8-8 White Perch

[choochoo]

Began the morning in the dentist chair. Figured there had to be a better place to be. Headed out mid morning to hit the perch hole again. Forgive me if I don't disclose the exact location, but I'm still fishing someone else's tip. John can disclose if he wishes. Lol. It's mid Roanoke with a nice flat smooth bottom. The key seems to be the 20 foot depth. They mark heavy from 15 foot to the bottom. We actually caught so many we started experimenting. The bulk were on the two hook drop shot rig. A good many came on a sabiki. I wanted to see if I could catch one on a rubber swimbait vertically, so I just slapped on on the bottom of an unbaited drop rig. None hit the jig, but I caught 3 on the unbaited hook!! We caught between 75 and 100. They were running a really good size had one or two over a foot. I'm learning a good bit about marking them on the finder. They are a quite solid strong fish like a striper so my unit marks the well with a good bit of red. I'm running SI, DI, and sonar at the same time and it is a ton of fun calling the shots.

A side note. Without this site I would know very little about fishing for these things. Y'all have taken a know nothing when it comes to perch and made him a somewhat efficient predator. More people should experience this fishing. It would be a blast with kids. I made the comment several times today about how much fun it would be to have several boats sitting nearby catching these things. White perch fishing, the aquatic equavalent of a dove shoot.

[hotdog]

Their very good eating too choochoo. They are great for the kids. I'm glad you got on them.

[choochoo]

Father in law took a mess home to clean.

[johnr]

Let's say it's near the state park. Cause it is and practically every cove around there ought to have some.

The best thing about these fish is that in February when it can be tough to catch a striper, you can catch just as many while doing the exact same thing, just in slightly deeper water,30-40', in the same areas as right now. That's how I originally found out about catching them in numbers like this.

And you can learn a lot about fish behavior by watching these on the sonar.

[johnr]

And it is a blast with kids. Just ask my toddler. She's got the system down.

[hambone]

Thats awesome choochoo, glad ya got em figured out. Dad and i went out this evening after them for a while, never could find a big school of them. Searched several spots. Did manage to catch a few though.

[bushwacker]

Awesome report Choochoo!! I've got to get my son out after these.