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View Full Version : Lake Michigan PERCH techniques (How I catch the orange finned critters)


deadeternity
07-15-2008, 02:00 AM
EQUIPMENT: 6-10 foot ultralight or medium/light action graphite rod.

A small to medium sized spinning reel.

1-2 pound test Power Pro braid (equals 8-10 pound test strength) It is very sensitive due to no stretch..

6 pound test Trilene XL or Flourocarbon material for leaders. Also 8-10 flourocarbon leaders for what I will mention shortly.

Tiny 2 way and 3 way swivels.

Small to big splitshot sinkers

Small colored hooks, red or gold aberdeen hooks

Slip bobber stops and small to medium sized slipbobbers

Size 3 and 4 spinner blades, blade clevises, colored beads, and sharp small octopus style hooks made by Gamagatzu or Mustad. Or small to medium sized spinners made by Mepps, BlueFox, Terminator, or Panther Martin that have plain hooks to put raw shrimp,live minnows, or crayfish meat on.

Kastmaster Spoons in 1/16- 1/4 ounce,and Swedish Pimples for vertical jigging

A small tackle box.

And the following lures and setups I will now mention.........

JIG/PLASTICS:

My favorite lure of them all are jig and plastics combos. Use a tandem rig with two 1/32 ounce jigheads or a single 1/16 ounce jighead. I use 2 1/2-3 inch minnow shapes and straight tail shapes that mimic alewives,minnows, and rainbow trout the most. FinnS plastics, ZOOM Baby Plastics in 3 inch, and Berkley GULP minnows in 2-3 inch will work wonders. Colors can range but like I said if it mimics an alewives which is silvery sides with blue,green, black, grey, or brown back it is a good bet you will get some perch. Also, white, purple, motoroil, clear sparkle, baby bass, and rainbow trout are all good choices. For a tandem rig use a small 3 way swivel, 2 pieces of 6 pound test mono that are about 20 and 26 inches long, and 2 jigs in the 1/32 ounce sizes. This will sometimes get you 2 perch to hit both jigs at the same time, and there is nothing like 2 giant perch at the end of your line. Otherwise just use a single 1/16 ounce jig.If you are like me and like using the Power Pro braid or other braid use a tiny ballbearing swivel and tie a 3 foot leader of pound monofilament line. The way you work these jigs is crucial to your success. There are days these perch hit like crazy and everyone can catch them no matter how poor their jigging abilitys are but, that has been rare this year. Just use a slow almost barely turning the reel type retrieve and apply one little flick of the wrist every 2-4 seconds. These plastics have to look like injured baitfish. Everyone can be using the same color and fishing the same spot and only one guy may be catching perch so practice your jigging techniques. Sometimes they want a hard flick of the wrist which is more like snap jigging.

LIVEBAIT FISHING:

I just use a standard splitshot rig or slipbobber rig. Set the bobber to the proper depth which is normally a foot off bottom and use medium fathead minnows, small golden shiners, raw crabtail meat, or raw shrimp on a plain gold or colored hook. For a vertical presentation off the side of the breakwall or boat use a splitshot sinker,hook, and bait.

SHAD RAPPING:

A very underrated technique and not used by many is a small Rapala ShadRap, Minnow Rap, or Berkley Flicker Shad. I remove the belly hook and replace the back hook with a size 10 treble hook. This bait is not worked like a standard crankbait. I use Power Pro line, a small 2 way ballbearing swivel, and a 3 foot piece of 8-10 pound test flourocarbon line tied to the crankbait. Add 1-2 heavy splitshots 18-20 inches up the line to pull the bait down and keep it down. I use a slow snap jigging retrieve to make the bait dart around and look like a dieing alewive. The colors I use mimic alewives and you can get some huge perch on this setup.In one morning last July I landed 7 perch that were 15 inches long and 3 that were 16 inches long on this setup, and you rarely catch small ones on a shad rap.I should've mounted them huge ones but I thought more would come in the future that size.It has'nt happened yet. But big perch really love the ShadRap. The fish have to be somewhat active for this technique.

