Understanding Perch Diets

Said forage-types typically but not always reside in deeper climes in soft to semi-soft bottoms, where they bury to hide and rise to feed. This existence and behavior causes perch to “carpet feed,” literally tilt their tail vertically and inhale. Nose in the dirt, they burrow like hogs on truffles ferreting out meals for the master. A heavily mined area resembles a well-used but unraked sandtrap.

Bottom-feeders are worthy of your attention. The trick to catching critter-fed perch on the bottom of the pond is feeding them an appetizer-sized morsel delivered with manly metal. These are nit-picky perch that like to peck.

Brosdahl’s not fond of sissy stuff, preferring the standard dropper-rig. Often written about and employed for decades, the dropper is still as good as gold. And if you haven’t rigged one before, it’s never too late to become a better angler. His staple package consists of a 1/4-ounce spoon, 6-inch dropper, small jig, and something that wriggles and pulses when pierced. He removes the treble hook from the spoon but leaves the split-ring (if one exists). The 6-inch dropper line connects the open split-ring to the jig, typically a #12 Lindy Fat Boy. On go a couple of waxies or maggots and you’ve got it, the slickest perch-catching concoction since dynamite.

Jig, jig, jig, and hold. Let the meaty part lie in the mud, lifting a little here and there. Slam the spoon into the bottom, too—makes quite the hullabaloo. Sometimes, they vacuum it right up. And a well-charged flasher with a non-internally shattered transducer shows both the dropper spoon and jig. That’s important if perch are yo-yoing between the two.

As a last resort, he ties a super-finesse dropper rig. It consists of the same 6-inch dropper, anchored by a horizontal jig such as a Genz Worm. (The segmented body is ideal for tying onto.) Remove the bottom treble from a W2 Jigging Rap, tie in the dropper, and you have another interesting rendition. The final act is attaching a fiber-optic thin trout hook—#12 or #14 with a tiny minnow, #14 to #18 with a single thread waxworm, or #18 to #22 with a lonely nose-hooked maggot.

If that doesn’t work, call it a day. Even Bro has a tolerance threshold.

*Noel Vick is a freelance writer and Director of Business Development for Industrio Marketing, an agency specializing in outdoor recreation.