How to Ice Fish for Yellow Perch

Yellow perch are a favorite target of ice fishermen for two reasons. They provide lots of action and they are among the best tasting fish that can be caught in fresh water. Yellow perch are also one of the handsomest fish that an ice fisherman can haul out of a hole in the ice, with their vivid colors. Make your ice fishing for yellow perch more productive.

Instructions

1. Fish just off the bottom of the lake. Yellow perch are known to eat the worms and grubs that live on the bottom of lakes and ponds. They won’t stray too far from the bottom in most cases, since that is also where the warmest water is in the winter months. Set your tip-ups to be 1 foot to 6 inches off the bottom, and if you are jigging for perch with an ice rod keep the bait just off the bottom of the body of water you are fishing.

2. Find the middle of the lake and fish for perch there. The midsections of most lakes and ponds are what are known as the basin area, meaning there is very little vegetation there. The muddy bottom is home to many of the creatures that perch like to eat and they will be cruising these areas in search of food. Yellow perch can be found in shallower water as well, but those tend to be smaller than the ones taken from the middle of lakes.

3. Be ready to be taken to school. Once you catch one yellow perch, chances are excellent that it is just the beginning of the action. Perch travel in schools, meaning that you will more than likely have lots of willing takers once you hook into one. Yellow perch will take shiners and really go for small jigs, tiny lures designed for panfish. Put a piece of a dead shiner on one and see how the perch respond.

4. Move around on the lake. If you are not catching fish in one spot, drill holes in some others and move your tip-ups and jigging action to those. Do not stay in an unproductive fishing spot for more than 15 minutes. Watch the action around you. If ice fishermen in another spot are catching perch, consider moving your operation in their direction without crowding them. Keep drilling holes every 10 or 15 yards until you find the perch.

5. Bounce it off the bottom. Perch will take jigging lures presented in this way as they are accustomed to feeding right off of the bottom. Let your jig lie on the bottom for as long as half a minute and then start to bounce it up and down. Keep your jig moving for a while and then let it go back down to rest on the bottom for a few more seconds before repeating the jigging action.