Perch Eyes

What works best for you when popping perch eyes out when saving them for winter bait?
Just curious.

Pushing them out from the inside of the mouth with a finger tip–then carefully–without puncturing the eyeball itself–cut the eyeball loose.

Then again, is it “legal” to use them in Mn.?

My thumbnail….

and no not legal in MN but they are in the Dakotas

I’ve never heard of this before, hopefully only the eyes on perch you’re thinking of keeping :).

fish eyes make great bait….in states other than MN

steve-fellegy wrote:

Pushing them out from the inside of the mouth with a finger tip–then carefully–without puncturing the eyeball itself–cut the eyeball loose.

Then again, is it “legal” to use them in Mn.?

steve-fellegy wrote:

Pushing them out from the inside of the mouth with a finger tip–then carefully–without puncturing the eyeball itself–cut the eyeball loose.

Then again, is it “legal” to use them in Mn.?

No problem Steve here in Northwest Illinois with being legal.Will have to give your method a try, thanks.

I never heard of using Perch Eyes until last winter. I fished with some guys on MWO up on Devils and one pulled out a mini ice-cream scoop looking thing on a keychain. He stuck it in the eye and it popped right out. It was amazing, I asked where he got it but he said they were not made anymore…I thought I was crushing the perch with Waxies until I saw him pulling football after football on Perch eyes…

After you get them out, how do you store them for later use?

candofish wrote:

After you get them out, how do you store them for later use?

We actually just pulled them as needed while fishing. We would have a few fish on the ice next to the hole and when you needed an eye, you would pop one out. If MN allowed it, I would probably do what I do with fatheads, put a drop or two of water in a bait puck to keep em moist and keep them in my pocket.

Walleye and musky eyes are more effective. If you can find rainbow trout or laker eyes in the winter, those work great too.

“I would probably do what I do with fatheads, put a drop or two of water in a bait puck to keep em moist and keep ”

that is exactly what I do when hole hopping. minnows will survive way longer than you think in that environment. works great!

I have a perch eye remover tool. Works great!

http://petestackleshop.com/product/perch-eye-popper/

That perch eye remover looks like it would be very easy to make. Also, just looking at that tool it resembles clay pottery tools. So if people want look into pottery tools for your perch eyes. I have a feeling they would be perfect.

Just a few pottery tool examples I found

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