La Crosse Area Perch Pummeling

After a week of solid bull bluegill action and bonus perch, I was anxious to switch the ratio and get on the yellow blimps that our area is becoming more and more known for. After a lot of scouting with minimal results, things finally started to come together. Late Thursday night, Justin and I bumped into a school of perch and caught a few nice ones in the last 20 minutes of day light. Little did I know what would be waiting for me the following day….

A return trip was plotted for Friday afternoon, and I was pleased to see that few people had the same location in mind. With the new snow overnight and continuing into my fishing day, I had a little work ahead of me to figure out just where it was I was fishing the night prior. At first I was set up too shallow, in 4 feet and in the vegetation. That stop produced a 7″ gill that went back down the hole. It didn’t take long for me to get out of the shack and make a move. After drilling a few holes, I found that magic depression I was looking for. I set up shop in 5-1/2 feet of water, and despite my typical desire to frequently change holes, I simply did not have to. Changing baits wasn’t necessary either. These perch just wanted something in front of their face, and when you were able to do that, They’d eat it. It was Absolute lights out perch fishing from the time I moved (around 1:30) until 4. The quality was stand out too, with several going 12″ and 2 going 13″. All the more fun on a 24″ ultra light rod with 2 lb test P-line. Drag was a big key for fighting these big fish on light line. I know perch classify as “panfish” but don’t underestimate the might of a 12″+ jumbo! I broke one off on Thursday night and learned my lesson. The only fish that got the better of me since were bass. The trick is to keep the drag semi tight for the hook set, and then loosen it just a hair for the fight. Back reeling is also an option, but my preference is to use the drag when using light line. To make a long story short, I accumulated a nice batch of perch to take home for a hearty family dinner. I also cpr’d several keepers after I had most of my bag, including a healthy 13″ beauty that ate a demon jigging spoon late in the day. Most however, came on a small horizontal jig with a split tail plastic and a waxie. I’ll delve more thoroughly into the presentation later.

Saturday morning came, which meant it was time to get on the ice with my best friend and fishing partner, Justin Panno. After hearing of the day I had had yesterday, he was looking to get in on the action. We started out with the compass pointed in the direction of my holes of just 16 hours prior, but that compass would later point a different direction. We were disappointed when we arrived to see that the 8-10 people from the day before had grown to a shanty town of 40+ individuals. A combination of both hearsay and weekend warriors flocking to any shanties out there were likely the culprit. The bite was still pretty good in that area, but the satisfaction of catching un-pressured fish on a calculated mission was gone. When Justin and I fish together, its not always about catching the most or the biggest fish. Its about finding something new and learning something, and especially, being out of the crowd! Once you find an area, it stays with you forever. You never know when that area might be prime, and having past experience with these locations will help you stay on the leading edge when the fish do move in. We found ourselves craving that feeling pretty quickly as the crowd continued to grow, so off we went to another channel that runs through a weed flat. We were pleased to land in a consistant 5-1/2 to 6-1/2 feet of water and pulling steady marks off the bottom right out of the gate! It didn’t take long before those marks translated into fish catches, and more jumbo perch started to hit the ice. This time it felt a lot more gratifying, as we were hundreds of yards from the crowd, and were on a completely different school of fish. Its hard to say how long this one will last before it too becomes consumed by curiosity, but it sure was a fun day! Justin took home a nice batch and left around 1:00, and I continued to play catch and release with jumbo perch all afternoon.

The key to finding the perch this week was locating areas of deeper sand bottom amongst otherwise shallow, thick weed flats. Some of the areas holding fish are the size of a football field, others the size of a 2 car garage. Here, the perch are gorging themselves on all kinds of benthic invertebrates. I couldn’t identify what it was in their stomachs, but it was of the large, crustacean variety, some as large as 1/2″-3/4″. Whatever they were feeding on, they definitely didn’t appear to be done. As mentioned earlier, my go to bait was a small horizontal jig with a purple split tail plastic. I added a waxie to bulk up the presentation, and having meat on there helped my confidence for coaxing as many fish to bite as possible. I tried a slender spoon and demon jigging spoon, which yielded mostly bass, with the one big perch coming on the demon. Overall, the best bait choice was by far of the finesse variety. Justin managed to catch just as many fish as me today using a plastic (unknown) with no added meat, if that counts for anything. The perch were aggressive enough to take anything finesse, but I believe the spoon bite was off because they are not feeding on baitfish just yet. They key to turning lookers into biters was to keep the bait fairly high off the bottom (1.5 to 2 feet) using a constant aggressive jigging cadence. When battling prolonged periods without marks, i would frequently bring the bait to the surface and drop it rapidly back into the strikezone. Often times this would call new fish into my area. Once the fish responded to the aggressive jigging, they would race right up on top of the bait. Sometimes they would fly up off the bottom, but most of the time, they would just “slide” in and appear on top of it out of no where. This is where having a flasher was absolutely key. Once the fish was on top of the bait, it was important to impart very little motion on the bait. Keeping the bait dead still or at most, using a very slight quiver was all that was needed for the perch to make the final commitment. From there, it was drag squealing and rod bending all the way to the top!

On another note: A big key to locating these perch was the use of my smartphone and the navionics USA app. With this, I was able to use gps and Bing satellite imagery overlay to pinpoint the channels through the weeds based on how things looked in the summertime when the picture was taken. It was easy as throwing the strap from my sled over my shoulder and watching my phone as I walked a straight line to the gaps between the weeds! This app is going to drastically improve my fishing this winter on the river!

Tight lines,
Cade