Perch Caller

[badboards]

Someone told me last year on this site about letting your motor run to get the perch to start biting. So I decided to take this seriously this year. I read a article about perch fishing and they talk about perch callers. I'm gonna make one of these and try it out this year. It will be sort of a wind chime for the water by tying some pipe to a rope and sending it down. Has anyone ever given this a try and does it work.

[Davf]

I fish the headboats out of Port Clinton over the years and the captains on those boats always leave the motor running when they're purch fishing. They swear it attacks the fish.

[buckeyezip]

I've seen guys leaving their engines running once they set anchor. It's another way of "chumming". Think of it as a way of saying "we're here, come get some tasty shiners"

[5285]

I don't know if the motor running actually attracts perch, it certainly doesn't adversely effect them. What it does do is keep the walleye from swimming through and shutting down the bite.

[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.

[itsbob]

Ditto on perch head boats.Have seen captains running engine for a while after we anchor.Wind/water chimes not.

[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.

[pimplepounder]

Way back in the 1980's I fished a few times with Captain Lee Wenger "The Saucey Tomato" Out of Sandusky Bay. He kept a bleach bottle on board that was covered with 3/8 holes I'd say they were, and it was weighted. He called it his chum bottle. Lee would stop at the fish cleaners and fill his gallon bottle with fish goop then he tied a rope to it and let it out just off the bottom. He would give it a shake now than then. We always did well on the perch. Lee was older back then so I am not sure what is up with him now. Very nice man. I am convinced his method works.

[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.

[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 .