Early Ice Pike n Pannies!
First ice opportunities almost always has me chasing panfish and pike on the lower parts of the St. Mary’s River system. The small, shallow, weedy bays that freeze first offer great cover for pannies which creates the ideal grounds for monster pike looking to gorge. The following are a few techniques I use when ice fishing shallow weedy bays for panfish and big pike. 12/11
Rigging Options for Early Season Yellow Perch
Understanding temperature is critical to the timing of the yellow perch arrival to annual spawning grounds in spring. Perch begin arriving as waters warm to 6-7 degrees Celsius (43-45 degrees Fahrenheit) , seeking out relatively shallow water (4-8ft) and soft bottoms with remnants of last years vegetation. 06/11
Persuasive Panfish Plastics Soft-plastics are becoming fan favourites with hard-water panfish stalkers. Lifelike profiles, irresistible actions, and durability are a sampling of the reasons whey more anglers are opting to use artificials instead of live bait. Perch, crappie and sunfish can be tempted into slurping in soft-plastics whether aggressively feeding or inactive.
Winter Perch Fishing Perch can be a funny bunch. Doesn’t it seem like you catch more of them when targeting other species instead of when you’re actually fishing for perch? Most of the time when I am actually targeting yellow perch, I will routinely put in a full day on the ice punching dozens of holes searching for signs of a school.
Yellow Perch Rewards After enduring the often too long winter I focus my attention on one thing and only one thing. I impatiently wait and watch the progress of the ice breaking up of the ice on main lakes all over Ontario. Not only will I get a chance to get the boat out after 5 very long painful months, I will get to have some of the most fun that I will have all year catching giant Yellow Perch.
Tips to Ice More Perch Part One
Getting into steady action from a biting school of jumbos is every perchers dream. Ultimately, the more diverse of an angler the better prepared you’ll be to handle whatever fish throw at you. Here are five important tips to keep in mind when the bite gets tough.
Soft-Bottom Perch Ice Fishing
A good perch bite is tough to beat during the ice fishing season. Aggressive and competitive, once you get a school of jumbos riled up you can often put a few on ice before they move on. Soft-bottom flats are a great spot to search out perch. Here are some tips on fishing these areas.
Ice Fishing Perch Pointers
Targeting perch through the ice is one of my favourite types of hard-water action. Not only are perch relatively easy to catch and often eager to bite, they are one of the best tasting freshwater fish. To help boost your perch fishing results this ice season, here are some tips to put more jumbos on the ice.
Last Chance Jumbos
Soon, it’ll be rotten out there. Not rancid like spoiled produce, but soft and dark nonetheless. I’m talking about the ice. It’s thick and resolute now, but it won’t last forever, actually, scarcely longer than a few weeks, less in some areas. Fortunately, though, ice fishing’s swan song is a cheery tune; one fraught with foraging fish and wonderful weather. And lead vocals are belted out by my favorites, jumbo perch.
