I am tired of Simcoe perch, last open water perch outing -that's it!

LOL !

Can you be tired of fishing for Simcoe perch? Hhm, I guess it depends.

If you mainly fish for bigger predatory fish like pike, walleye, bass then catching numerous little buggers with occasional jumbos can get boring after a while.

I had to do 4 trips recently for perch , taking out friends, kids and friends' guests,

We went yesterday afternoon and caught over a hundred, taking home a couple dozen good ones (I took home zero perch).

Went Keswick side, fished 17-20 FOW mainly.The perch was a bit finicky, what worked is a long cast with dragging the rig over the bottom with frequent stops and pauses. That also helped to find the active and bigger fish.

Now this is my take on live bait vs plastics debate, for whatever it's worth.

I will try to be concise.

I prefer plastics for perch for the following reasons:

1) no messing with live bait in cold water
2) saves lots of time wasted for rebaiting the minnow stolen by perch, especially during active bite
3) Cost of minnows although not that significant but still a factor
4) I only use scented plastics or use scent on them to help the fish hold on to them longer

Now, having said that, i still DO occasionally use live minnows and like to experiment with minnows and plastics rigged at the same time and here is what I found:

1) There are certain periods during the same fishing day and from one day to another, when plastics outperform the minnows and vice versa - minnows outperform plastics
2) Smaller perch prefer smaller minnows around 1- 1.5" so if you want to cut them off use larger baits
3) larger perch prefer bigger minnows over 2" (2-3") and similar size plastics
4) Bigger perch if not in large schools prefers the bait to be close to bottom in general, so sometimes I rig a jig (1/4, 1/2 depending on the depth and wind) with plastic at the end of a drop shot rig instead of a weight

Good luck to all you perch lovers!

You could never get tired of fishing for any species, me neither. Going out to balsam in ten minutes. On your minnow or plastic subject I can only say I choose fake anything over live bait, except ice fishing. Just my opinion, and I know I do not fish for perch. But I have caught tons fishing for bass.

JB sounds like a fun day even if you started to get bored. Lol. It is also nice of you to take people along to enjoy the experience of perch fishing and take a few home for a tasty meal. It is funny how fish will one time go after artificial baits and other times only want the real deal. The technique in fooling the fish with artificial to think its real is an art on its own i believe. I have always been a live bait fisherman. From when i was a young boy i caught all my own live bait,frogs,crayfish, leeches, minnows and worms and i still do. The hardest thing for me is to force myself to use artificial baits and experiment with them, once you gain confidence and start to catch fish i think this is half the battle with using artificial. Great post and great observations as usual. Thanks

Yeah, perch fishing can be mentally tiring if you catch too many, that's why I usually go only a few times during open water season as I like fishing for bigger predatory fish. Ice fishing for perch is a bit different story as you usually don't catch that many and have to move around to find fish.

Good luck with your fishing on Balsam.

Thanks!

Also used only live bait (minnows , worms, insect larvae etc) when I was a kid fishing with my simple floating rod with a bobber but when I first tried a spinning rod with a reel casting a spoon- I was hooked.

For me personally casting , moving around to find fish is a must in fishing as I get bored sitting around and watching my bobber or line, that's why I almost never troll.

Feeling that initial crushing strike is more than 50% of fishing fun for me with the other half being the fun of landing a fish.

These days when i am fishing for pike, bass, walleye, musky etc. I almost never use live bait as artificial lures these days are so durable and realistic and so much fun fishing, then I am enjoying the process of lure animation and enticing the fish to strike.For me personally it's much more rewarding than merely catching a fish on a minnow or worm.

I pretty much only use minnows these days when fishing tip-ups for pike through the ice and also fishing for perch with friends to make them catch more perch as they can struggle with timely hooksets on plastics.

great post



do I feel sorry for you..........NOT

I guess those observations above are generally true. But there were quite a few times when I caught jumbos on a small piece of a large minnow, and small perch on a whole 3" one.

I find minnows dead or alive don't make much difference as long as they are relatively fresh so I change the dead ones after a few casts and replace them with fresher ones.

When the minnows are large I usually cut them in half and use both the head and tail sections with equal success. I think blood and guts from a freshly cut minnow is pretty appealing to perch.

Last time I was out this month, I had to keep following the fish. When I find them I put on a spot lock and fish the area until the readings disappear from the sonar, then I let the boat drift just a bit until i am on top of them again, and keep repeating the procedure. Takes the "boredom" out of perch fishing

Great post Thanks for sharing your information