River Perch Locations

Looking for tips on where to locate perch this time of year, No specific spots just general area so I can go on the search. This pertains to the Croix/Mississippi, Ive fished a backwater area, soft bottom to hard transition, less than 8fow with laydowns. I’ve caught crappies, bass and gills. Would the perch be holding in there with them also? There is no current here and it get real shallow going out to the main channel. What other areas could i find perch in? Deep holes, mixed in with walleye? Any help, tips and etc is appreciated. Thank you.

I’d look for some backwaters with 4 to 10 feet of water with standing weeds yet and look for the fish towards the bottom.

Tom, any specific weeds to be looking for? thanks.

I’d look for pencil reeds where the water is shallow enough for them to be fully emergent yet still have some depth and work my way thru them. Bait will work on small jigs but at this time of year some of the larger perch will hammer twisters up to 3″ fished on light jigs.

Deeper, non-emergent weeds usually offer some edges and along those deep edges is yet another good location to look for perch. These edges can give up some sumo sunfish too, but I have heard reports of big sunfish still on wingdams in the Tipiota Point area as of last Sunday. Crawlers on jigs were snaring the sunnies and an occasional waldo. If you’re finding sunfish and walleyes you’ll not be too far from perch though at this time of year. I’d start with the weeds and then consider the wingies.

Well I didn’t find the perch………………..but the crappies were snapp’n right next to the gills. I was pleasantly surprised with the year class this year and being the only boat for miles around on the river. Largest slab went 12 with an average of 10’s.

Pulled a few keepers out of the northern Miss a couple weeks ago. Found them in the deepest holes (20-25) near rock/sand transitions.

Keep in mind this was at the end of the fall drought just before all the rain started. Flow was low and temps were just below 60. Outdated Intel for sure.