Zippy answers some of your popular perch questions below!
Found and owner of the Perch Patrol Guide Service, Zippy Dahl, answers some popular questions regarding jumbo perch and Devils Lake in the Q&A below.
Where to start when looking for perch around Devils Lake?
“The old saying “There is no replacement for time spent on the water” comes to mind when I think about how to answer this question. The perch on Devils Lake have traditionally been a basin fish. Meaning they tend to spend most of their time in deep water. Study a contour map and find where the last contour line is and begin your search there. This can be a daunting task as it takes work and lots of it! Some days it takes a lot of hole drilling, moving, fishing a hole for 10-12 minutes and move on until you start marking them. I know this isn’t always fun but trust me…The reward will be worth it! Any time a fresh school is found often times there are 3 or 4 feet of fish. These perch will be aggressive and compete for your bait. As more people show up, and fishing pressure increases the perch will employ their only defense mechanism that they have and they will scatter. Now instead of seeing 3 or 4 feet of them on your Vexilar, you will mark singles and doubles and now they are very difficult to catch. “
What rod/reel/line people do you recommend people buy?
“My favorite ice fishing rod is the Steve Zippy Dahl professional series that I helped design that is sold by Clam Outdoors. Sadly, they discontinued the entire professional series rods this year. There are a lot of good rods on the market. For our perch on Devils Lake, we like a rod with a soft and quick tip to see the light bites, but 4 inches from the rod tip we also like our rods to have a strong backbone so when we set the hook it drives the hook into the mouth to seal the deal. For reels, I like the smoothness and lightweight of a Pflueger trion or president series.”
What type of lures do you recommend for jumbo perch?
Continue reading here… PerchPatrol.com.
