SD Fisherman

I spent most of today fishing west of Brookings, SD. I was on a lake that has been producing really nice perch. I have been here three times this year and it has been unlike other perch bite I’ve been in. The lake has almost no structure (at least that I’m aware of). It drops of 6-7 feet about equally around the whole lake and remains that depth across until the next shore line. The only way I can get them to bite is by using the smallest slender spoon in either green/silver or yellow/silver and putting it just inches off the bottom. Whenever I see a fish come in on my Marcum and I even touch my rod, they leave. I have to lay my rod on the ice until my tip dives with an obvious bite. Like I said, any time I had the rod in my hand, the fish would leave immediately. I’ve tried Buck Shots, Tinglers, small jigging Raps, small Rippin’ Raps, Custom Jig’s Tungsten, Banana Bug, etc…Any movement that isn’t from my small/medium minnow scares them away.

With this post, I am looking for some tips about these strange perch also wondering if anyone has been on this lake. If so, what is the lucky lure of your choice. I am talking about Whitewood. It has been fun pulling these giants through the whole, just a bit frustrating at times.

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Hey I recognize that picture from another forum! Nice Perch! Have you tried jigging aggressively with a buckshot or ripping rap to draw them in and the having the small slender spoon in another hole to get them to bite? I had luck this weekend using that technique on a similar type of bite. I was using a tungsten jig as a dead stick though and getting them to hit that.

Have you tried a dead stick with a minnow or even a Tip Down with a minnow. We do really well on big Perch using Tip Downs.

Small UV Buckshot tipped with spikes was the ticket for me in SD last weekend. They were very tight to the bottom with the cold front. Jigging agressive about 2-3ft of bottom was enough to get them to come up and strike. Alot of denials too though.

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I tried to use the aggressive technique and just absolutely no interest. I tried multiple sizes and colors, rattles and not rattles. I was having “luck” on about a 3/4″ light green or yellow willow type jig I bought off ebay a little while back. My rig was set up with a very small quick snap and the green willow leaf jig, and a small slip bobber. My small/medium minnow would get really excited when fish would show up on my flasher and then they would slowly take the bobber under. About half way down the ice hole (we had about 18″ of ice) and then I would lift the line just a bit to see my spring bobber bend a bit and set the hook. Pretty much all in one motion and nothing. There would be slight resistance right away and the jig came up empty. I was thinking that the perch were just sucking on the head of my minnow and slowly moving away? Needless to say, I switch to that Slender Spoon and the treble hook seemed to help me capitalize more often. Overall, a productive day but really makes a guy go back to the books trying to figure out how to increase my hook up ratio! What a fun sport! I just love this crap!

I was on Whitewood 2 weeks ago and the fish were very finicky. I would assume it has to do with all the pressure that lake gets in about any given week. We were using the second smallest flash champs(1\16oz I believe). We would just jig them slightly until we marked a fish, then we would almost fish them like we would tiny jigs. Slow and subtle. Things can change really quick with fish on those lakes, so stop in and ask the local baitshops. They are super helpful and give you TRUE information! Good luck!