Wintertime Perchtime

[Slobber Bob]

I went out for my first perch trip of the winter recently to see how they were biting in the coastal creeks. I picked up a couple scattered over shallow mud flats and handful more from a deeper hole with some structure. Most were 10 - 12" along with some smaller males in the mix too. I kept a few for meals this week and released the rest to bite another day. Tandem 2" grubs accounted for the majority of the fish.

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[M_Duong60]

Man that's a real fat one on the bottom left, for some reason I thought perch moved to much deeper waters in the winter. Kind of want to try but I've also put plenty of fish in the freezer lately.

Side note, I really like ruler molded in on for the trident 13. How have you been liking it as you've used it more?

[Shady]

Those are some stud perch

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[Slobber Bob]

Man that's a real fat one on the bottom left, for some reason I thought perch moved to much deeper waters in the winter. Kind of want to try but I've also put plenty of fish in the freezer lately.

Side note, I really like ruler molded in on for the trident 13. How have you been liking it as you've used it more?

I think that is true with perch in the bay, but, as I've mentioned here before, the creeks off the coastal bays aren't terribly deep so their options are limited. They were fat with eggs or milt. All prepped and waiting to get busy in the future.


I'm liking the trident a lot. I don't miss those molded foot wells the prowler had at all! Its' so nice to be able to kneel or stand if I choose to. The ruler has been helpful a few times. Even though I've doubled checked its accuracy and I know it's correct, I still had to convince myself it was accurate. For some reason the lengths just look longer than they should be to me on it?

[brianisoutside]

Nice fish! When you say deeper hole how deep are you talking?


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[Slobber Bob]

Barely paddle deep on an average tide. The deepest spot I've found so far on the 3 different creeks I've tried is maybe 10 ft. or so.

[Slobber Bob]

I was able to make two more quick, couple hour trips recently to try for perch. Two weekends ago it was a brutal skunking with a bunch of snags, wind knots, and maneuvering around iced over sections of creek. It was just one of those days nothing went right.

This past weekend the ice was all gone so I made a quick trip after work. I made sure I set the minnow trap before I went so that I'd at least have some live bait this time in case I couldn't get them to hit lures. With the water temperatures being much colder than the weekend before, there wasn't any action in the shallow water, but I was able to coax a dozen 10" - 12"ers to bite from some deeper holes. Plain soft plastics accounted for a few fish, but tipping them with minnows produced more bites this day. I kept 4 to make some fish soup with and released the rest to fight another day. It was a mud shad snagging kind of day too; I must of accidentally snagged a dozen or more of those too.

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[ronaultmtd]

Cabin fever sets in and getting even a few fish is a huge victory...white perch are a fine fish for the table so long as they are large enough to make decent filets...we probable target White Perch more than any other species, and they oblige us...

[Slobber Bob]

Between work, a toddler, and general home life, cabin fever is not much of a worry for me. But "fishing fever" on the hand I seem to have all year round

Any little time I can get to fish in the winter I usually turn to perch for the reasons you mentioned. Plus, I now find myself exploring for perch in new local creeks and waterways that I otherwise wouldn't bother to fish the rest of the year.

[Slobber Bob]

Not to beat a dead thread, but I got an unexpected day off last week so I grabbed some minnows and jigs and went back out to the same spot I had luck last trip.

I slowly picked up 2 nice 12"ers and 2 smaller <10"ers. The fish were all caught from the same general area but I did a lot of casting between the bites. I moved off the spot slightly to see try something different but only snagged a few mud shad by accident. So I slid back over to where I had caught a couple fish earlier and found the fish much more willing to bite. I picked up another dozen all around 12 - 13" nearly every cast. And as fast as that bite started it stopped and I wouldn't catch another fish all day.

I haven't quite figured out what makes them bite, but I am certainly seeing a pattern that when they bite it's on, and when they aren't I'm lucky to get a fish or two.

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[Shady]

Killing. It. Bro. !!!

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[moc]

Those were two nice looking perch. Well, done. I cannot wait until the Spring.

[mchottie]

Congrats on some healthy perch. I think all of us have spring fever.

[mike o]

Nice perch