small lake, perch ice fishing question

[chris.brock]

We have this great large mouth lake, no public access, only a few cottages, nobody really fishing it. I can get in by using my parent's friend's boat who have a cottage on the lake.

 

While in there this summer, we were bumping into plenty of jumbo perch on our jigs and crank baits.

 

We want to give it a try in hard water season. I don't have much experience targeting perch through the ice, so any help appreciated.

 

Small lake, just guessing at a max depth of 35'. I think the deepest water is where I would start. Your thoughts?

[LostAnotherOne]

All I got to say bud is that I'm jealous. I wish I had a place to fish that wasn't touched like your place. Just put a emerald shiner on a jig head then just start drilling holes. Start close to shore and work your way out. When perch see something they just dive in so it wont be long until you start getting hits. Work your way out deeper and deeper drilling holes every 50 feet. Drill your holes and send your jig down to bottom and just wait. It wont be long if there's any around to grab it. If no hits for 5 minutes send yourself packing and drill another hole deeper to the center of the lake. Perch are stupied like sunfish they just hit it lol. Best of luck bud.

Edited December 26, 2014 by LostAnotherOne

[chris.brock]

that makes total sense LAO, but from my limited previous Haliburton ice perch experience, I'm going to start deep and move from there, your run and gun theory is likely the way to go

 

I'm not counting my chickens yet, but I'll report on how we do regardless

[LostAnotherOne]

Ya dude working your way in could work too. Just remember when you get a hit don't set the hook so hard that all you get is the mouth when you bring it up lol.

[Joeytier]

If there are weeds, find the deep edge! Not sure what those perch are like, but I've never had luck with finding clean, thick perch with nice fillets out of small lakes. Even 12-13" fish I find are typically thin without much of a fillet to salvage, compared to a Nip or Simcoe fish. Hopefully you have better luck than I haha

[Terry]

Yup

Weeds if you can find them is a great place to start

[bigugli]

I know of a couple of lakes like that in the Minden area. I'd focus on the outer edge of the weed lines in a bay or by an inflow from a creek or stream. Second spot would be to fish any ledges you know of.

[chris.brock]

thanks guys, and yeah Joey, deep fried perch fillets are definately an incentive for this mission, hopefully there's some meat on them

[RickOnt]

Hi Chris

 

A weed line for sure! the shiner on a jig is a great search tool. If they are pulling the minnow off just use the head.

 

Something shiny like a Slab Grabber or small Williams is good for attracting them

 

You can drop shot a Slab Grabber and on your drop shot hook put a Shiner or a Pan Slammer.

 

Also the Northland jigs and Buckshot jigs

 

The cold coming first of the week will tighten those lakes back up.

 

Have Fun and play Safe

 

Cheers

[Jds63]

Hey Chris let me know how the ice conditions are looking , thanks !

[misfish]

Small tear drop jigs tipped with gulp maggots.

 

Good luck

 

Hope you find your feed, but not full of those nasty white grubs.

[akaShag]

Well, with all due respect to other posters............

 

...........I have caught thousands of perch through the ice over the years. For the past fifteen years or so, almost all of them have come in on a Lindy Ice Worm #6 in fluorescent orange and chartreuse, with a perch eye on the hook. You have to catch the first perch for the eye, and so I start with a Berkley Gulp maggot or similar, but after that..............

 

2 lb test, MAX 4 lb test, and the absolute lightest ultralight rod you can find, so you can feel (and sometimes see) even the slightest hint of a bite.

 

And I would be looking for about 20 feet of water on flats, fishing (almost always) the bottom 4 to 6 inches, with ever the slightest of movement on the jig. Set the hook vigorously (with all due respect to the guy that said don't do this), and don't stop reeling until the fish is out of the hole.

 

And those white grubs won't hurt you. Once the fillet is fried you can't see them or taste them either.

 

Good luck to you!

Doug

[jeffw]

I would try weedlines but the base of drops especially if they go from rock to sand are golden. I vertically jig small jigging raps and tungsten jigs with northland stoneflies on sturgeon lake for jumbos that way. Cheers jeff

[chris.brock]

My Dad and me hit it, late one afternoon.

 

We moved around, a lot of flat bottom, no weeds, 12 to 16', no structure, we only covered a fraction of the lake though

 

I think we were too late in the day, we had decent bites when we started, then shut down

 

we'll be back with the power auger and snowmobile, I'm pretty sure there's a good spot that we have yet to find

 

 

edit-Julian, small lakes are good, big lakes not, but I think by next weekend all is good

Edited January 2, 2015 by chris.brock

[LostAnotherOne]

Keep searching Chris. That honey hole is gotta be around there somewhere.

[NAW]

I'm not sure how well they school up on smaller lakes. But once you figure out some patterns for where and when the schools are feeding, your going to slaughter them!!!

 

 

I would try a variety of lures as well. Tiny buck shots or flier spoons. With a drop shot. Live minnows. And try all different depths. As shallow as 5'.

 

And move lots. Every 15 minutes if your not markin. If you marking, they will bite. If you marking and their not biting, then move, but not far. 50' max.

[Fishwilly]

+1 on the small teardrop jig with maggots or wax worms. You can get them at Petsmart if baitshops don't have em.

[The Urban Fisherman]

I'm not a huge ice angler but when I do get out it's usually for perch on a small lake... and quite often we still have open water into late december... Our small 80 acre lake is pretty deep for it's size so it takes some time to turn over and freeze. Like most of the folks here have said... Deep weed edges with noticeable green weed. If you don't have an aquavu or something of the sort don't be shy to drop a spoon down with a big trebble hook on it... if you're lucky enough to snag some green weed it's a good starting point. Better yet, next summer scout the lake from your boat late fall for big deep weed beds. On my lake winter green weeds are usually found from 15 to 25+ FOW.

 

These perch are from last weekend.....

 

 

They were thumping our drop-shots hard with 8lb leader material, but through the ice I've had days where it's 2lb test and you have to use one of those spring indicators to tell that something is pulling on the line... ( especially with 2lb mono 20 feet down )

 

Anyways - looks like you guys are already well on your way... Good luck and have fun!

 

Cheers,

Ryan