How do I target Perch through the ice?

Looking to be educated on the cycle of Perch from first ice until open water – best time of day, water depth, lures, bait, structure, etc. I’m excited to see the upcoming episode of IDO, but from the preview it appears they are targeting small lakes & sloughs that are really shallow, so I’m not sure it will provide the info that will help me catch Perch where I fish. I did gain some insight from past episodes though.
I will be fishing a very small lake that is primarily 8 to 12 feet and nearly 20 at it’s deepest, very gradual drops, but has lots of standing trees and some weed areas (not sure what weeds may be there after ice-up). I’ve lucked into Jumbo Perch on many occasions on this lake both open water and ice fishing, but never consistently, just one here and there. What can I do to target Perch and avoid bluegills?
What do Perch relate to for each part of the season? Shallow water or deeper water? bugs or minnows? cover, like weeds or trees or open water?
I love Perch for eaters, and I’d like to take some pressure off the Crappies, so I appreciate any lessons you can send my way that might help me learn a thing or two about targeting Perch.

I just got home a few days ago from targeting them through early ice. We caught 25 in a 40 minutes. The bite was solid for 2 of us. We spent our morning drilling up sand down a shallow Reed line. 12 ft deepest we fished. Ran back and forth jigging small spoons with Minnow heads. They pounded it. Most fish were not spotted on graph to start but fished off bottom.
I act like they are crappies if you know they are in the lake as well. I wish we fished longer but we ran back to red to get our eyes.

Great questions!

I’m going to monitor this thread.

Yea, I will be watching as well, I’m kind of new to the game, never really know where to start.

winnie is a great lake for perch. but not to over looked is LOW. i ice 13 to 14 inche perch out spring steel.

Boar wrote:

winnie is a great lake for perch. but not to over looked is LOW. i ice 13 to 14 inche perch out spring steel.

This is very true.

Boar wrote:

winnie is a great lake for perch. but not to over looked is LOW. i ice 13 to 14 inche perch out spring steel.

Now could this contradict the keeping big fish thread?

and….

mojo wrote:

I will be fishing a very small lake that is primarily 8 to 12 feet and nearly 20 at it’s deepest,

I’ve lucked into Jumbo Perch on many occasions on this lake both open water and ice fishing, but never consistently, just one here and there. What can I do to target Perch and avoid bluegills?

I’m not commenting to intentionally offer discouragement.

But…I think you’re fishing location limits what your expectations should be. Typically a very small lake is not going to hold a huge numbers of jumbo perch.

My guess that the one’s you caught are likely indicative of the overall population of jumbos. Some here and there, but I wouldn’t expect filling buckets.

Unless of course you’ve stumbled upon an absolute rare gem of a lake that would be an anomaly.

As far as any tactics, perch are certainly not an elusive, mystery fish if they’re present in good numbers. Perch are typically amongst the most willing biters, small one’s usually become a nuisance. Bait offerings vary by what is primary forage on the lake you’re fishing. You can usually figure that out rather quickly once you’re out there.

And with that I’d say keep trying. You may very well learn more on your own than what anyone here tells you.

Boar wrote:

winnie is a great lake for perch. but not to over looked is LOW. i ice 13 to 14 inche perch out spring steel.

LOW has some absolute slobs, but its very hard to find them in numbers. I have heard of a few guys who seem to get into them with regularity, but I have yet to have luck catching more than a couple in a day, but they are always big. Ran into Brian Brosdahl when we were staying at Arnesen’s at the end of the walleye season a couple years ago and he was going to go out with one of the Arnesen boys in the air boat to target them on really sketchy Spring ice. Not sure if it happened, but from what they were saying that is the best time to get them in numbers. Brian and his wife were an absolute hoot to talk to!

mojo wrote:

I’m excited to see the upcoming episode of IDO, but from the preview it appears they are targeting small lakes & sloughs that are really shallow

Google, ice fishing perch…

However long this thread gets, it could be read in 5 minutes. The ido show, watched in 20 minutes.

If you want to be educated, there’s hundreds of hours of information to read. And more to watch. Written more efficient than watched.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

If you want to be educated, there’s hundreds of hours of information to read. And more to watch. Written more efficient than watched.