SPINNERS:

My preference is a standard nightcrawler harness setup like the walleye fisherman use but with only a single hook. I like to use a variety of different colored blades in size 3 and 4 on interchangable clevises. A clevise is what the blades spins on and interchangable clevises allow you to change blade colors without dismantling the whole rig and having to retie. Use 4-5 colored beads in chartreuse, red, and glow and a single plain hook. I use a 3 foot 8-10 pound flourocarbon line for the rig tied to a swivel and my Power Pro braid fishing line. It is basically the same setup as you would use for the Rapala ShadRap. Use 2-3 big splitshot sinkers to get the rig down and bait the hook with crabtail meat or raw shrimp meat, Cast the spinner out and reel steady and slow. This is a popular technique and always has been among perch fisherman. Or you can buy standard inline spinners with a bare plain hook and do the same thing, Chartreuse, Silver, Gold, Green, Glow, or Orange blades seem to work best for me.

SPOONS:

I like to cast and steadily retrieve 1/16-1/4 ounce Kastmaster spoons. For jigging vertically Kastmaster,Swedish Pimples, and Northland Buckshot Rattle spoons work great. I normally start with a ¼ ounce Kastmaster and work my way down if all else fails. Normally I get most fish on jig/plastics combos but there are days when the perch smack spoons with a vengence. The colors I use are Silver, Gold, Blue/Silver, Green/Silver, and Chartreuse/Silver. Again, the flash of these spoons mimic alewives.

Good luck everyone out on the water..... -JASON- (Dead Eternity)

Eric Haataja
07-15-2008, 08:28 PM
Awesome and thanks for the help and great tips!

Eric

deadeternity
07-16-2008, 10:43 PM
Thanks Eric for the support. I am positive you knew all this by now, you are one of the most well known fisherman in our state. I hope to be a guide someday also. That or a musician which I am doing the music thing but I need a boat for the guiding and it will take some time to get on that path. Good luck to you and take care Eric.....

BigMusky
07-18-2008, 12:09 PM
DE - have you tried Road Runners out there? I am not really good at perch fishing, but did have some fish following them last year from shore. Perch will follow anything though that is shiny, so I am not sure how viable of a bait it is. Oh yeah, fireline with a long 8.5' ultra light rod will greatly increase your casting range.

deadeternity
07-19-2008, 03:01 AM
I use 9'0 ultralight rod with 2 pound test Power Pro braid. Never liked the fireline after it ruined a St.Croix rod's guides for me. I have not tried the Road Runners but can't see why they would'nt work. I use just the stuff I spoke of and have good success with it. Maybe with these up and coming North, Northeast, East, and Southeast winds we will se more perch in by shore finally again......

deadeternity
08-04-2008, 03:11 PM
Huge Lake Michigan Perch. Been a couple weeks since I have been out for them. The hit or miss fishing truned me into a catfishing fanatic..........

These are pics of the catch my girlfriend and I made and of a beautiful sunset at the Power Plant

blitzfish
08-05-2008, 08:55 PM
Thanks for all the tips, I am thinking about trying it again, maybe next year, I am preping for the salmon run right now and work is in the way, but if I can go this year, maybe I will give it a try.

deadeternity
08-06-2008, 06:16 PM
I have'nt been out for a couple weeks for the perch but am gonna give it a shot again from shore soon. Something has to be around. But now all the river smallies, pond largemouth, and night bite catfish have me all distracted from the perch. That and writing my first album with my band Ivory Forest so it is busy time. Oh yeah, not to mention the deer my girlfriend hit last week on accident that costed us time and big bucks for repairs........

I hope the bite is still on. No reason it should've gotten any worse then it already was....

deadeternity
06-20-2009, 11:58 PM
It is perch season so, I am keeping the thread I posted here last year alive because it is that time of year again. Feel free to add info if you have anything to share with all of us. I also forgot to mention dropshot rigs, or dropper rigs designed for crappies. A dropper rig is basically a dropshot rig with 2 short leaders extending from the main line with 2 hooks baited with minnows or crabtail meat. The sinker rests on the bottom of the rig and the hooks suspend above the sinker.


