Northwest Fishing Reports

On the weekend im going to a lake, and after trying for bass, i want to get some perch. While fishing of the lakes pier, beside lillie pads, all i caught were goldfish sized perch. this week, im going on a raft with a trolling motor. would it work to troll for the perch, or should i fish deep or what?

The only problem with perch fishing is there arnt too many lakes with decent sized perch. Almost every lake in WA has some sort of perch population. But I would only say about 5% of those lakes have perch worth going after. So your first step would be to talk to someone who knows the lake and find out if there are any big perch in there. If you dont mind telling me the lake I can probably find something out for you.

But anyway perch are huge suckers for worms. I have caught tons of perch trolling with wedding rings and double whammys. When I troll the bottom of a lake for walleye I catch perch, when I troll the upper column for trout I catch perch. So perch are everywhere in the lake. You already know that perch school up, so once you find one your in business. Perch also school up according to size for the most part. So once you find a school catch a couple of perch and if they are all small your best bet would be to try to find another school. The other school probably wont be too hard to find. It should be close to the first school, because they school in certain places for a reason. These reasons might be good cover, decent feeding grounds, under water spring etc. But the school could be all the way on the other side of the lake, so it will take a little looking. If you have a depth finder this makes this process a lot easier. But I have found schools w/o a fish finder.

If I were you I would start out trolling for perch with a wedding ring and a 1/2 of a worm. Locate the school you want and sit right on top of them. Then switch over to jigging. If the water isnt too deep go with a 1/64 oz jig. I prefer yellow and white or all white. But if the water is deeper you probably want to go with a 1/32 oz jig in the same colors, just to get you down quicker. But like I said they are suckers for worms, and they will go through your worms like no other. So you might want to get a couple dozen crawlers. The good thing about perch is you dont actually need night crawlers. Earthworms work just as well, so start digging. But perch also love maggots as well. But what you have to do, this is a must for perch fishing, your first catch must be sacrificed to the bait gods. Just fillet up the catch and the the fillet into smaller pieces, about 1/2 the size of a nickle. The perch cant resist it. But last weekend I did catch some huge perch trolling floating rapalas. So if you get into some big ones, a rapala, hot shot or flat fish should work well

Phantom Lake.

Thanks for the advice. When jigging, do you mean with white/yellow crappie tubes?

Im not sure if the perch get large in the lake, but i hope i find out

JT26 wrote:Phantom Lake.

Thanks for the advice. When jigging, do you mean with white/yellow crappie tubes?

Im not sure if the perch get large in the lake, but i hope i find out

Yep those are the ones. Yeah I havnt heard of any monster perch coming out of phantom. But dont let that discourage you. On the duck lake reports I read of one big perch that was caught. If I would have listened to that and not tried for perch, than I would have missed out. Ya know lake WA is pretty close too, big perch and big bass. This probably would be a good bet on your next outing. But keep us posted on how you do, Im always looking for a new perch lake. GOOD LUCK

I know lake washington does. when i visit my grandparents i can just walk down to the lake. Thats where i caught around 18 perch fishing for the first time for them. The problem is i can only fish there when i get to my grandparents, and that doesnt happen as much as it should.

Ill definitly report if i catch some big ones though.

thanks

pine lake has awesome numbers of perch and some ok sized ones at that. i have caught them bass fishing with many different lures, also on power eggs.

If your going jigging you should probably put a little piece of worm on your lure.
It usually always works for me.

One way to selective fish for perch is to move around. Perch tend to school up by year class, so if you are getting alot of 4 or 5 inch perch, move on a few yards (usually deeper) and see what size you get. If there are frying size perch in the lake you will eventually find them.

Another tip. Fish your worm or crappie jig under a bobber, but with 4 or 5 feet of leader unless your too shallow. If there is milfoil, say around 8 feet deep, use 7 1/2 feet of leader. Just drop it over the side of the boat don't try casting it. Looks sloppy!