[Opry99er]

Tired of fishing my sister's pond for 5 inch gills, the boy and I found some public water about 10"minutes from home. We wanted some filets, and I didn't want to mess with bait stealing dinks and mossy water.

Got to the lake too late... Water was getting hot, and the day was humid and stuffy with intermittent wind. No bueno.

Upon arriving at the lake, I noticed two dead fish on the shoreline... Both about 14-15 inches long. They looked like perch, buy no survey or report on this lake listed perch as a species... Additionally, perch are relatively rare here in Tennessee. Pics coming on this fish. If it was a perch, it was a big f***er.

Ended up doing well, several 8-9 inch gills, 3 nice shellcrackers and s couple real nice hits that didn't come to shore.

If this yellow fish is a perch, I just found my new favorite fishing spot...

Used the new fileting technique that was suggested in the other thread. Badass... Took me about twice as long, but I didn't have to sharpen the knife once, and I ended up with more meat and NO ruined filets.

All in all a good day. Full stringer of big, tasty sunfish. I was wondering if I could even catch fish on public water anymore. . Glad we did well.

 

[rvinson]

 

[Opry99er]

Thanks for posting the pix, rvinson. I'll have my internet set up this week, I PROMISE!

You guys think that's a monster perch? I know there's such a thing as a "yellow bass" here in TN, but I haven't looked into em yet.

 

[rvinson]

Thanks for posting the pix, rvinson. I'll have my internet set up this week, I PROMISE!

You guys think that's a monster perch? I know there's such a thing as a "yellow bass" here in TN, but I haven't looked into em yet.

Anytime!

I think it is a Yellow Perch with faint markings. How big we talking?(Nothing to reference in the pic) Perch get pretty big and FAT!!

 

[Opry99er]

The one in that pic was just under 15 inches. 14 3/4". The other one near this one was slightly smaller, by maybe a half inch. I didn't measure that one.

 

[pistoldog]

Nice catch Opry.

Looks like a perch to me too.

 

[Biggie Smalls]

Perch, shellcrackers and gills. :thumb:

 

[Opry99er]

In Tennessee, most regard the yellow perch as an invasive, rough, nuisance species to be eradicated. Many even made the comparisons to Asian carp and snakeheads. Ridiculous if you ask me.

I need to get a flippin raft out there, charge up the sonar, and vertical jig the piss out of the schools. The lake is very very deep in parts, as 10 feet from shore near the southernmost point we fished, i was able to raise my bobber up to nearly 12 feet (maximum i could cast without a slip bobber) and it still didn't touch the bottom. Other areas were fairly shallow up to 20 feet out, but that area where the boat dock and metal pier are is super deep, and gets deep fast. Buddy of mine says the lake is 70 feet deep in some places. Not deep by Granby standards, but for a relatively small "C" shaped lake 10 minutes from home, that's pretty deep.

Might try to go buy a raft on my first or second payday.

 

[JWurgaft]

Cool dude. That does look like a yellow perch to me. Does it have a perch lookin mouth? I'd think perch for sure but the mouth looked sorta different in the pic? Might just be camera angle.

 

[bobys]

Definitely a perch, the mouth only looks weird cause of discoloring after death, after I zoomed in its pretty clear its a perch mouth. If theres dead ones theres live ones ! Go get em op!!

 

[swimbait]

It is a larval Chupacabra. Do not allow it to affix itself to your urethra.

 

[TthePikester]

Not a Yellow Bass, stripes going the wrong way and to wide. A yellow looks like a white but with yellow color tone, for sure a perch! Nice going guys!

 

[Opry99er]

Thanks for the input guys.

One other thing I forgot to mention... In the 3.5 hours we were there, not one other soul came to the lake to boat or fish. Might as well have been a private lake that day, as we were kings of our domain and had free range at any spot we wished to fish. This is gonna be fun....

 

[CF LURKER]

Looks like you and Buck are adjusting to the "new" waters just fine.
Glad you are settling in and enjoying the new home.

 

[Opry99er]

So, planning an ass-early AM trip to this lake to try for perch tomorrow. I have never had much (if any) real success shore fishing for perch.

Been doing some research (as crap as my phone data speed is out here) and have learned that perch like to "pod" up at the bottom of deeper reservoirs.

