fish for them if you really have excellent angling skills to go about doing this task.
- If you can prepare the perch baits in minnows, cut the heads and tails of the minnows and feed them to the perch. They will dole out to be a great bite for them.
- Big size perch fish swim in dense waters, whereas ones which are small-sized swim in shallow waters. So once you have prepared the bait, depending on the location you are situated at, dip your bait deep down into the bottom of the water or let it remain floating on the surface.
- Today many anglers have advanced equipment and make use of electronics like GPS systems and sonar systems to check the spots for perch fish beneath the thick ice layers. Some people have even come up with their own techniques of using underwater cameras for perch fishing.
- Perch fish are very aggressive and finicky when it comes to eating habits and hence they take a while to adjust towards eating the bait that has been offered. The best way to know when they calm down is to be patient and observant till you are rewarded with a big meal on your hook for which you will feel happy about.
- Another tip to share regarding perch fishing is to at least carry more than 2 sets of fishing rods equipped with different lures. Make sure one of the rod is a plain hook and has some weight attached to it. This method is called jigging, wherein, one of the rod is used to bring the perch close to the bait and the other rod attached with minnow as a bait is used to distract the fussy and picky fish around.
- Under the subject of yellow perch ice fishing tips, make sure you utilize hooks which have a sharp needle-like appearance. It is important because when the perches bite the bait they can easily get nicked to the hooks only because they are sharp and pointed.
- Another technique you can implement is to drill holes in the layer of ice but in a zig-zag pattern. This will give you more space and time to fish for the school of perches instead of sitting around one drilled hole and waiting for those shy creatures to angle your lure.
Some Other Ways to Ice Fish Perch
Although fishing for a perch with the right line and gear sounds very pleasing, remember when it comes to ice fishing no fish literally comes to the hook all by themselves. To be smart and find your catch right beneath that thick layer of ice, you surely will need some real tips and some crucial techniques too. So have a look at them below.
Locate their Move!
Finding the location of perch fish is the biggest task. For that you need to study their environmental behavior. Like for instance, with the changing weather, perch changes it's location from one place to another. So if you fish for them in the shallow weeds where the ice isn't too much, you will not have to spend a lot of time looking out for them. In such a case, going in an early winter season is a good idea.
Perches tend to move to deep waters in mid-winters and again in late winter and spring times; all the shoals move to dark bottom bays and spawning areas. So these are the perfect places you can drill perch holes in the ice and sit around fishing for a good lot!
Jigging for a Catch
Well when it comes to perch fish, the two most important things to note is the location for fishing and the presentation needed while you drop the lure. Jigging happens to be the best presentation for a school of perches that too during an ice fishing season.
Are you wondering what jigging is? In simple words, it's a way to make your fishing rod dance. When you drop your lure in the water, raise it after every 5 to 10 seconds which will stimulate the moves of a bait fish. This is a very common presentation and works quite often while ice-fishing for perch.
Just one last quickie I wish to add to the list of perch fishing tips; always remember that perch are a good catch during daylight hours and are rarely found during the night. But the best way to capture them is to have a good presentation, an excellent location and last but not the least, great equipment and
delicious-luring bait!
Enjoy Fishing!!
