02/01/2000
- Article
Somebody
Better Tell the Perch
By
Noel Vick
There
was a time when yellow perch owned the distinction of being maligned
little pests that served better as food for walleyes than something
caught while angling for gamefish.
But times changed, and perch grew in popularity.
Their merit as being abundant, tasty to the digestive senses,
and even fun to battle when achieving “jumbodom” have catapulted
perch to a platform shared with crappies and bluegills.
And no other Midwest water conjures up more thoughts of
hardwater perch action than Minnesota’s Lake Winnibigoshish.
The
frozen surfaces of 70,000-acre Winnie maintain amazing perch habitat
below and legions of perch hunters above.
And with the passing of each season it seems that tug of war
between production and harvest get further tested, and this time
around the powers that be have taken notice.
The DNR intends on reducing Minnesota’s liberal perch
limit, and Winnie has taken on the role of a martyr in the
discussion. But I’ve
got a little secret to share, “Not all of Winnie’s perch are
aware that there’s a problem.”
Following
a hearty breakfast, our fishing party was greeted by limb-rattling
winds that pushed falling snow more horizontally than vertically.
The white stuff billowed and formed scattered drifts over an
otherwise uncharacteristically barren surface.
A few pressure ridges interrupted our path, but none that our
determined leader – GPS in hand – wouldn’t cross in a full
size truck. He was
heading to a bug’s nest on this wintry January morn…
The
4 X 4 caravan hit their collective breaks when Mr. Guide’s tires
locked and his truck spun to a 90-degree angle.
Apparently, our whereabouts met his coordinates, and these
mid-lake coordinates are as secretive as the coordinates to an Iraqi
munitions bunker. It
was time to open up the lake.
Strikemaster
Lazer Mags effortlessly zipped through 20-plus inches of ice as we
slashed pairs of holes in 17 to 22 feet of water.
The bar’s crest spanned in about 17 to 19-feet of water and
from that plateau it rapidly dipped into the early thirties – he
placed us on the bar’s northwest tip.
Now,
traditional perching wisdom would lead us to believe that mid winter
fish would be schooled off structure, roaming around somewhere
across the basin. But
as we soon learned, a rich food source teamed with a low cloud deck
and low pressure invited a sizable contingency of perch to forage on
the crown.
Winnie’s
recent status as an “example” for the push toward lessening
perch harvests encourages one to believe that the fishery is in
rough shape. But instead, what a six or seven hour jumbo perch assault
dictated was that Winnie remains an incredible perch factory.
The resilient lake continues to manufacture perch at an
impressive clip, but the onus is on us to keep average fish sizes up
through conservation.
Enticing
aggressive perch to strike is like pitching to Mark McGwire;
they’ll hit anything and everything.
But what really drove those striped critters mad were
Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Spoons tipped with minnow heads.
When highly energetic pods of perch moved through it didn’t
matter which of the four sizes and six colors was in play.
But at times, when less assertive perch were underfoot, 1/8th
and ¼-ounce Buck-Shots in Gold Shiner and Glow Perch kept poles
bending. Lure size
upgrades and downgrades, along with changes in colors and patterns
can counteract mini-mood swings frequently encountered while
perching.
Tiny
(W2) Perch and Glow Tiger pattern Normark/Rapala Jigging Raps proved
equally as effective. The
diminutive lures closely resemble young-of-the-year perch, which
many of the jumbos we hooked puked onto the ice.
Standing alone, Jigging Raps will generate strikes, but the
perch became incensed when a Berkley Micro Power Grub or Power
Wiggler was affixed to the dangling treble hook.
The
ideal compliment to a hands-on jigging approach is a well thought
out setline. In this
case, a 1/8th-ounce Northland Micro Air-plane Jig
(chartreuse/lime) paired with a fathead minnow was in high demand.
Regardless of how many perch were yanked with jigging spoons,
the trip’s truest jumbos preferred Air-planes and freely swimming
minnows. The trick was
reverse hooking an oversized fathead, setting the package three to
four feet off the bottom, and resting the rod, tip positioned
directly over a hole, on the vacant extra bench inside my two-man
Fish Trap. You reverse
hook a minnow by first turning its head away from the jig, then
driving the hook point through its belly and out the back, while
making an effort not to butcher the entrails.
This way, the soon-to-be-inhaled baitfish swims against the
jig’s weight, causing the Air-plane’s fins to sway temptingly.
And even when nothing demonstrates enough courage to attack
the Air-plane, the “carrot on the stick” has the seductive power
to keep fish around.
Matching
each lure with smooth setting Genz Series rods by Berkley also paid
dividends. The
sensitive graphite blanks were able to telegraph subtle mouthing by
semi-interested perch, and when a nasty one entered my column of
water, the rods yielded enough backbone to let the underwater world
know who their daddy was.
The
low cloud deck and favorable barometric reading inspired fish to
feed from sunup to sundown. By
day’s end, conservative estimates placed my catch and release
tally somewhere between 150 and 200 perch.
No kidding, I was that busy.
A few photos, some back slapping, and it was time to wade
through the three-foot drift that had formed on my truck’s wind
blocking backside.
Day
two saw a front to back alteration in wind direction, further
temperature drop, heightened atmospheric pressure, and nearly
bluebird skies – not the conditions a perch-hound dreams about.
Needless to say, fish weren’t piling through our eight-inch
holes like yesterday, but we still managed to summon respectable
numbers. Downsizing
presentations, slower jigging, plain hooks and bobbers, and running
around cutting plenty of extra holes with the Strikemaster Lazer Mag
were crucial ingredients in counteracting less than favorable
perching weather.
So
I left the mighty Winnie with mixed feelings.
For us, due to expert information and a good bite, the
so-called perch problem was a non-factor.
But state employed Winnie experts tell us that perch and
walleye harvests need to be curbed, and their solution is to impose
new size restrictions (walleyes) and limits (perch).
I can only assume that their decisions are biologically based
and designed for a common good.
Ultimately, Winnie’s destiny is in our hands, the anglers.
The way I see it, a few guys take far too many fish.
A bunch of guys take some fish.
And a few guys leave the lake with empty buckets, but
hopefully favorable experiences.
I’m optimistic, because the lake continues making fish, and
it seems that more anglers are becoming micro-resource managers and
conservationists.
By
the way, although our January expedition to Winnie was phenomenal,
history reminds us that Winnie’s finest winter perching occurs in
February and March. Time
is on your side.
Editor’s
note: Special thanks go out to professional walleye fisherman Gary
Roach and his stable of trustworthy sponsors for taking care of a
clan of outdoor writers and photographers.
Northland Tackle, Normark/Rapala, Vista Cam, Strikemaster,
Abu Garcia, Berkley, and of course, Judd’s Resort, all deserve a
standing ovation.
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