Well now you as much or more than most would say the best way to be educated is get out there and learn yourself by actually fishing.

I’m not saying that any second hand information is without value, much certainly is helpful.

But any article or fishing show will not be able to tell him if that lake he intends to fish holds more than an occasional jumbo perch. He could even have someone tell him in person the lake has tons of big perch or lucky to get a couple.

Only one way to prove it to himself, put the phone down and turn off the TV.

On the water learning tops anything else.

I’ll keep this short.

Perch can be deep, shallow, and everywhere in between during every month of ice season. There is no magic formula when it comes to finding big perch. The best I can offer you is to drill a ton of holes over all kinds of structure. Move fast and often. Perch are extremely nomadic and typically travel in groups. This could mean 2-3 fish to hundreds.

When I’m searching perch, I’m using search baits. Big baits that sink fast and grab attention. Think walleye type stuff. Rippin Raps, noisy flashy spoons, Jiggin Raps, etc. If perch are in the area, they’ll show themselves pretty quick. The big bait isn’t necessarily what I’ll fish once I locate active fish. Many times perch are curious and they’ll simply show up to check out the bait. A lot of times they won’t actually eat it. It’s a search tool that covers water fast. Once fish are located, I’ll fine tune my presentation until I find what they are willing to eat. Sometimes this is nothing more than a tiny tungsten with spikes.

Hope this helps.

I’ve spent several hours reading and watching videos. I haven’t seen much that is particularly helpful, plenty of contradictions, and none of them answer all the questions I asked here. It would be a great help if you could post links if you have good information.
I come to IDO and ask because there is a great deal of knowledge here, and I am certain that many people know the information I’m looking for. Seems many forums have become nothing more than places for individuals to point out the shortcomings of others or make themselves out to be superior. This place still has a good number of folks who would like to contribute and help others, so I thought I’d ask for help from the best fishing information source that I know.
One new trick I’ve learned from google searches and past IDO videos, is to try bouncing the bait on the bottom, makes sense, and maybe it’ll bring in Perch before the bluegills catch on. Planning to try that tomorrow.

Thank you to both Andy’s, that’s the kind of response I knew I could count on here.
One more specific question: Will Perch have a pattern of moving from shallow to deep or vice versa throughout the day? – I am aware they are not very active in the dark.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

Well now you as much or more than most would say the best way to be educated is get out there and learn yourself by actually fishing

I dunno, If you think I spend a lot more time fishing than most, you should also know I’ve equally proportional time into reading fishing.

Once you’ve read it all, fishing is all that’s left. There ain’t anything new brought to the perch world in 2020 other than repeats of the past imo.

mojo wrote:

One more specific question: Will Perch have a pattern of moving from shallow to deep or vice versa throughout the day?

Perhaps I need to read more articles or watch more videos, but my personal experience fishing is that the dink perch stay put. If they’re shallow in the morning, they’ll likely still be there in the afternoon. And when it gets dark, they just “perch” on the bottom.

Pretty much the same in deep water Mille Lacs mud flats. Scooting around there all day until they drop and go to bed at dark.

Jumbos? I’m guessing they are more on the move. If we’re catching a bunch of dink perch, rarely if ever does a jumbo show up in the mix.

Now when catching some walleyes, that’s when the jumbo perch show up occasionally mixed in. Perhaps that’s a clue on where to target jumbo perch? Again, I’m sure that can depend on the water you’re fishing.

To stay away from Gills use Minnows. Gills unless Big and hungry do not feed heavily on minnows. I personally love to use Tip Downs for perch. This allows you to jig and move with one pole and then add 2 additional Tip Downs, (In Wisconsin) Minnesota is still at 2 lines.

ther a reef on Low wer ive done exactly what was mentioned. very alte ice into april. on a wheeler, just ran a line of holes from the top od the reef out on the flat in deep water and jus hole hoped. picke up a gorgous limit of walleyes and a dozen perxh from. 12 to 14. my partner and i each set a tip up deep and shallow to and slid with the fish

I. Love. Perch.
I live in central MN where large Perch aren’t that common. I use DNR Lakefinder as a tool to search out better quality Perch lakes. Funny, one of my best lakes is junk according to DNR net data.

