Perch fishing in the Summer?

[walleyeND]

Anyone here have any luck catching Jumbos in the summer? I'm just wondering what tactics you use if you do. Thanks in advance!

 

[Crankn]

We don't target them but pick up some nice ones pulling salmos believe it or not.#$%^&>

 

[Kickemup]

When I get into them trolling I'll stop and vertical jig them.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Tried to target them at Devils Lake in the summer and failed , It seemed like when I picked one up it was a loner. It was hard to keep trying with no results but This summer I'm trying again. Deeper ? I know they are in there and it bugs the crap out of me.

 

[Kickemup]

I have never had good luck jigging the deep ones. But the ones in that 15ft or less in the weeds have been easy to pick off.

 

[Tikka280ai]

Have caught quite a few pulling spinners with the smallest blades possible. Generally in 10 to 15 feet of water and never caught more than 3 or 4 in a single day. Tried jigging in an area where we caught them with spinners and had no luck

 

[Davey Crockett]

exact same results , I can't remember if I have even caught one slip bobbering. I think the northers have them on a dead run , I caught two in one pass and tried jigging a swedish pimple , caught a big northern within a few seconds.

 

[Feildhunter701]

I've got into then when trolling weed lines at Devils. I just slowdown the drift and. Used Lundy rigs and did good. A few times at darling. Before freeze up we had good bites. Lindy rigs also.

 

[gonefshn]

Fish(ed) for them a fair amount on Devils and usually do pretty well. When there were flooded trees it was quite a bit easier. Tie up to a tree and then jig like you do ice fishing. But now with the trees mostly being knocked down, it's a bit tougher. I usually use gold or rainbow spinners and work the old shoreline that's in that 24ft depth. For the spinners, I use a crawler harness and always tear the crawler off so the second hook is actually sticking out of the crawler. Any amount sticking out will just result in the perch robbing you blind. I then pay attention to the depth finder. As you catch perch or feel them hitting your crawler like a little machine gun you pay attention to the amount of small marks on the bottom. If there's quite a few, I'll mark the spot. I'll then anchor down. And by anchor down I mean put out one anchor with about 300ft of line. I'll then throw out another anchor and then pull back about a 100 feet or so to the first one. You need to anchor down good so you barely move. For fishing, I'll use my Vexilar and the same tackle you use for ice fishing. For the Vexilar I have some wood rods I put in a rod holder so you can run the transducer out away from the boat a couple feet. You then jig and under the Vexilar transducer just like you would in the winter. Also, many of the very same spots you catch perch in the winter also work in the summer. The one thing about summer fishing for them is they don't move out into those areas until mid to late July. For bait, like I mentioned above I'll use crawlers to find them. Once found and anchored up I'll use wax worms, minnows, a piece of crawler, or if it's been wet and there's a dragon fly hatch going on I'll use dragon fly larve or what people call helgamites. They work AWESOME!!! Find some flooded grass with a few inches of water. Then take a large minnow net and sweep it through the grass. The dragon fly larve have the long body like a dragon fly. To fish them, you put the hook up thru the tail. Fish love them! Not only will you catch perch, but the big eyes also go for them. That's how I fish for perch in the summer on DL. There's a few other things we do, but can't tell everyone everything and that's enough to get you started.

 

[NodakBuckeye]

Why not some minnows on spreaders designed for perch? On perch lakes back east, we would mark a school and drop anchor and drop minnows or small chunks of crawlers down. Often times we were getting them in 60 to 75' deep.

Hellgramites are dobsonfly larvae and usually found under rocks in streams and are not for the faint of heart. Killer smallmouth bait.

 

[Captain Ahab]

I've had some success. Best time to fish for them is Aug-mid September has been my experience.

 

[gonefshn]

I've had some success. Best time to fish for them is Aug-mid September has been my experience.

I've always found that when fishing for perch on Devils if the bite continues well into September it usually carries on and means a good to great winter bite. However, often times there's a good mid July bite until about Labor Day, then it will really slow down or just plain old crash. Those years usually mean a tougher winter bite as well. Not sure of why. Could possibly have to do with the shrimp hatch, but then could be one of those other 50 trillion reasons people come up with as to why fish bite or don't bite.

 

[zoops]

Was thinking of trying some perch lakes this spring/summer - I see these posts mention later summer being better. Are perch hard to get to go in say late May/June?