Mille Lacs – Perchin the east side

Chased jumbos last Wednesday and Saturday out of Appeldorns. Had anticipated fishing the bottom of the breaklines where rock turned into sand but Paul told me to try deeper sand around 28ft. Looked at the contour map and picked some likely areas. Our strategy was to drill about 20 holes in a spiral fashion in the area and hole hop or should I say ice troll. Gave each hole about 10 minutes. No size move to the next hole (perch were everywhere out there). If hole kicked out a decent fish we stayed on it until it didn’t and then would come back to it in 20 minutes or so. If no jumbos after 30 minutes on to the next area. This pattern produced a nice batch of jumbos for us each day as well as a plethora of six inchers.

Best lure was a red 1/16 Lindy Rattle Flyer tipped with eurolarvae with a green/white Buckshot rattle spoon next in line. The perch would not hit minnows or minnow heads on either day. Bites were fairly light. A St Croix Legend ML spring bobber and Thornes perch sweetheart rods were the ticket for these light biters.

Good to hear you’re getting into those SUMOS.
Like that Perch Sweet heart?

The name says it all – a definite sweetheart of a rod. Makes a dynamite crappie rod as well. The St Croix Legend is a good rod especially if the bite is super light but the Sweetheart is my go to now. Just like the overall action. Wish the oversized eyes were on the 28″ model. I prefer that length for both inside and outside rods.

Awesome report Mark! Glad to see you’re out there making it happen with those perch.

Any bite windows you were seeing with those fish? Two years ago I was on a great early ice perch bite on the east side out there, but not much was going on until the witching-hours of near sunset. Then it was lights out, where the fish met your bait halfway up the water column as you sent it down.

Joel

Bite was steady all day. The perch did get a little more aggressive towards sunset and were smacking the jigs harder. Never really had a dead time in either trip. Likely to be back on ML this weekend. The north side mud flats and sand need some exploring.
Does anyone make a plastic that resembles mayfly larva?? The perch were constantly spitting them up. My bibs are covered in half digested larva goo. Gulp Alive in a mayfly larva shape would be very nice. Just saying.

Try something along the line of Bro’s scud bug or there abouts, picked up some last year and can’t remember the exact name, but they were in a yellow package. I also have done well with the red larve.

Tried the Bros scuds and bloodworms – apparently not on the menu of the jumbos so far. Ordered some Maki plastics that might work. I have also used fly fishing flies on a drop shot with a little scent on them and that worked. I don’t recommend trying to double rig them – the dinks will drive you crazy.

Mark:

That’s pretty interesting, whenever I’ve gotten into them well out there, the hole is lined with those larvae. I’d recommend CJ&S Shrimpos in natural colors. Otherwise, a heavier jighead with the hard-to-find Berkley Power Nymphs have worked well on URL when the walleyes are on a mayfly bite. Not so sure how well they mimic a mayfly, but they worked well.

Joel

Glad to hear you are catching some nice perch. I bet they are great tab le fair as well.

My thought was Shrimpo too but nope. The perch want a vertical presentation which is why I think the trout flies on a drop shot worked. A Ratso did OK last year and the new colors like motor oil might prove the ticket – just haven’t tried it yet since the Rattle Flyer was doing the trick.. Found some mayfly larva plastics at Creme lures that will get tested this winter too. I’ll tinker with it till I get it right. Of course then I’ll move on to something else. If you aren’t out on the edge you aren’t really fishing.