Avoiding white perch when fishing for suspended bass
This time of year I mark so many fish out suspended on my home lake. Any advice to tell if they are white perch or bass? And how to avoid catching these perch when fishing for bass? I’ve been throwing an a rig, finesse swimbaits, spoons, and dt series crankbaits and can’t help but catch those pesky critters when trying for bass. Any tips to avoid them? Thanks!
I used to catch a lot of white perch also on crankbaits and ned rigs when trying to fish schools of offshore fish. Often, I found spotted and largrmouth bass nearby, or under the perch.
To help get the perch off my line, I
A) stopped throwing crankbaits
B) stuck with the ned rigs but made sure I kept them on the bottom. The perch used to almost always hit it when it was off the bottom.
This does not always work, but it definitely helped. I have never found suspended bass at the same depth as white perch. The seem to always be below, or on the bottom.
Thats been my experience. And if you think about it, if you're a perch, why hang with bass that look at you as breakfast?
I'm usually throwing baits bigger than white perch will eat. What size white perch are you catching? Around here, we have a lot of 1/4 to 1/2 lb. perch with an occasional catch over 1lb. I throw a lot of 4-5" swimbaits in big schools of white perch and they mostly leave it alone or only bite the tail. Honestly, I rarely catch them unless I'm trying to (which I do sometimes, because they are delicious). In the past, I have not downsized in the fall, but some of our instructors have suggested it. I may run into the white perch issue then. I guess, I'll just fry 'em up if I start catching them.
