Perch spinning rod and reel set up - Simcoe

[guastels]

I am looking at getting into open water perch fishing seriously this year on Lake Simcoe starting soon I hope, weather permitting.  Looking for advise on a spinning set up.  I was thinking of a 6'6" Light rod with a 1000 series reel.

Thoughts?

[moxie]

I have a few set ups for Perch . 5'6" -6'6" light to ultra light . One for tossing bobbers, one for small cranks and another for drop shotting. 500-1000 series reels spooled with 10lb Crystal tipped with flouro leaders. 

[KawarthaAngler]

What you are thinking of getting will do the job just fine.  I have a 7'6 Daiwa ultra light with a 1000 reel.  It's my crappy/panfish rod and works great.

[Old Ironmaker]

My favorites are 5'5" Rappala's rods with the white Rappala reels, medium light, I bring 2 out with us. CTC carries them. The ultra lights won't bring up the 14" Jumbo's we get here, nice problem to have eh !!

Edited April 16, 2018 by Old Ironmaker

[guastels]

Thanks for the replies and yes nice problem to have "Old Ironmaker" I hope to land at least one of those.

[Garnet]

I don't like 100series reels.

I use  6-6 BPS lite rods for casting dragging.

Then I have 7 ft St Crox triumph lite and a 7ft Berkley rod I found in bargain bin for floats.

All have 2500 Sierras on them.    

[BillM]

6-10 - 7ft, medium light, fast or xtra fast to toss those small baits.   1000 series reel with 4lb or less Nanofil.

[Chuck Enwinde]

I use a medium action 7ft rod and 2500 size reel.  8-10lb nanofil and usually a 3/4 oz drop shot weight.  Granted I'm not in it for the thrill of the fight when I'm perch fishing.  But this rig gets down to them quick if they are under you and if they're not, you'd be hard pressed to find a better searching rig.  You can cast it a mile and work it back relatively quickly while staying in the strike zone the whole time.  

[Woodsman]

I find too light of a rod action is detrimental to vertically fishing perch from a boat.

Wave action on the boat will have the rod bending constantly which will lead to missed bites. Medium action or even heavy action will show more bites when the boats rocking.

 

[KawarthaAngler]

7 hours ago, Chuck Enwinde said:

I use a medium action 7ft rod and 2500 size reel.  8-10lb nanofil and usually a 3/4 oz drop shot weight.  Granted I'm not in it for the thrill of the fight when I'm perch fishing.  But this rig gets down to them quick if they are under you and if they're not, you'd be hard pressed to find a better searching rig.  You can cast it a mile and work it back relatively quickly while staying in the strike zone the whole time.  

That's the same setup I use when dropshoting for Smallies. 

 

[BillM]

2 hours ago, Woodsman said:

I find too light of a rod action is detrimental to vertically fishing perch from a boat.

Wave action on the boat will have the rod bending constantly which will lead to missed bites. Medium action or even heavy action will show more bites when the boats rocking.

 

Are you resting the rod on the boat or something?   Even if it's bouncy out there, your rod tip should be fairly stationary if you're vertical fishing

[Chuck Enwinde]

14 hours ago, TheKawarthaAngler said:

That's the same setup I use when dropshoting for Smallies. 

 

Me too.   I find light action rods dampen too much of the feel.  Chucking small baits or float fishing are about the only times I'll drop down to lighter actions.  

[dave524]

7 hours ago, Chuck Enwinde said:

Me too.   I find light action rods dampen too much of the feel.  Chucking small baits or float fishing are about the only times I'll drop down to lighter actions.  

My favourite deep water perching rod is an old Fenwick HMG 534 that I built years ago. The length is 5 foot 3 inch but the last number denotes the action , so a 4 action is really stiff for such a featherweight rod, it is rated for 1/8 to 5/8 oz lures. Teamed with a light spinning reel and a low stretch line it is an incredibly  sensitive rod  in the hand for any vertical fishing, The only time I watch the tip is when I am bank fishing with my rod propped against a fork stick, if the tip is moving you are losing feel to your hand ,  a shock absorber like effect.

edit: it is a 1 piece blank too, very low blank weight

Edited April 19, 2018 by dave524

[Garnet]

All my rods are exacter fast so power 75% up blank and very soft tips.

So just slight jig loads and un load my rods works for me.