Late Ice Iowa Perch!

When you think about the end of March in Eastern Iowa, you think about spring and warm temps. When my dad called me this week and told me I better come up again…..I was thinking walleye. When he said ice fishing, I couldn’t believe it. How’s the ice? 22 inches is all….. That was all I needed to hear. I’ve really gotten into the perch fishing this year on the Mississippi River system. I don’t know of any other place in Iowa that grows them to this size with the mass they carry. If you find them, you truly have the potential of catching a trophy. Same story as always. I got up early and made it to my Dad’s place. Yes, his egg burgers were waiting when I arrived. We drove up river to the spot we intended to fish. Several people had made it out on the ice before us. Predictable…..when a perch bite happens, it doesn’t take long for the word to get out. I didn’t know what to expect with all the fishing pressure the last week and the warmer temps. We expected a sunny day with little wind and a temp around 55. That is nice fishing.

We walked out to the spot my dad had fished a few days prior. We set up and right away my dad popped one. It was a big one. WOW! I dropped down and saw a red mark on the Marcum. I started to feel excited about the potential of the day. Then the mark dropped back down….hmmm. I set up a tip down on the spot and moved to the next hole. Same thing….and again…. Okay, time to change up. I tried a different color. Same problem. Changed again….same. Again…..same. Excitement turned into frustration. I decided to go heavy and downsize. I put a Custom Jigs & Spins Tungsten Chekai on. I ended up tipping it with a J&S plastic tail bit in half to shorten it. Yeah, the bite was really off. The ice had over 100 people on it at one point. It cleared down to 30 or so.

The tip-downs did a good job for me. They netted a third of the fish. I lost 3 on them under the hole. If you think a perch isn’t a very good fighting fish, you haven’t had one of these queens of the Old Miss on the end of your line. They make some impressive runs. When the fish did bite on a jig it was ever so light. Just like a crappie. They would come up even with the bait and just sit. Either sucking it in or sinking back down. A lot of fish did this today. If they bit well, it would have been insane. I’ve never been so happy after fishing so hard on such a terrible bite. The quality of these fish is just amazing. This is one special bite. Even when it is slow all it takes is one fish that could be a trophy to make it all worth it. These things look like Peacock Bass coming up the hole.

This will probably be my last ICE post for the season. As I was leaving my dad’s place water was flooding down the hillsides and the creeks are running wild. The river will rise and take the ice out. One more shot would be nice…..but I think the wife would think otherwise.