I generally start by fishing the edges of basins with spoons tipped with larva. Rattles sometimes make a big difference. I’ll bring 4 rods while I search. A shiny spoon, a glow colored spoon, a small shiny spoon, and a small tungsten. Once I find fish with the larger spoons, I’ll go through my arsenal until one outproduced the others. Some lakes absolutely have colors that work better, some don’t. If the basins and edges aren’t showing fish, I start drilling deep to shallow up and through inside turns, outside turns, humps and shelves. Sometimes there is a clear favorite depth. It can be 28 feet of water no matter the contour. I’ve also caught them in 5 feet of water when 50 feet was a short distance away. I make sure to hit different bottom content. Sand, gravel, mud… I believe there is always a hatch or food source that those fish are on, and it changes alot. If you catch one, pay attention to anything it spots out. Matching it’s quarry is helpful. Bouncing bottom can be key sometimes. Other times aggressive jigging 5 feet up is best.
I agree with Andy F. There is no set plan. Quality Perch can be a hidden gem.
I agree with Andy C. You might not have any “schools” of Perch. They could be solitary nomads. You might only catch one in any given spot.
Best time of day is wherever you can get out there! First light can be crazy on one lake. The next lake, might be closer to noon. More often a lull during early evening. But keep searching. I return to fishy holes every couple hours to check on them. You never know when you could drop in on a frenzy.

Lastly I’m a firm believer in live minnows. I have had days where no matter what I offered, the minnow wins every time. If I’m fishing a spot for more than 5 minutes, I have a minnow down on a bobber rod, with a rod tender/tip down. In ND, I’ll put 3 out in a line about 100 feet apart. Very useful in learning with direction schools are moving.
I hope some of my blabbering has helped. Have fun, and I wish you great success!

These fish were caught on a lake that doesn’t have Perch via DNR nets. 200 yards away was deep water.

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What do most people consider to be a “jumbo” perch? Some of you might be thinking 9 or 10 inches but I’m thinking 12+ inches.

Just wondering.

Thanks for the replies everybody. From what I gather, there is no set pattern that fits every body of water, there’s just no substitute for time on the ice and learning this lake firsthand.
All the Perch I’ve caught in this small lake have been between 9 and 12 inches and very thick, no small Perch being caught, but I have seen typical small Perch on a camera while looking around. I consider those over 9″ when they start to look fat to be Jumbo Perch. Anything over 12 inches with the hump behind the head, I consider a Sumo.

gimruis wrote:

What do most people consider to be a “jumbo” perch? Some of you might be thinking 9 or 10 inches but I’m thinking 12+ inches.

Just wondering.

Agreed. My pics just had nice 10″ Perch. Jumbo’s aren’t Jumbo’s unless they’re….. Jumbo’s….. 12+ for me. I get very few over 11 on any lake within an hour of me.

Great post Pail. Fished a lake that was awesome for crappies for years-DNR report said it was ‘ok’. Not their fault all the fish were in one bay! They randomly put out nets… Anyway can be a blessing.

gimruis wrote:

What do most people consider to be a “jumbo” perch? Some of you might be thinking 9 or 10 inches but I’m thinking 12+ inches.

Just wondering.

jumbos are 12″ plus to me. And even here in SD, 80% of guys think their bucket of 9’s & 10’s are “jumbos”, and then word gets out and the lake gets pounded. Absolutely nothing wrong with 10″ perch either.

Go with James Holst and Konnor Kleist.

gimruis wrote:

What do most people consider to be a “jumbo” perch? Some of you might be thinking 9

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Minnows like fatheads or crappie minnows on a dead stick, and same jigs with minnows as you’d use for walleye. Some people like using jigs with a dropper chain so the minnow head is a little separate from the jig, but I never had noticeable different results from that. In my experience with perch you either need to sort thru a bunch of small ones to get into keepers or jumbos if they are schooled together, or stay moving until you find nicer size ones. Usually the bait sized 3-5″ ones aren’t in the same areas as the nicer ones, but occasionally. Nice perch stay on the move as much or more than walleye schools so you will need to keep moving too.