Tina Ika Equals The Perfect Perch Panacea
March 19, 2009
There's no better time or place on our blue planet to jerk giant perch out of the water one after another than New Jersey during the ides of March.
Yellow perch, a cold water species, relish the winter months. In summer, perch suffer. The heat debilitates and enervates perch; they wither - but winter is when vigorous perch schools truly rule the lake. They pig out, fatten up and reach their prime condition. By winter's end, perch top out at their peak weights and health for the year. They show it by displaying their most vibrant peacock-like colors at this time.
Starting right after ice out and through the ides (middle) of March, Jersey jumbos will pile up on rising, hard bottom structure in 8 to 15 feet of water. They muster on any rising bottom that has hard sand, gravel or chunk rock patches plus scattered green weed beds. Any stumps, laydowns, boulders on these areas are certain to be swarming with perch. They stage on such structure for a few weeks before they move shallow to spawn in late March. At this time, their bellies are distended with winter-ripened eggs and stretched too taut with as many crunchy crawdads as their stomachs can possibly hold.
Jim Mayberry shows off a male (right) and female perch from Jersey waters.
They'll be feeding heavily and staging en masse on offshore structure. Any rise, reef, hump, ridge, ledge or whatever else attracts them that rises out of deeper water and tops out 8 to 15 feet deep, even though the surrounding water could be (and typically is) 18 to 25 or more feet deep. These pre-spawn staging spots are surrounded mostly on all sides by deeper water. Usually, the staging areas are not attached to the shoreline. Instead, there's that last leg of deeper water yet to cross in between the mid-lake rises on which the perch are staging before they move shallow to spawn along the shorelines.
By the end of March, they'll have made the move and will be spawning in 4 to 6 feet of water adjacent to the shorelines. Yellow perch are one of the first species to move shallow to spawn each spring, earlier than most other panfish, bass or local freshwater fish.
Ed Tomosi lands a large female perch that's about ready to spawn.
The perch is related to the walleye. The native range of yellow perch spreads mainly over southeastern Canada and the northern United States east of the Mississippi, more or less.
However, it's indubitable that there's any better place for perchin' out than Jersey. After all, the Garden State (as Jersey's called) holds the world record for the largest yellow perch ever caught, in 1865 that weighed 4 pounds 3.5 ounces.
Bobby Uhrig hefts trophy perch in their prime spawning colors.
Note also that on the other side of the Big Pond (Atlantic Ocean), the European Perch species is practically identical in size, shape and coloration to our yellow perch. So any tips and tactics shared here should work for European perch to boot.
"Yellow perch school by size, feed collectively and are voracious predators. They respond well to a variety of smaller artificial lures, but one of the best perch lures we've recently tried is Yamamoto's Tiny Ika," says Jim Mayberry.
Jim Mayberry with one of many perch landed on Yamamoto Tiny Ikas.
One of Mayberry's favorite colors (#301 green pumpkin with green and purple flakes) proved irresistible to yellow perch. We tried the Tiny Ikas unmodified straight out of the bag. We also doctored some by clipping the middle two strands short (shown above left) or by removing the 2nd and 5th strands (shown above right) from the six-strand tail. Perch doted on the Tiny Ika no matter how many tails we left intact.
Ed Tomosi feels that perch don't have the best eyesight and can't see lures as well as bass or crappie. That's why Tomosi recommends dipping the tails of the Tiny Ika in bright chartreuse tail dye, as shown in the photos here. "This heightens the contrast and enhances the visual attraction of the bait, helping perch to see it better," says Tomosi.
Ed Tomosi with a bountiful brace of perch that fell for Tiny Ikas with chartreuse-dipped tails.
In addition to tipping the Tiny Ika tails with bright dye, we also doused or should say smeared our offerings with MegaStrike gel.
"For 2009, we've added one new and powerful natural attractant into the number of things that go together, the whole potent schmeer that makes MegaStrike so great. This new ingredient has really perked up our proven formula in terms of scent, taste and attraction," says inventor, Bobby Uhrig.
Not only Bobby, but many anglers who have used the new formula can vouch for its seemingly improved results with bass, perch, crappie, you name it.
Perchin' doesn't get any better than this! Bobby Uhrig of MegaStrike attractant, Evolution jig and Cavitron buzzbait fame.
Jim Mayberry displays the equipment he favors for perch fishing. The rod is a Quantum Bill Dance 8' model designed for crappie.
"Perch don't fight as hard as bass or even crappie," claims Jim Mayberry. "Six pound test line will easily handle them. But you will catch more perch with four pound test because you can present ultra light lures more precisely and naturally on 4 lb test than six. The only time you need to pay attention, is to hand-grab (watch out for the sharp gill area) or net your bigger perch, as opposed to lifting them with the rod or line, which is when 4 pound test may strain and snap."
