Inspiration at Angler's

[Mark]

Yesterday I visited Angler’s near the Bay Bridge to buy a Queen Anne’s County launch permit. While I was there, I looked at their perch spinners. I was intrigued when I saw some had rubber skirts. It stands to reason that rubber would work. Afterall, largemouth bass spinners have rubber strands for skirts. But it never occurred to me to try them on my own perch spinners. I have mostly relied on bucktails for them. I like bucktail. It flares and pulsates in the water during the retrieve. It’s a great material for lures and flies and it works. But the tails of rubber strands on Angler’s racks of perch spinners motivated me.

When I got home, I tied and assembled two perch spinners using remnants of rubber skirts that I had actually purchased to use as legs on flies – poppers and foam spiders. The rubber strands worked nicely when tied to the 1/8 oz. jigs I pour for perch spinners. Here are the two I created yesterday:

Rubber spinners.jpg

Today I launched on Kent Island. I tested the spinners and had moderate success with perch. I tied one on each of two perch rods and alternated rods after each catch. Both colors worked.

P1030821.jpg P1030822.jpg

It wasn’t a prolific bite. I visited lots of spots for the dozen or so perch I caught. Most were in the 8-inch range. Three topped 10 inches. The spinners also tricked two dink stripers. (I still have not caught a legal striper this year from my kayak.)

I’m not sold that rubber can replace bucktail. We’re at the height of our shallow water perch season. It doesn’t take much to trick them when they’re present and willing. But I’ll certainly make some more spinners with rubber legs. I liked how they looked in the water.

I think the lesson for me, and perhaps others who make their own lures and flies, is to not get into a rut. I’m not really creative when it comes to lures and flies. I stick to simple patterns that work. But sometimes it’s nice to change, even it’s only a minor change.

[bignose]

Mark,
Last year due to my shoulder surgery, and inability to tie my regular spinner jigs, I purchased some pre-made bulk skirts via ebay.
I made perhaps 75 of them this way. It made my production remarkably easy. Where I can tie perhaps 10 per hour, I skirted all 75 of them in under 2 hours.
I didn't sell many.

My fishing experiences with them showed me that the fish definitely preferred the tied skirts using synthetic materials to the "rubber" skirts. The skirts looked good to me, but the perch told me that they wanted the tied lures.
In fact, I didn't catch one fish on them last summer!

So in the fall in preparation for the HOW flea market, I removed the rubber skirts and retied them with my usual skirts.
I sold a good number of them and they still work!

[ronaultmtd]

I use the “Perch Pounder” on occasion and dress them with with a white Yumm twister tail or a chartreuse one depending on the color of the lure...they work when the perch are there and willing...my go to perch lure is a mini crankbait- fire tiger color...if the Perch Pounder came with bucktail and gold spinner blades- I believe it would be killer...I love the integrated spinner arm cast in the lead on the Perch Pounder- That gives it that special vibration and flash...

[Fish123]

I have had a lot of success with perch pounders. I’m very confident I will find fish with the perch pounder. I even caught 2 flounder and a few 15on stripers on a perch pounder last year.

[Mark]

Stu -- I cut the strands from the skirt collar, grouped them and tied them in about 4 bunches per jig. Not really a time saver for me that way. But they gave a nice action and worked today when the bite was less than stellar.

Ron -- I've used all white bucktail, a gold head like those in the photos above and brass colored blades. They've worked indeed. But honestly, I've yet to find a color combination that doesn't work when the perch "are there and willing" as you say. I think my oddest color mix on one spinner was pink bucktail, blue jighead, purple blade and red thread for the collar. Goodness knows what the perch thought it was. But they hit it. If I'm long overdue, searching for hits, I will resort to a spinner with a green head, yellow bucktail, yellow blade and red thread for the collar. I don't know that the perch prefer it. But I have confidence in it. What I've never done is to add a trailer, as you do. I've done that when trolling larger bucktails (back in the day when sizable stripers were plentiful ) and it worked. I don't know why I've never thought to do it with perch spinners. Again, creativity is not my strong suit.

[DanMarino]

Those look great, Mark!

[Crotalus]

Same here. I've crushed perch using perch pounders for several years now, including more than 75 in half a day on the Severn a couple weekends back. And I've caught rock up to 22" on them. When the perch are in full summer mode, it's hard to imagine anything could work better as they never seem to turn it down.

[Mark]

Same here. I've crushed perch using perch pounders for several years now, including more than 75 in half a day on the Severn a couple weekends back. And I've caught rock up to 22" on them. When the perch are in full summer mode, it's hard to imagine anything could work better as they never seem to turn it down.

Wow!

I've never caught that many in an outing. The most I've caught in a single trip was 61 in the Severn in July 2017. I used only one spinner that day and it was pretty spent:

P1010767.jpg

I had used it on prior outings that summer too.

It could have caught more because the perch don't care if it's beat up. But it's one of the few lures and flies I retired for a job well done. It hangs on the handle of a tackle storage cabinet in my garage today.

[Yak67]

Used Perch Pounders with the rubber skirt this morning at Clarks landing and did well. Used the Chartreuse color on both sides and it worked great. Tried a soft material perch lure and it was minimal hits. So I changed out to both Perch Pounders.
Got a 14 Inch rock on them and multiple schoolies.

Yak67
2017 Hobie PA-12 Camo
2019 Hobe Outback

[Crotalus]

I wish I had been counting how many caught because I feel I could have easily broken 100 (if I didn't already). I hit pretty much every dock south of Jonas Green and was catching 10+ perch at each one. I also caught them along riprap and vegetated shorelines. I ended up using two different perch pounders because I snapped the hook on the first one trying to straighten it out (those lightweight hooks bend pretty easily when cast into pier pilings). The perch definitely don't care what condition they are in as long as the spinner spins.

[Mark]

I wish I had been counting how many caught because I feel I could have easily broken 100 (if I didn't already). I hit pretty much every dock south of Jonas Green and was catching 10+ perch at each one. I also caught them along riprap and vegetated shorelines. I ended up using two different perch pounders because I snapped the hook on the first one trying to straighten it out (those lightweight hooks bend pretty easily when cast into pier pilings). The perch definitely don't care what condition they are in as long as the spinner spins.

I understand. On the day I referenced above, I actually played a perch catching game. I decided in advance which spots on the big river to visit. I also decided I would move after catching a given number in any one spot -- I believe it was 12. I hit the max at each site and actually cheated with an extra fish. It was one of those great days when the perch were very active. I suspect I could have caught 100 had I stayed at it.

Yesterday I worked much harder to catch about a dozen total at many sites.

That's fishing.