In deeper conditions where a vertical approach can be applied like from a deep wall, or from the side of a boatt this rig can be killer. You can look at the description in the picture. Just drop the rig to the bottom, reel up the slack, and wait for a bite by holding the rod in your hand or setting the rod in a rod holder and waiting for the rodtip to signal the bite. A dropshot rig, and a 3 way wolf river rig will also work in deeper water also.

Good Luck

deadeternity
06-25-2009, 03:33 AM
Monday-Wednesday my fiance and I got our limits.


6/23/09........My fiance and I had to work for our limit but we caught around 25 fish total in 3 hours of fishing. We kept our limit of 11 to14 inchers, let a bunch of 10 and 11 inchers go for another day. All fish caught on jig/plastics. The minnow, shrimp, and crabtail bite has been going good also but there is alot of small fish involved when using that kind of bait. But the jig/plastic bite has been best for myself. It is a technique that takes practice, consintration, and when learned it is deadly on perch. I may have to try the Rapala ShadRap technique next time I go out fishing for the perch. Usually nothing but monster perch attack the ShadRap technique. The best thing to do is find warmer water, and fish where you find schools of alewives. If the food isn't there the perch won't be either.

My fiance caught a perch tonight that must have forgotten to spawn because when I cut the fish open it had mushy, watery, yellow eggs leaking from her. It was strange to see and something I never experienced with perch before this late in the year. Here are the pics from today's catch....

deadeternity
06-26-2009, 02:22 PM
Was out again last night and the bite was way slower then it was for the past week so far. Maybe the coldfronts or weird barometer change shut them down a bit. Only landed 12 fish myself, and my fiance landed 6. We kept 9 fish, I should've kept one of the ones I released but 1 more fish is not that big of a deal. All fish on Jig/Plastics again accept for my 2 biggest tonight that were 13 and 13 1/4 inches long. I caught my 2 biggest tonight on a Rapala ShadRap technique I use that you can read about in the forum called LAKE MICHIGAN PERCH(How I catch the Orange Finned Critters).
Hopefully these fronts don't shut the bite off for us but, I think they will no doubt. Next week our highs will be no higer then 82 from what the weathet channel says. But what the hell do they know? They can't get the weather right for the very day we live in as we speak. These perch taste great, he is a recipe I do that I would like to share.....

INGREDIENTS: Crushed Corn Flake crumbs. Flour seasoned with Adobo seasoning or Lawreys Seasoning, black pepper, and garlic powder. 1 egg mixed with milk. Vegetable Oil . 1 or 2 lemons.

RECIPE: Dry the fillets as well as you can get them to dry with paper towels. Dip dried fillets into flour mix. Dip flour covered fillets into egg/milk mix. Place coated fillets into crushed corn flake crumbs. Fry until Golden Brown and place on paper towels to drain the excess oil. Sprinkle with lemon . ENJOY!!!!!!!!

I will be back out again, the perch tonight I fried up were great. They are tasty buggers.......

deadeternity
06-26-2009, 10:08 PM
Was out tonight from 4:00pm-8:30pm. The first 3 hours showed nothing and the perch had me racing up and down the lake from spot to spot to find active fish by shore. When we did find them we caught our 10 and threw back 5 within 45 minutes and then the bite was done as if someone flipped a switch. All fish again caught on jig/plastics and Rapala ShadRaps. Probably wont be out tomorrow because I have some stuff to do but, if you guys go out good luck. Next week the temps are dropping so I hope for best for this fishing to continue.......Good luck to you all.......

deadeternity
06-28-2009, 12:31 AM
I went out again from 1:30pm-3:00pm and caught and released about 25 fish with the girlfriend. I caught my first official 15 inch perch of the year and the first in 2 years since one morning in 2007 when I hammered 10 fish that were all 15 and 16 inches long. What a giant perch, it fought like a big walleye on my 10 foot ultralight rod......