Mille lacs perch

What’s the difference between where and what type of structure? He’s asking for a location, or, hear me out, WHERE!!

Oy Vey.

From what I have been reading people are catching them pretty much everywhere just maybe not in the same numbers. They are getting them in sand, mud, gravel and rock. The only thing I havent seen mentioned was weed edges in the places I have seen info but I would bet you can get them there too. I think the depth is probably the biggest determining factor so bring gas or multiple batteries and drill some holes. My son is badgering me to go on Monday since we both have off but the thought of daytime highs in the teens below zero doesnt sound too appealing anymore.

BigWerm wrote:

You guys getting the perch on minnows or waxies?

We caught some with minnow heads, nothing, and plastics. Didn’t really make a difference. The ones that wanted to eat just freight trained it.

It’s nice to hear that jumbo’s are coming back in Mille Lacs. Perch will never be a fish that I get excited about.

Bass Pundit wrote:

Perch will never be a fish that I get excited about.

Good. Keep going after your grass carp and leave probably the best eating fish to the rest of us.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bass Pundit wrote:</div>
Perch will never be a fish that I get excited about.

Good. Keep going after your grass carp and leave probably the best eating fish to the rest of us.

Not really comparable. One is targeted for harvest by the meat hunters and the other is primarily a sport/tournament fish.

I’m going perch fishing but releasing all of them, said no one, ever.

gim wrote:

One is targeted for harvest by the meat hunters

How about we stop bashing people that love to keep and eat fish. For goodness sakes.

Pailofperch wrote:

How about we stop bashing people that love to keep and eat fish. For goodness sakes.

My response was mostly to address the degrading comment above referring to bass as a grass carp.

I have no issue with someone keeping fish like perch to eat.

I am healthy enough to fish and will be thankful to catch anything. Great to have a meal of fish, not happy when people hoard. Bass are a blast, especially SMB.

Hunting24seven wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
You guys getting the perch on minnows or waxies?

We caught some with minnow heads, nothing, and plastics. Didn’t really make a difference. The ones that wanted to eat just freight trained it.

Thanks, I made it up recently and we ended up with 20 jumbo’s, about a dozen tiny walleye less than 6″ and a tullibee. Almost all on fish heads, a couple on waxies and they were spitting up a ton of little dark larvae/bugs. Went out of Hunters and just threw a dart and fished the same holes all day.

I know alot of meat hunters that target grass carp for sport and eat all of them they catch.

Bass in cold water taste great. They are like a giant bluegill. Spread the word!

Feel better now Gim?

I’m gonna have to go chase some perch out there this March or April. Leave a few for me.

Muskie cheeks are the best meat out there. Prove me wrong. So dumb it even turned to this.

grubson wrote:

It will certainly last longer if we don’t post about it all over the internet……..

Yup. The worst are the “fishermen” who constantly post on fakebookevery success they have(w/ details) trying to be **friendly** but actually just want clout/attention. Losers. I can’t stand social media for the most part and don’t know why I even still have a FB account. Then again I post/comment on IDO pretty often so maybe I’m a hypocrite?

Dave maze wrote:

Fake news! Mille lacs doesn’t even have perch in it.

Finally someone who is honest.

Is it just me who finds it absurd that a lake as big as Mille Lacs could be fished out out of a healthy population of perch? Sure, jumbos seemed to disappear for an abnormally long stretch, but I doubt that it was due to direct fishing or netting pressure. Maybe as a second or third-order effect of poor walleye size management, the ballooning SM take over, and zeebs making the lake less fertile. The lake just doesn’t get fished enough to put a dent in a panfish population that lives everywhere on the lake.

The fall of the perch population was not due to fishing pressure. And it wasn’t nets either. Winnie is seeing a similar demise to the perch right now and that place was a perch factory. It’ll bounce back just like ML.

Glad to see ML perch are back. Once the ice goes to crap on superior this spring I’ll be headed to give it a try.

Bass Pundit wrote:

Is it just me who finds it absurd that a lake as big as Mille Lacs could be fished out out of a healthy population of perch?

No, not just you and ML clearly has never been fished out of perch. It is cyclical though, kinda like the rest of the lake/fish species in the lake. My Dad has stories of riding around with his Uncle who was a DNR that covered ML, and he’d hand drill/chop holes in random locations while his uncle was looking for poachers and he’d pull up buckets full of jumbo’s in the 60’s and 70’s just like parts of the 90’s and now. In between they call it the Dead Sea, imo, because the lake is full of little perch and everyone is full.

Definitely not the only one.

I saw these jumbos when they first hatched. It was clear to me then that if they made it through the first year there was going to be a good rebound and fish able population sooner than later. They were literally everywhere when they hatched and in larger populations that I have not seen in a long time. Main reason they are around is the lake balanced itself back out.
I am willing to bet it will get out of balance in the near future again.
There was also a record spawn on the walleyes this year. What happens to them remains to be seen. But it will be a lot of mouths to feed at some point.

Found some dandy jumbos this past weekend on ML. Great time, but COLD!

My son is headed up there with a friend of his this week and they plan to ice camping for the first time ever. Thankfully temps will be moderating from where they have been, but I told him, multiple propane tanks, multiple heaters, a carbon monoxide detector, etc are all a must. I think I sent him to check out Nitti’s based on what I have been reading, but people are getting fish just about everywhere. I figured that would give them options of structure to fish.