Ice Fishing bait for Perch

My son in law lives in Montana and was ice fishing for perch over the weekend. They absolutely slayed the perch. I asked what they were using for bait and he told me that he recently was talking to some old timers and they showed him how to use fish eyes for bait. Yep, eyes from the perch they were catching. They showed him a little tool that they had made to pop the eyes right out and put 1 on a small hook, drop it just off the bottom and Bam, their catch rate improved like crazy. Plus, their bait hardly got stolen. They were catching at least 5 or 6 fish on just using 1 eye. Just curious, either ice fishing or just summer time fishing, if anyone has ever tried this technique on Lake Erie?

Yes years ago my dad showed me perch eyes worked.Its kind of messy if you dont remove eyes correctly and it stays on the hook for a long time caught lots of perch that way.Also used cut bait bellys from fish cut about 2 inches long by half inch wide.It stays on hook long time doesn't get mushy.Also try dropping a can of cat food down on a small rope or string use can opener and put some holes in can drop to bottom of lake and some food comes out and attracts fish.Yep now that I am a old time may as well pass it down.Good luck.

Yep, I make my own eye removers at home. Piece of wooden dowel and a larger sized paper clip. Electrical taped tightly on the side with the end sticking off the end of the dowel. Can add a string to the other end to hang around your neck if you wish. Basically free, they work well and if anyone ever runs short on bait you have a good backup plan.

we used to do this alot on erie when we ran out of minnows back when there was a lot better perch bite you can just use your hook as the eye remover havnt tried in awhile sure it would still work

Very Cool. Love hearing about different techniques and lessons learned from the more experienced and wiser ones. Thanks and tight lines to all. Can't wait to get back out on the lake in a couple months.