I became a better fisherman maybe?
 

:Not that I was good before but I became a better fisherman during my last trip. With work, thunder storms and the heat I have been staying close to home. Most of the trips I have been targeting / harassing white perch with an occasional small rock. Most of the time I have been using Grass Shrimp for bait, which perch love. The perch fishing has been phenomenal; I can’t recall a year that they have been this thick. Since I have caught my share of perch I decided to go strictly vertical jigging with metal or LTJ with soft plastics. The perch have been located on or near the bottom which is a good sign and shows that the dissolved oxygen content of the water is still good near the bottom. Depth ranged from 18’-22’. In the beginning of the year I was lucky enough to be shown the LTJ ropes on Rock. I never really understood the subtle nuisances of the presentation or the bite. The only time I caught fish LTJ was when a suicide fish would crash the lure. With the perch being so thick I figured why not give it a try. The perch definitely cooperated. The first thing I noticed was how many bite I was missing and what a bite was. I probably missed 10 or 15 taps to a hook set at first. I had so many swings and misses I must have looked like I was swatting flies. Most of the bites came on the fall and were extremely soft. At times an extremely sharp snap of the lure was needed to get a strike. I was using a soft plastic 1” crawl and a chartreuse mister twister on a ¼ oz head rigged Carolina style. The perch liked both but preferred the mister twister. The twister was also unanimously preferred by the undersize rock.
I also used a ½ once cripple herring lure Jensen for vertical presentation. Once again with more encounters with strikes from the perch I quickly realized what I was missing when targeting rock.

I always laughed at bass fisherman and how hard they would set a hook on a 1 or 2 lb fish. I now understand you can’t hesitate when you think you feel a bite.

Give the perch a try with the LTJ equipment they will give you a lesson. I was using a UL with 4lb test line which isn’t the perfect rod due to the slow reaction in the UL. Next time I will move to a rod with a faster action.

I think the perch gave me a valuable fishing lesson and may have give me the experience to land some more Rock with the LTJ.

Give it try gang the perch are thick.

No doubt that the more you fish, the better you get and it's no doubt jigging for perch will help you with rock! There is nothing wrong with perch fishing and the 10-12 inch range make for some good fillets...........Gary

I will have to agree that I have caught more perch this year in years past. Glad that you got on them and using light tackle is a blast. I use a 6’ rod and those big black backs are a lot of fun on it. Thanks for the report

I love perch fishing and would rather do it than rock when there are no big ones around.

Nice job...So I will stop the automatic perch haul on the sea clams and try jigging...Practice makes perfect !

Great idea thanks !

Aw come on....we've perfected the Perch catchin' on the Super Dupers and Beetlespins.

Why waste food on food? :D

I used to have a lot of luck on a Rebel crawldad too.....Pickerel, White Perch, Yellow Perch, Bluegill, Red Ear, and small Rock used to hit it all the time....but not so much anymore for some reason.

I am preparing for the day when I lose all the Beetlespins and Super Dupers on the logs, branches, pilings, and turtles take them from me....

Still plus what am I going to do with all these clams I have ?

All my GF cares about is catching small fish with her little rod on night crawlers & BW's. After haveing no luck finding rock in the same area that she's pulling in 1 perch, spot or croaker after another I switch to a hook and sinker and bailing the little ones as well.

After a short while i'll get bored of re-baiting my hook and start using small lures and jigs to pull in the perch and let her use up the bait.

Many times after the BW's & NC's are gone I tell her to just put a mister twister on the hook and it usually catches just as well as the live bait and she has also caught small rock on those too.

Another favorite for pan fish is using a rooster tail or other spinners with a split shot to get it deeper.

When the pan fish are thick & hungry they'll hit almost anything .... lol.