Jumbo Perch Pattern

After learning a new ice-fishing technique from the locals, it always feels like I must return to the same water to enjoy the same success.

- Chris Rehlinger

Then I think about the variables that produced the good results, take the time to study and compare similar lakes that might offer the same possibilities, and realize that just maybe the same pattern can be applied elsewhere. I try it on a different lake, it clicks, and I know I am onto something. I would like to share such a method with you, one I have now used to catch jumbo perch on two lakes in two different states. I am not talking about 9-inch fish but rather solid jumbos that average over a pound apiece, fish that astound when they come up through the ice.

I learned the method on Lake Gogebic in Michigan, where in back-to-back years we caught perch that averaged 1 pound 13 ounces, spot checked with an accurate digital scale.

Three years later, when my neighbor heard of a similar jumbo perch bite in Wisconsin on Castle Rock Flowage, he, I and another friend who had been on Lake Gogebic with us went to the flowage and caught perch that averaged 1 pound 6 ounces. We were 235 miles from Lake Gogebic, yet the same basic methods worked just as well.

The tactic is relatively easy to master but must be specifically followed, beginning with locating the right lake bottom composition at the desired depth.

This is big-water perch fishing. Lake Gogebic is 13,380 acres and Castle Rock Flowage is 12,981 acres. Castle Rock differs from Lake Gogebic because of a deep draw down that occurs in late winter. But even after the draw down, large mud flats at the desired depth may be found in the original lake bed from before the flowage was impounded.

Both lakes support healthy populations of native walleye and northern pike. Perch are the preferred forage for these bigger fish, and that predation helps to keep perch numbers in check, preventing stunting and allowing perch to reach substantial size. In general, large lakes with abundant predator fish seem to hold the best perch.