What are the best lures/baits for perch?

[fisher12]

What are the best lures/baits for perch?

Please tell me the size and colour you use and how you use them.

[didoban]

What are the best lures/baits for perch?

Please tell me the size and colour you use and how you use them.

 

We use mostly Fin S in 3" or smaller. We also have variety of small baits, what works now might not work tomorrow. I keep changing until i find a pattern.

[Terry]

it is damn hard to beat small minnows

 

 

but I like the challenge of using artificial baits and I have not found the best one yet, seems the best one is whats working today

[cranks bait]

I always found that I could not catch a single perch using a perch lure. But when I put on a 5" husky jerk on opening weekend of pike, perch is all I could catch?

[Guest gbfisher]

Perch eye's.

[SBCregal]

a single hook with a minnow tied 12-18" above a bell sinker has worked for us the past couple of trips out for perch. ive been using 1/2oz but will probably up that to at least 3/4 for some extra casting distance as we're fishing from shore.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Dunner

[spinnerbaitking]

Gulp Grubs in White & Natural on a 1/16 oz jig, works good when I take my Grand daughter out

Richard

[perchslayer666]

Lake Simcoe Emerald Minnows

[NAW]

Perch eye's.

 

GB, Maybe one day we'll cross paths on Simcoe..

 

2 votes for the eyes!

[Kwan]

my friend deep hooked a perch, pulled on the line, ripped all the guts out, threw it in the water, and caught another perch

 

gulp minnows are good

[Cudz]

tiny tube jigs

worms and minnows

jigging spoons (and they don't have to be small either)

 

+1 vote for the big husky jerks. Never fails

[The Urban Fisherman]

Gulp Fish Fry - Special thanks to Jaques..

Gulp Alive Minnow's (sometimes I trim them to be a little smaller depending on how aggressive the bite is)

3" power bait hollow belly minnow's

Tiny Grubs or Micro tube Jigs

 

I always go with natural colors as for the most part I only fish two bodies of water for perch both of which are super clear. There's no doubt that live minnow's work awesome but I find that you catch larger fish on average with artificial baits and you're not putting a new minnow on every time you miss a fish or catch a little dink. Reaching into 50 degree minnow bucket water in october/november can make for awfully cold hands real quick...

 

Cheers,

Rya

[Headhunter]

Jiggin Rap with power maggots!

Done!

HH

[asdve23rveavwa]

Gulp Fish Fry - Special thanks to Jaques..

Gulp Alive Minnow's (sometimes I trim them to be a little smaller depending on how aggressive the bite is)

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Rya

 

 

I've tried the Gulp minnows down at Long Point and have no success, Ryan. On the other hand some of the Yum baits trimmed down combined with a 1/8 ounce jig head can at times work as well as minnows.

 

So my answer to the original question would be Yum grubs for artificials.

Minnows hands down for the BEST bait.

[The Urban Fisherman]

I've tried the Gulp minnows down at Long Point and have no success, Ryan. On the other hand some of the Yum baits trimmed down combined with a 1/8 ounce jig head can at times work as well as minnows.

 

So my answer to the original question would be Yum grubs for artificials.

Minnows hands down for the BEST bait.

 

I usually cut the gulp minnow's down so there's pretty well only the tail left over. It works well sometimes and other times you can't buy a bite on them. The fish fry (white) seem to attract lots of dinky perch, and little sunfish as well but that keeps Averie happy. The hollow belly minnows have worked better for me most of the time.

 

On a side note we always drop-shot them (sinker 1 foot below the hook). It helps keep Averie from snagging the weeds - myself as well.

 

Like I said, live minnow's are dynamite on the bay but I get frustrated with putting new ones on after going through a dozen of them in 5 mintues! haha Then each time you get a bite you're wondering if you still have bait on your hook or not..... especially when Averie misses 90% of her bites! so she gets a gulp fish fry and I spend my time taking off baby perch for her!

[asdve23rveavwa]

I

Like I said, live minnow's are dynamite on the bay but I get frustrated with putting new ones on after going through a dozen of them in 5 mintues! haha Then each time you get a bite you're wondering if you still have bait on your hook or not..... especially when Averie misses 90% of her bites! so she gets a gulp fish fry and I spend my time taking off baby perch for her!

 

I hear you, man!! It amazes me how those perch can suck a minnow off a hook like that.

[adempsey]

When I am targeting perch, I use:

 

Open water:

1) worms (nothing beats a worm for perch IMO). On a lead jig head, a #6 hook and splitshot below a bobber or "drop shot" style with a couple of #6 hooks and a 1oz lead weight.

2) small tube jigs - 1.5" to 2" in pink, pink/white, white. BPS has a ton of different colors (and as a result, so do I). I use the 1/32oz, 1/16oz and sometimes 1/8oz lead heads made for these small tubes.

3) small 2" grub - pink or white on a 1/16 oz lead jig head.

4) I have a bunch of other panfish plastics that I use on occasion as well, like Beetle Spins, FinS minnows, Zoom micro flukes. Perch seem to really like small purple worms too.

 

Ice fishing:

1) I put one of the small (1"-2") Gulp Alive products (Fry, Waxies, Maggots, Angle worm, Grub, Minnow) that come in a jar on jig with a dropper hook or some other small 1/64, 1/32, 1/16oz ice fishing jig. If I have a color choice, I pick pink or white. I am going to try worms this season if I can manage to pick some up.

 

I'd probably use minnows more often in both open and hard water if it wasn't such a huge hassle.

[TDunn]

Jiggin Rap with power maggots!

Done!

HH

 

x2... bare or tipped with either a maggot/minnowhead

 

 

TDunn

[Billy Bob]

This is a hard question to answer because the OP didn't give much info on WHERE and what time of the year he is fishing for perch.

 

In LAKE ERIE if you don't have minnows don't even launch your boat AND EMERALD SHINERS are what you really need.

 

If you are fishing some small lake for grass perch, then a small piece of worm works great.

 

If you are ice fishing then you must use a finesse technique, like a spring bobber on the end of your rod and VERY light jigs tipped with grubs.

 

Bob

[pikehunter]

Live emerald shiners. Gulp live emerald shiners. Small white plastic grubs, tubes etc. and I have had luck with small hairy white jigs with a pink head. If all else fails then a box of worms!

[mercman]

this is a really interesting post.It seems that perch are a finicky bunch.I always get perch when i'm pike fishing, and pike when i'm perch fishing

Seems to me perch think they are bigger than they really are and vice versa for the pike. I'm gonna try some of these suggestions for sure.

 

 

[Governator]

Went perch fishing yesterday from the shore. I used worms on 1/16th jigs (on dropshot) which always works the best for me. I also mixed it up with artificials for kicks & giggles but the action certainly slowed down. Small crappy tubes tend to bring in larger perch I find, tipped with a very small piece of worm.

 

I caught about 15 perch yesterday, 4 gobies (all killed, what's with these ugly things?), 2 bluegills, baby smallmouth, & 3 rock bass. Kept 8 perch for the pan tonight.

[fisher12]

Went perch fishing yesterday from the shore. I used worms on 1/16th jigs (on dropshot) which always works the best for me. I also mixed it up with artificials for kicks & giggles but the action certainly slowed down. Small crappy tubes tend to bring in larger perch I find, tipped with a very small piece of worm.

 

I caught about 15 perch yesterday, 4 gobies (all killed, what's with these ugly things?), 2 bluegills, baby smallmouth, & 3 rock bass. Kept 8 perch for the pan tonight.

 

A jig or a jighead?

[Billy Bob]

A jig or a jighead?

 

It was a two step jig......