Perching...

[ronaultmtd]

Teddy and I fished the St. Mary's River Monday...we were specifically targeting big White Perch for eating...this was a "meat" trip...we discovered nettles had arrived in great numbers, so much so they fouled the swivels of the perch lures vibrating spinner blade...After a few frustrating cleanings that took time away from fishing, I put the spinners away and went with a naked 1/8 oz. deathgrip jighead dressed with 3 inch Zman swimbaits...at first light the fish were in shallow waters (81 degree water) but as the sun rose higher, they moved into deeper water...we only fished a few hours and filled our coolers with 10 plus inch fish...I would slow my trolling speed down until I could just feel the lure hitting bottom ever now and then in 5-6 fow...occasionally a 18 " plus Striper would take, but we were definitely not targeting them...Teddy also caught a undersize redfish, but in the main, when you felt a "tic" on the line and set the hook it was a White Perch...I caught a nice size spot trolling this way...I estimated a minimum of 32 white Perch for me...but the last hour or so I was throwing back 11 inch perch after putting eight good fish on the stringer for supper...it produced a nice bag of boneless, skinless filets...one of my favorite summertime fish dinners!

[dsaavedra]

Wow that sounds like a great day! Send some of that good perch fortune up to the Severn, please....

[john from md]

I was out yesterday and did well on the South River. While I still caught small perch, 50% were 10 inches or better. No giants though. The Croaker I caught were all over 10 inches and gave good fights. At 0845 the bite died and I decided to call it a day.

All of my perch were caught on spinners with a 1/8 jighead and a 3 inch Mister Twister in white. The Croaker were all caught on Fishbites. I tried a few times to use Gulp Bloodworm but I couldn't buy a bite with that stuff.

[moc]

Good job on the perching Ron. I have not started fishing or crabbing in earnest yet, but if I finish my projects at work in 2 or 3 weeks, then I will be ready!

[thedutchtouch]

Are perch a fish that will group by size? Wondering if I start feeling too soon/reel too fast so the lure is higher in the water cumn and the larger perch are lower? Or does the school mix pretty well?

[Mark]

Justin,

I honestly don't know if they school by size. I cover all depths in the shallow waters where I cast for perch.

Seems like I catch mostly 8 to 10 inch perch here in the mid-Bay's western shore creeks.

I've caught larger 11 to 12 inch white perch on the Eastern Shore and in locations farther south in the Bay.

I've never caught a 13 incher anywhere.

But in all locations I've caught stripers while fishing for white perch. They swim together at times despite their size differences.

Also, I believe slowing down your retrieve and even pausing for a moment entices perch to bite. Many of my strikes occur when I stop the retrieve or immediately after I restart following a pause. I think changing speeds is more important than depth in the shallow waters where we target perch by casting.

Good luck,

[bignose]

Rather than start a new thread, I'm just going to add to this one.

I got out today about 10:00 a.m. and fished a small tributary off of White Hall Bay, not far from Cantler's Crab House. I was dock hopping and hitting some downed timber.
The tide was going out, and the water visibility was about 1 foot, stained and a bit brownish colored.

I fished for about an hour using the usual spinner jig with a green chartreuse blade due to the water clarity.
In about an hour I caught 15 or so perch. Most were small, only one was 8 inches. Quantity, not quality was the order of the day.

I found them on a strong dock / shade pattern, a typical summer time sorta thing.

[Mark]

My son and I visited two creeks in the Magothy.

We avoided the main river due to the holiday boat traffic.

The perch were definitely aggressive today. My test for aggression -- I boated two on my bucktail jig spinner when it was merely hanging over over the gunwale of my kayak. That's a good sign. I was also pleased that many were 10 inches. I'd almost forgotten what a good pull a 10 inch perch can offer.

I stopped counting somewhere over a dozen. I also caught two picks and two schoolie stripers. My son got a striper that was borderline legal, also on the jig spinner. We released it, of course.

This was my first perch outing of the year where the perch actually acted like it was June. It just took until the first week of July for the perch to wake up.

Like Stu, shade was key for most of our catches.

A very nice day.