Usually, Jim opts for 4 lb test Berkley Trilene XT monofilament, a good choice of line. Recently, he's been evaluating Yamamoto's 5 lb test Sugoi fluorocarbon line. So far, Jim likes it. Even though it is 5 lb test, the diameter of Sugoi fluorocarbon is as thin or thinner than most other 4 lb lines.
Yamamoto's 5 lb fluorocarbon line is clear, more invisible underwater and has a smaller diameter (just under .008) than most other comparable lines. With it's ease of handling on spinning reels, it's heightened sensitivity and abrasion resistance, Sugoi 5 lb test is the ultimate light line for perch, bass crappie or most any light tackle spinning rod application.
Jim Mayberry bookends Daiwa 1500 series reel with 5 lb Sugoi fluorocarbon line. These are male perch which are smaller and slender compared to females.
Bobby Uhrig holds a chunky male (right) and female of the species.
One of our two most productive techniques with the Tina Ikas was to thread them on 1/16th to 3/32 oz Keitech tungsten jig heads. These have small yet super-strong and super-sharp #2 hooks perfect for perch.
Electronics were critical and really the only way to find the hard bottom compositions with sparse weeds rising to 8-15 feet out of the surrounding deeper water. Perch were evenly spread out on such rises but whenever any unusual obstacle or 'cover' on such structure showed on the graph, it appeared thickly clouded with gangs of aggressive perch. It's always surprising how far and fast that a boat can drift away from such hotspots, so tossing a marker buoy is critical to keep yourself in on the non-stop action.
The trick was to get the light jigs to clutch onto grass tufts. If you could then gingerly wiggle the jig just so and softly pop it cleanly out of the grass, that was the triggering action when a high percentage of strikes occurred right then.
One of Jim Mayberry's tricks to wiggle jigs out of the grass clumps cleanly is to position a tightly-tied knot far back on the hook eye as shown above. Once seated far back on the eye, the knot will stay that way surprisingly long, and this helps the jig pull out of the grass without fouling as much. Even 'slapping' the grass off the jig head on the surface of the water between casts won't always slap the knot itself out of position.
Perch ate Jim Mayberry's jigs as soon as he adeptly finessed them cleanly out of sparse grass patches.
Tiny Ikas fished this way on Keitech heads was one of our two most productive presentations.
Our second and equally successful presentation paired Tiny Ikas with dropshot rigs.
"The yellow perch prefers clearer, fertile water and greener grass. You can just look at it's green-barred back, and you know it's at home in and around weedbeds. Even in winter, green grass beds grow in Jersey's waters, even at depths down to 15 feet, there is good green grass," says Ed Tomosi. "Winter grass stays short and doesn't grow high off the bottom just yet. It's really dormant, but still green, and doesn't start getting higher until spring kicks in," explains Ed. "A good perch lake is not crystal clear - but is relatively clearer than other lakes with relatively greener grass than other lakes. A lake with grass that turns brown in winter or gets that dusty, silt-covered grass is not as conducive to perch as good, clean, green grass."
New Jersey angler Ed Tomosi knows perch.
"Because the bottom grass is so short, almost like a lawn at this time, a dropshot bait doesn't need to be pinned any higher than eight inches above the sinker," instructs Ed.
In the photo above, a 5/32 oz dropshot sinker has had its end clipped off, making it weigh less, so it slides softly over the grass.
"Just pull the rig across the bare bottom stretches. Let the sinker engage the edge of any grass patch it encounters, and then relax the line so the Tiny Ika falls right on top of the grass, just inside the weed edge. That's the place perch be," smiles Ed.
Above: How Tomosi hooks a dropshot Tiny Ika, which renders it remarkably snagless and weedless. The hook shank parts the grass ahead of the hook point, serving as a weed guard.
Perch provisions include Yamamoto Tiny Ikas, Keitech jig heads, chartreuse tail dip, MegaStrike attractant, dropshot rigs and spinning rods.
About 40% of the perch this trip came on the dropshot Tiny Ika. Another 40% came on the Tiny Ika on Keitech jig heads.
The other 20% came on Float-N-Fly doll hair jigs tipped with tails from Yamamoto's 9P Pro Senkos or 3-1/2" (model 7S) Kut Tails. The brightly-colored Float-N-Flies (used without any floats) were more effective during the low light periods after sundown and before full dark. The dark green Tiny Ikas apparently became harder for the perch to see in dim light, but the bright white and chartreuse Float-N-Flies with contrasting dark Yamamoto tail tips proved able to attract perch until it was time to recover the boats in the last good light of each great day on the water.
Yeah, man. Perchin' out is what it's all about!
Bobby Uhrig smiles over a perfect pair of glistening perch.