Perch Caller

[Mark]

😂🤣😂

A cheap can of tuna fish or cat food packed in oil with a few holes in and it tied to a stout line, bouncing off the bottom works too.

[branhamautomotive]

I've seen ppl use white rice tossed over, ground up shells, my papa used to just a minnows in a jar with lid tied over the side.

[West Basin]

Guess it's time already for my 'annual' post about perch fishing and what the perch can "see" down there.

When you anchor and perch fish, you stay in the same spot. Every time your rig weight hits the bottom it stirs up the mud and silt (even in the sandy areas). After 10-15 minutes it's zero visibility down there. How do I know? Because I scuba dove once while perch fishing with some folks. There was a little current on the bottom. I swan around the boat, making sure I didn't get too close and get hung up in a perch rig. On the down current side the visibility was poor (about 18"). The farther I swam into the current, into the "cloud", closer to the boat, the less the visibility until it got to nearly zero (1 inch or less). When I went around to the other side, the up current side of the boat, the visibility was 2-3 feet, the normal for that day without and bottom disturbance. When I swam back towards the boat it didn't take long to see the "cloud" of stirred up bottom again and visibility went back to nearly zero. So the idea that "I also heard of dropping a large 1 gallon glass mason jar filled with water and a few shinners the perch see the shiners but cant get them it drives them crazy then when you drop your line down they hit it with a furry" works is probably not so here in Lake Erie the way we perch fish. The perch can't see the jar or the mimmows in it.

Bottom conditions are not always the same. There are probably times when the water is real clear with a decent to good bottom current and the visibility at your rig could be clear enough for perch to see your bait from a foot or two away. But this is most likley pretty rare. Most of the time they probably can't see the bait until they are right on top of it.

Amother thing that happens is as the boat swings on the anchor line, the boat will come out of the "cloud" into clearer water. Then as the boat swings back the other way you get back into the "cloud".

A "perch caller" pounding on the bottom, up and down, is going to create one huge plume of sediment. Probaly zero visibility.

My educated guess is most of the time the perch find the minnow or bait by using senses other than sight. Smell and vibration (lateral line). That may be why "bling" and other noise / vibration methods could bring them close to the bait.

It could also be the perch school is "curious" about the cloud and goes into it to look for food. Bottom disturbances create feeding opportunities as well as protection from predators.

Keep all this in mind when you talk perch fishing.

When I get some underwater cameras out while perch fishing I hope to discover a few things about what the perch are actually doing.

[West Basin]

Guess it's time already for my 'annual' post about perch fishing and what the perch can "see" down there.

When you anchor and perch fish, you stay in the same spot. Every time your rig weight hits the bottom it stirs up the mud and silt (even in the sandy areas). After 10-15 minutes it's zero visibility down there. How do I know? Because I scuba dove once while perch fishing with some folks. There was a little current on the bottom. I swan around the boat, making sure I didn't get too close and get hung up in a perch rig. On the down current side the visibility was poor (about 18"). The farther I swam into the current, into the "cloud", closer to the boat, the less the visibility until it got to nearly zero (1 inch or less). When I went around to the other side, the up current side of the boat, the visibility was 2-3 feet, the normal for that day without and bottom disturbance. When I swam back towards the boat it didn't take long to see the "cloud" of stirred up bottom again and visibility went back to nearly zero. So the idea that "I also heard of dropping a large 1 gallon glass mason jar filled with water and a few shinners the perch see the shiners but cant get them it drives them crazy then when you drop your line down they hit it with a furry" works is probably not so here in Lake Erie the way we perch fish. The perch can't see the jar or the mimmows in it.

Bottom conditions are not always the same. There are probably times when the water is real clear with a decent to good bottom current and the visibility at your rig could be clear enough for perch to see your bait from a foot or two away. But this is most likley pretty rare. Most of the time they probably can't see the bait until they are right on top of it.

Amother thing that happens is as the boat swings on the anchor line, the boat will come out of the "cloud" into clearer water. Then as the boat swings back the other way you get back into the "cloud".

A "perch caller" pounding on the bottom, up and down, is going to create one huge plume of sediment. Probaly zero visibility.

My educated guess is most of the time the perch find the minnow or bait by using senses other than sight. Smell and vibration (lateral line). That may be why "bling" and other noise / vibration methods could bring them close to the bait.

It could also be the perch school is "curious" about the cloud and goes into it to look for food. Bottom disturbances create feeding opportunities as well as protection from predators.

Keep all this in mind when you talk perch fishing.

When I get some underwater cameras out while perch fishing I hope to discover a few things about what the perch are actually doing.

