Perch on a Tear on Pool 8

We received these pics from PJ Vick as he was driving in a snowstorm on his way back from fishing the Mississippi River today. He was excited as a kid in a candy store! The perch were on fire as the storm rolled in this afternoon with 12″ – 14.5″ fatties eating #3 Ultra Lite Rippin Raps in bright perch colors and medium shiners fished under IFISHPROS!

6′ of water along a weed edge is all we got out of him before we told him to focus on driving and hang up the dang phone!

I’m sure he’ll be along shortly to fill in around the edges.

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Good grief that’s alot of deliciousness right there

Wow! Those look WAY nicer than the pool 4 perch I caught yesterday. Nice work fellas!

That one on the bottom is an absolute pig.

no kidding! I don’t think I ever seen a perch like that out of pool 4! why you guys drivin all the way to ND????

eyeguy507 wrote:

no kidding! I don’t think I ever seen a perch like that out of pool 4! why you guys drivin all the way to ND????

Could be the pics were taken on pool 4 and they only said pool 8?

Maybe the fish came from ND and it was an opportunity for an advertisement? All kinds of things can happen. If you seen it on the internet it happened.

riverruns wrote:

be

riverruns wrote:

Could be the pics were taken on pool 4 and they only said pool 8?

Yes, I’m sure that’s it.

def not ND. maybe those bluffs are photoshopped? P5 and downriver have a lot more backwaters than P4 but I wouldn’t trade it for any other pool

I really wish I was closer to the big river…. I know the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but I sure love the 2-3 summer trips I make there each year.

My ice gear isn’t even out of the rafters yet… SE WI, it may be a while

Those are fish ya dream of.

Great job guys! Wow!!!!

Absolute slobs! That had to be a blast! 🎣

Good going, guys! What a great day!

Deuces wrote:

Good grief that’s alot of deliciousness right there [/quot

Perch is what’s for dinner tonight!

shockers wrote:

Wow! Those look WAY nicer than the pool 4 <em class=”ido-tag-em”>perch I caught yesterday. Nice work fellas!

That one on the bottom is an absolute pig.

Thank you shockers! Their was a bunch of smaller perch here as well . We upsized our baits to specifically target the larger fish.

eyeguy507 wrote:

no kidding! I don’t think I ever seen a perch like that out of pool 4! why you guys drivin all the way to ND????

We will definitely be on the river this winter chasing some of these Jumbos with the camera.North Dakota was a great change of pace and added some variety in bites.

Could be the pics were taken on pool 4 and they only said pool 8?

Maybe the fish came from ND and it was an opportunity for an advertisement? All kinds of things can happen. If you seen it on the internet it happened.
[/quote]

We definitely fished pool 8!

Chuck Melcher wrote:

I really wish I was closer to the big river…. I know the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but I sure love the 2-3 summer trips I make there each year.

My ice gear isn’t even out of the rafters yet… SE WI, it may be a while

I live in SE Wisconsin as well Chuck. It has been a struggle to find safe ice near home but this cold snap is definitely helping! Good luck this winter.

Pailofperch wrote:

Great job guys! Wow!!!!

Thank you,days like yesterday are the ones we live for!

vinella wrote:

Absolute slobs! That had to be a blast! 🎣

Those perch had us giggling like school girls😂

KwickStick wrote:

Good going, guys! What a great day!

Thank you KwickStick!

Chuck Melcher wrote:

I really wish I was closer to the big river…. I know the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but I sure love the 2-3 summer trips I make there each year.

My ice gear isn’t even out of the rafters yet… SE WI, it may be a while

Those are fish ya dream of.

I don’t miss those SE WI lakes,between small perch and endless no parking signs.Only miss Lake Michigan.According to a few guys I know that still live there,too many lakes are losing access,such as Tichigan.

Nice fish,those are a blast to catch,and they seem to be very prolific and don’t stunt.

Wow, very impressive fish. I hadn’t really had doing this on my radar but see I’m only about 2.5 hours from the general pool 8 area.

Does this tend to be an early ice thing only, or will a fair bite remain for a while? Is this backwater fishing (based on the pics it doesn’t look like it to me but I have 0 experience with this type of thing).

Pretty interesting!

Tucker

curleytail wrote:

Wow, very impressive fish. I hadn’t really had doing this on my radar but see I’m only about 2.5 hours from the general pool 8 area.

Does this tend to be an early ice thing only, or will a fair bite remain for a while? Is this backwater fishing (based on the pics it doesn’t look like it to me but I have 0 experience with this type of thing).

Pretty interesting!

Hey tucker! This bite is typically best early and later in the ice season. That being said their’s still plenty of fish to find all ice season long. I would consider backwaters to be any water off of the main channel.We target backwater lakes,bays and sloughs.The best areas have weed growth and water depth of three plus foot with no current flow. You can find fish in less than three foot as well,early ice as shallow as a foot and a half. Some excellent opportunities on the river and great quality fish.Hope this helps and good luck this winter!

Those are some nice perch. Were you using minnows as well as jigging?

How many holes did you drill to find them? My brother caught a 15.5 at the public hole down there. Not surprised they are there.

shockers wrote:

That one on the bottom is an absolute pig.

No kidding, I first saw the IDO post on FB and at first glance with the elevation in the background I figured had to be Lake Cascade.

Definitely impressive to see perch like that closer to home.

leinieman wrote:

Those are some nice perch. Were you using minnows as well as jigging?

Thank you! We used medium shiners on a #14 gold o’shaughnessy treble hook with I fish pros as well.That combination caught a good share of jumbos.

Ron Burgundy wrote:

How many holes did you drill to find them? My brother caught a 15.5 at the public hole down there. Not surprised they are there.

Good afternoon Ron. We found them on our second stop and only had to drill around 30 holes. Some days it definitely doesn’t come that easy lol. 15.5 is a slob of a perch,congratulations to your brother!

WTG PJ. Those are just beautiful perch.
Wish you were here i could have the fish fryer going in 3 minutes.

Good job Mr.Vick those are some damn nice perch.
I wish i could find a few of those on pool 10,at least more than 1 at a time.
Once again good job PJ.