Not a Crappie but...

After weeks and weeks of working way past late, I decided to take Friday afternoon off and hit a local lake.

Finding Minnows has been tough the last couple of weeks. Many of the suppliers are having issues keeping them alive prior to delivery. When they are delivered, they are dying so fast that the shops are throwing away more than they sell. It just isn't worth it to them. I was able to go to a very small shop I use and they had minnows.

I have been using plastics the last month and doing well however I really wanted some live bait. I have caught some decent perch in one lake that I fish (but not in large numbers) and wanted to see if I could get a few. I did catch a couple crappies (again on plastics) but the below perch was 10 inches. I caught another one that was 11 and the last one I caught (right at dark) was 12 inches.
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I took a run down to Detroit on Saturday to chase some perch around. In the end, the perch were a bust (should have went south). I did however catch a pretty cool outboard motor race at Elizabeth park. Also jigged a couple walleyes. Even got my buddy into some sheepheads on light tackle. Man do those boys take a run after you hook em. I shut my phone off as I was real close to Canada and my phone kept bouncing off from one of the Queen's towers. No pics from this trip.

good story and nice perch

Yep, that's why i always use plastic, never did like having to hunt down live bait

Nice Perch Rich.

Hey Rich I have a lake that has some really good perch in it but I have no idea how to summer fish them. Any advice one where to start and what to use?

Eric,

I have a couple different places I like to start. Next to weeds is always a good bet. Second is over deep water (fish the bottom). Last is over rocky structure (hard to find in most lakes).

I have a couple of different tactics I use. One is an inline perch rig. Basically, you have a weight at the bottom followed by a hook attached to the main line with a bead above it. Up about 6 to 8 inches you have a stopper (crush sleeve) followed by another hook and bead. Up another 6 to 8 inches you have another crush sleeve followeb by a hook and bead ( you can put a bead below each hook as well). I then have a short lead up to a swivel. This is a verticle rig and each hook can travle up the line to the crush swivel. When a fish hits, slowly lift up. When the hook hits the stopper, it is set in it's mouth.

When drifting I like to use a little different setup. I put on an inline egg sinker (that can travel up and down the line) followed by a swivel. I tie on about 12 to 16 inches of leader and then put on a floating jig head. As you drift, the weight bounces off the bottom but the jig is off the bottom because it floats. When a fish hits (no matter how light) you can see the bite on the rod as the fish is not fighting with the weight. Like walleye, crappie and other fish, sometimes they don't like to feel the weight. This rig allows the line to travel through the sinker and the fish doesn't feel the resistance.

Hope this helps

Of course, if all else fails, invite me down and we can find them together!!!

That last tip is the winner Eric just in case you didn't catch that.