It’s no coincidence that ice anglers get fired up at the sight of a jumbo perch sliding onto the slush. Yellow perch are the perfect ice fishing quarry. For starters, they feed all winter. Perch fillets are unbeatable in the frying pan. And, there’s no prettier sight than a mess of orange-finned, yellow-flanked, green-sided perch flopping on the ice.

But perch aren’t easy.

They get elusive. They get finicky. And finding the right combination of equipment, rig, bait and presentation can be challenging. Fortunately, a few folks are so good at catching winter perch that they make part of their living helping others fill their buckets with yellowsides.

Meet the Pros

Jason Mitchell is a year-round fishing guide from Devils Lake, N.D. Mitchell also designs and markets fishing rods, and hosts outdoor television shows. But pursuing winter perch is a passion. He chases jumbos across sprawling Devils Lake, natural lakes across the northland and glacial lakes in the Dakotas.

Jared Nelson makes his living guiding fishermen year round. In Minnesota, that means you spend a lot of time atop hardwater. Nelson puts endless hours on his home water of Lake Mille Lacs, where yellow perch abound, but he also fishes other lakes.

These guides know perch and ice fishing. Their approaches to the challenges of catching perch all winter are worth listening to.

Finding Perch at Early Ice

The first step in catching perch through the ice is, of course, finding them.

“Where you find perch at early ice can vary from lake to lake,” Mitchell said. “Out on the prairie, on my home waters, the perch are working the shorelines and shallows at first and early ice. They like gravel bars, as well as weed beds that are still green.”

This is a good guideline for most shallow basin or dishpan lakes. In many cases, the fish will be in 4 to 8 feet of water.

“Every lake is different, though,” Mitchell added. For instance, he’s found Devils Lake is different than Minnesota’s Leech, Cass or Winnibigoshish. Perch are adaptable and will use different habitats. On smaller lakes across ice fishing country, look to the weed edges.

“Consider the predator base, too,” Mitchell said. “In some lakes, perch in the shallows would be running for their lives from pike [or bass] all the time. In these places, the perch aren’t going to stay shallow with the predators, even during early ice. You’ll have to go deeper.”

Nelson offers additional perspective. “During early ice, one of the best places to find perch is on shallow rock reefs,” he said. You might find fish as high as 5 feet or as far down as 10.

“They are there because of the forage, specifically minnows. But as the ice thickens and water temperatures drop, the baitfish move off the reefs. This is when the perch disperse, too, usually out to soft-bottomed, deep flats.”

Midseason Doldrums

Many anglers struggle as perch begin to move out to soft-bottom flats.

“On Mille Lacs, they call them mud flats, but you can find this type of water in most lakes,” Nelson said. “The perch are feeding on hatching bug larvae that are not available in the rocks or on hard bottoms. This is where the food is, so the perch follow.”

Mitchell agrees.

“Midseason is when perch travel out into the basin of a lake,” he echoed. “On prairie lakes, this is the deepest part of the lake; deep flats with a soft bottom. This is where insects hatch and perch hunt. In these situations, perch are usually hugging or close to the bottom.”

Mitchell said a glacial lake in the Dakotas might bottom out at 12 or 14 feet.

“They are really just dishpans, flat as a pancake across the basin, with a soft, mucky bottom, and perch roam these flats in small bands. “

Where deeper water is available, perch will use it. On a lake like Mille Lacs, that might be 28 to 32 feet.

“Wisconsin’s Mendota is another example,” Mitchell said. “There, the perch might suspend 20 to 50 feet down over 70 feet of water.”

Late Ice

As winter nears its close, ice starts to melt. Perch pack on the calories to feed their growing eggs and start to stage for spawning, which comes when the water reaches the mid-40s after ice-out. The feed is on, and this could be the best perch fishing of the season.

Mitchell loves late ice because the fish are often more predictable.

“Back bays and shallow bays are the ticket,” he said. “Look for bays with cattails, weeds, reeds or other vegetation.”

These features indicate spawning habitat that the perch are moving toward.

“To start, fish will congregate at the mouths of these bays,” he said. “Sometimes they still hold deep. Once ice starts melting and you get a trickle of runoff, perch will start moving into the bays themselves.”

After this trigger, the fish invade shallow and accessible water of 8, 6 or even 4 feet. The later spring gets and the longer the ice stays, the shallower you can fish. Nelson cautions against looking shallow too early, though.

“On many waters, the perch stay deep on the mud for a long time, feeding on the insect hatches.”

Often, those hatches start to accelerate because of slightly warming water.

“Later, right before the ice goes, is when the perch will migrate into the spawning bays, and it can happen fast.”

On late ice, being mobile and flexible are critical.

Equipment Recommendations

Both guides stress that the most important part of the equation is finding fish. However, the right gear can certainly help you put more of them on the ice. Mitchell uses his own rods, offered by Clam Ice Fishing.

“I like the 26-inch Perch Rod. It’s really good for the spoon rigs I use, because you can really snap it. I also like a Meat Stick. This is a soft-tipped and more-sensitive fiberglass rod. It’s best when the fish are finicky or less aggressive.”

Nelson recommends a medium-light action rod.