[itsbob]

Thanks again West Basin for that informative post on perch fishing.We rarely perch fish,but seams most of the posts on the recent perch fishing has been good size fish in 9-10" size and few smaller perch.I remember about 5yrs ago,the same thing was happening with few small perch.The following year,the perch fishing very poor.The consensus was lack of newer year class perch to catch.Hopefully will not happen again next season.

[MBLMIKE]

Guess it's time already for my 'annual' post about perch fishing and what the perch can "see" down there.

When you anchor and perch fish, you stay in the same spot. Every time your rig weight hits the bottom it stirs up the mud and silt (even in the sandy areas). After 10-15 minutes it's zero visibility down there. How do I know? Because I scuba dove once while perch fishing with some folks. There was a little current on the bottom. I swan around the boat, making sure I didn't get too close and get hung up in a perch rig. On the down current side the visibility was poor (about 18"). The farther I swam into the current, into the "cloud", closer to the boat, the less the visibility until it got to nearly zero (1 inch or less). When I went around to the other side, the up current side of the boat, the visibility was 2-3 feet, the normal for that day without and bottom disturbance. When I swam back towards the boat it didn't take long to see the "cloud" of stirred up bottom again and visibility went back to nearly zero. So the idea that "I also heard of dropping a large 1 gallon glass mason jar filled with water and a few shinners the perch see the shiners but cant get them it drives them crazy then when you drop your line down they hit it with a furry" works is probably not so here in Lake Erie the way we perch fish. The perch can't see the jar or the mimmows in it.

Bottom conditions are not always the same. There are probably times when the water is real clear with a decent to good bottom current and the visibility at your rig could be clear enough for perch to see your bait from a foot or two away. But this is most likley pretty rare. Most of the time they probably can't see the bait until they are right on top of it.

Amother thing that happens is as the boat swings on the anchor line, the boat will come out of the "cloud" into clearer water. Then as the boat swings back the other way you get back into the "cloud".

A "perch caller" pounding on the bottom, up and down, is going to create one huge plume of sediment. Probaly zero visibility.

My educated guess is most of the time the perch find the minnow or bait by using senses other than sight. Smell and vibration (lateral line). That may be why "bling" and other noise / vibration methods could bring them close to the bait.

It could also be the perch school is "curious" about the cloud and goes into it to look for food. Bottom disturbances create feeding opportunities as well as protection from predators.

Keep all this in mind when you talk perch fishing.

When I get some underwater cameras out while perch fishing I hope to discover a few things about what the perch are actually doing.

Thanks also for some logic to regain my sanity so I dont go out and buy that "Ronco fish caller with the money back guarantee I found on Amazon last night" the curiosity point you raised seems right on , after watching several go pro videos of fish in lake erie it appears that they are attracted to unusual things in the water that do not look or act like predators as well as possibly sounds dust clouds etc .

[rickerd]

So then we should not use anchor and drift? I don't have spot lock.
Also, don't touch bottom with sinkers right? Keep it clean and let them find your bait.
Guys seem to be cutting minnows into 1 inch pieces too. Do I keep one alive and one piece for easy eating, or just use the cut pieces?

When the Central Basin had perch, we would always bang bottom with sinkers to bring them over. It usually worked if they were near.

Thanks for the info. We only had 1 good day out of 5 last year for perch. It was a 5-7mph wind out of south. I had drift socks out and we were drifting slow like .2--.3 mph.
Rickerd

[PatSea]

At times over the years of perch fishing when the bite gets tough I have put a few live minnows and some cut up pieces in a minnow bucket and loaded it with a rock and sunk it to the bottom. Sometimes hanging a foot or so off the bottom, other times letting it bounce off the bottom. It seemed to be hit or miss as to effect. Sometimes I think it helps to draw them in, other times not so much.

[Lou]

As I understand it fish don't have our color acuity, but have a much, much better view in murky water than we do. That's not to say that they can necessarily see when we are clouding up the water, I don't know. I only know that our inability to see doesn't directly relate to a fish's ability. I wouldn't be surprised about noise or murky water attracting him, it seems to with other fish.

[West Basin]

No reason to not anchor. It's worked for 70+ years. You can try some things like not letting your rig weight hid the bottom so much or not at all. Remember also that perch school, so a large school creates compitition for your bait. If there are a lot of perch around you boat they will find your bait, good vis or poor. Smaller school means less compitition and less fish to find your bait. So many factors. The biggest remains first finding them then having the talent / ability to hook them. Get those two down well and the rest is probably 20% of the equation.