Yellow Perch are a fish that likes to travel is large schools. Unlike many other fish a school of perch can have fish of many different sizes, they do not school by size. When fishing for perch you need to realize that ninety five percent of the fish will be in less than five percent of the available water.



They prefer a temperature of sixty six to seventy two degrees Fahrenheit. Yellow Perch also like water that is somewhat deep, but their definition of deep may differ than ours.

In a lake with an average depth of six to eight feet you will surely find the large perch in a deep fifteen foot hole somewhere in the lake. If however you are fishing a huge lake with depths over one hundred feet you will find them most likely in water no deeper than thirty feet.

Yellow Perch like structure to work from. Their favorite natural food is the crayfish. This means they like to inhabit areas near the rocks crayfish like to hide in.

In many ways the perch is much like the Walleye. They are part of the same family and have many of the same proclivities. Unfortunately for the perch they are the main forage species for Walleye as well.

There are many way for the angler to catch a large quantity of nice perch. When fishing for Yellow Perch the goal should be to look for jumbo sized perch. Small perch are really a dime a dozen and not worth the efforts of a true sportsman.

For starters you need to keep your equipment as light as possible. I like to use a light action rod of about 6 foot length. Use a high quality rod that will allow you to feel bites.

Remember always that a Yellow Perch can be a very wary species of fish that picks up bait very lightly. If you do not have a rod with the sensitivity to feel these light taps you will miss many fish you might otherwise have caught.

The reel is perhaps the least important aspect of perch fishing. Any functioning spinning reel will do. You will never need a drag and certainly does not need a great deal of reel power to bring even the largest jumbo perch to the boat.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to keep your fishing line thin. I recommend using fluorocarbon line to take full advantage of its invisibility value.

For a project some day you should cut even sized strips of your favorite monofilament and fluorocarbon lines and inspect them in water, somewhat murky water like you encounter fishing.

You will be surprised at the true difference between the two in terms of visibility. I would select a line of either two or four pound test. Anything more is overkill that will hurt your chances of hooking a fish while giving you absolutely no added value.