“I like mine on the long side, a 30-incher, because it has a little extra backbone,” he said.

That backbone can be important if you might hook a hefty walleye on occasion. Both pros agree that good quality is the only requirement they have for the reel. The line might be more important. Nelson focuses on using line to match water color.

“Spool up with clear line in clear lakes. In stained water, like Mille Lacs, green is the go-to line color,” he said.

On dark waters, such as brown-water river flowages that hold many perch, go with brown. Mitchell likes the odd line weights: 3-pound test for light presentations and 5-pound lines for aggressive tactics.

“Last year I used Northland Ice Line,” he said. “It’s monofilament but without a lot of spring or memory. It really does well in deep water.”

Electronics are extremely important. Mitchell likes Vexilar flashers with the bottom zoom feature.

“I used to use cameras a lot,” he said. “They can really educate you about fish behavior. One important thing I learned was that perch tend to roam. They just wander along, never really going fast but never really stopping. You have to drill a lot of holes and hop around or wait a long time to get fish.”

Nelson is more committed to his underwater camera for fishing.

“For me, an underwater camera is a must,” he said. “Perch can be finicky, and they like to gum the bait. They’ll come up and open their gills to lightly inhale your lure. Without an underwater camera, you probably won’t know you’re getting bites.”

“I’ll run two holes right next to each other to fish in,” Nelson said. “Then I’ll drill a third hole outside the shack for the camera and run my monitor inside.”

Nelson advises staying back with your camera positioning.

“In stained water, 4 to 5 feet is about right. On clear water, keep your camera even farther away from your baits — 10 feet if you can. It’s the spook factor. But also, you get a wider and better view of what’s going on when your camera is set back some.”

Rigs, Lures and Baits

The guides offer specific and similar recommendations regarding perch presentations. One of Mitchell’s favorite presentations is a small Northland Buckshot Rattle Spoon or Northland Forage Minnow Spoon with a dropper.

“The spoon gets you down to the fish fast each time, and its flash attracts perch and brings them over,” Mitchell said. “Then, the dropper gets them to bite.”

To make the rig, Mitchell takes off the spoon’s hook, attaches a 3- to 6-inch dropper of 4- or 6-pound monofilament, and ties on a small jig baited with a waxworm, spike or other larvae. Water depth will dictate the spoon size, but 1/8- to 1/4-ounce is about right. Step up to 3/8-ounce when you’re in really deep water. Nelson likes this rig, too. He chooses Swedish Pimple and Kastmaster spoons, with gold and silver as the go-to colors.

“The dropper’s length is always debatable,” he said. “Short can be good, but sometimes 10 inches to a foot is right. Eight inches seems a good compromise.”

Which small jig should you use at the end of your dropper?

“A Northland Hexi Fly Jig is one of my favorites,” Mitchell said. “It sits horizontally (the orientation of much perch forage), and you can see it well on your electronics.”

Nelson likes the Genz Worm for similar reasons. Jig color presents an interesting challenge.

“I always start out with white,” Nelson said. “It most resembles what the perch are eating. You can move to different colors from there.”

Yet, Mitchell doesn’t worry about color. He believes the fish will hit if you find them. Good live baits include waxworms, spikes, small plastics and minnow heads.

“I have the best luck with simple old waxworms,” Nelson said.

“Minnow heads make good bait,”  Mitchell added, “especially on waters where the perch are keying on invertebrates. It’s a smaller package, like what they’re feeding on and more of a finesse presentation than a whole minnow.”

But both guides believe there are times and places for a lively minnow.

“Fatheads are good,” Nelson said. “Since you can only effectively jig one rod at a time, I will bait a second rod with a fathead on a plain hook and dangle it as I jig the main rod.”

“Yes!” Mitchell added. “Sometimes whole live minnows are the ticket. “For instance, on some lakes, shiners are the primary forage, so a minnow is going to catch perch. Minnows can also be great as winter wanes. The fish feed heavily, and it’s hard to resist the full meal deal.”

Also, rocky, gravelly, sandy or hard-bottom lakes with less mud (hence fewer invertebrates) are minnow water.

A Steady Hand

The action you impart to your bait makes a big difference, especially when fishing with a spoon and dropper.

“I like to leave the dropper line in the mud,” Nelson said. “I drop the spoon down to the bottom and stir things up. The flash and commotion attract the perch. Then, I lift slowly.

“The perch will come and pick the bait of right out of the mud, just as you lift it off. They are very competitive and will come over and check it out and then hit.”

Mitchell agrees that it takes a little commotion to get the action going.

“If you’re not marking fish, jig aggressively to attract them,” he said. “You need to get their attention to pull them over. This motion is a quick jerk up with a flutter down; a fairly large sweep.

“Once the fish come, you will need to tone it down to get them to hit. They don’t like it dead still, though. Just use little hops. If you dead-stick the bait, it will twirl and they don’t like that. Let the twist work itself out, and then they might pop it.”

Conclusion

From November’s panes of clear sheet ice to March’s honeycombs, ice anglers everywhere love yellow perch. If you want to catch more striped-sided jumbos all season, put Mitchell’s and Nelson’s advice to work.