Main Channel Perch’n on the Miss. P7

The credit for this quick report all goes to one of my best friend, Scott – Mile_Mark714. Since fishing with him in the very early 80’s, I swear he has a blood hound’s sense for finding quality panfish. This recent trip on the Mississippi was in typical order of Scott’s intuition for quality Perch.
The Walleye bite was far from fast and furious, and quite honestly, a heck of a lot of work. As we slid down the river looking for better seams and structure, Scott set the walleye rod down and rigged up his perch’n stick. Behind one of our favorite wing dams is a long shoreline of sand, scattered rock, and sporadic timber.

Thinking it was time for the perch to have moved into their spawning grounds, we focused our attention on getting a few for a meal. Armed only with the basics, it proved to be the right call for some quick and steady action.
Scott lindy rigged an Aberdeen hook with a small chunk of crawler and I opted to go with a CJS Diamond jig and a smelt 1” gulp minnow. With only a couple of pitches up to the shore, their location was dialed in. At the base of a drop off to about 7fow with a few rocks, Jimmy was eager to accept our offerings.

The perch bite was very steady as long as you could sweep the sweet spot. The larger perch obviously didn’t like the heavy current and remained in a calm slick at the base of the drop. We found the little guys were higher on the drop off. So getting a spot to pitch to is very critical. Too shallow were perch under 8” and too deep resulted in a blank.
The water level was continually rising and visibility was deteriorating rapidly all week on Pool 7. As we ventured down river seeking relocated walleyes, we repeatedly took a short break and pitched for perch on everything we felt was suitable habitat – given the conditions. As the water would rise and the current changed on what was once a hot spot, the perch would move. Most of the time, it was only a very short distance. Our key locations were pockets along the main channel with a substantial current break, sandy shore with stretch of rubble.

The males were milting and many of the females were ready to explode! Sorry about the lack of pics. With 20+mph winds and rain, getting the camera out wasn’t the highest priority….
Equipment:
• Quantum Smoke rods 6’3” medium lite
• Catalyst 10 w/ 4# mono
• CJS Diamond Jigs (DJ10) in Fire Tiger changing to Orange Tiger as visibility reduced
• Gulp 1” Smelt