Here's what I'm considering... Please let me know what you think, since Tennessee folk are useless resources when it comes to yellow perch fishing (trust me. I've asked around... Like asking a 5 year old how to tune a carburetor)

3 rods, left, center, and right. Dropshot rigs, 2 hooks per line (12" from bottom and 18" from bottom) with bits of crawler on each hook. 10 minutes a sit, then move 20-30 feet down the bankline and re-bait, same method.

This would allow me to cover ground, fanning the rods out and moving at regular time intervals.

Nice thing is about this lake-- while it is long and serpentine, it is never very wide...


What do you think? Good strategy? Not?

I'm very inexperienced at perch fishing, so criticism is welcome!

 

[bobys]

I caught a **** ton of perch last week!! All were caught in 2 fow of water and less, all caught on a small jig under bobber, except for the first perch I caught, he hit my rapala floater when I was swimming it letting me know there were perch in the area. After that it was game on caught them almost every cast. What was really interesting to me was never before have I had the color of jig make such a difference, I would use one color for quite a while and notice the bite was hardly there anymore, then I would switch colors and almost immediately wherever I casted it bobber would be down in seconds. When it would get real cloudy they preffered white color jigs, and when it was bright they liked brighter colors, yellow, gold, orange, pink, etc... When I say small I mean small, like miniature mister twister looking grub with the top half ripped off, granted I probably could of passed with larger grub and hook small gets more fish. I would be surprised if all the perch were really deep in that body of water right now

 

[rvinson]

Perch school up and move around.... I'm no expert but from my experience they always seem to move in and out of areas i fish... I'll catch quite a few and then nothing..... I have had the best success on fatheads, but night crawlers are a close second. (You may want to look into throw nets and/or seining for minnows back there)

You know.. now that I think of it.. Almost all the perch i have caught from shore I was fishing on the bottom..... You may want to rig one of those as a bottom rig, might get lucky and get some perch or who knows what!!

Lastly... Dont over estimate a small tube jig on a slip bobber(Bare or tipped with a crawler or minnow)!! Easy to cast and still get it to whatever depth you want.



Ok ok.. 1 more thing... You know the tip about using perch Eyes for bait.. right?

 

[Opry99er]

bobys: tough to compare bodies of water, I think. Are you fishing in a pond? Shallow? Water temp?

I ask, mainly, because I looked for these fish shallow... Water is super clear at this lake, and we slayed the panfish shallow, and I almost always saw the school I was fishing to. Never saw one perch the whole time. I wonder if conditions in your body of water are very different from mine. Just a curiosity.

rvinson: I think I might try different approaches if my double hook dropshot isn't effective. There isn't a TON of fishable shoreline at this lake, as most of the fishable water is accessible only by boat... You're allowed non-gas powered motors in there, but I don't have any kind of boat at all, otherwise I'd be marking and jigging.

If I fish for an hour on dropshot with no luck, perhaps I will repeat the same pattern with all bottom rigs.

Nice thing about the dropshot rig is that 12" from the weight may only be 4-5 inches from the bottom, just depending on distance from shore and depth. The angle determines the depth of the hook, not the length between hook and sinker.

I remember the perch eye bait tactic from some ice fishing threads last winter. . Thanks!!!

 

[bobys]

My body of water is a reservoir that has deep coves and has shallow coves, one of those coves are extremely shallow 1-4ft. The temp of the main part of the lake was 64 last week, I have a feeling that the cove I was fishing was probably 68-70 degrees. Even if the perch are deep, slip bobber down 2 little jigs like I said before to the depth they are at. A lot of times when fish a new body of water I like to throw small inline spinners just to get a good idea where and what fish are in there, most species will hit and inline spinner perch love them, once I have found perch or crappie though I go directly to jig under bobber

 

[WestSloper]

I fish for perch a fair amount in the summer, not from shore though. From a boat I target steep transitions. I try to find an area that goes from a shallow flat (under 10') to 30'+. I'll throw a 1/8oz jig head with a 1.5" gulp grub or minnow up onto the flat and slowly bounce it off and down the transition. I'll use a slip bobber sometimes without a stop to get more of a vertical presentation. Perch are constantly moving, so trying to move with them is near impossible. If you get into them just sit tight if the bite slows down, they will be back!