The combination of a tiny jig suspended slightly below a flash lure with the hook removed from the lure gets perch biting when many other things won’t. I’ve called this the “greatest perch combo of all time,” and I still believe it. Many of you will too if you’ll give this a try. Thousands and thousands already have since I began talking about this rigging almost 20 years ago.

The advantages of dropper rigging are many, with perhaps the primary emphasis, in this regard, being the ability of the rig to fish shallow or deep quickly and yet attract and trigger reluctant fish, fish put down by the weather, or fish that have been worked over by anglers using more standard methods.

The rig tends to work better deeper than shallower, however. Yet, I’ve made big catches with the combo on shallow sandflats in gin-clear lakes and reservoirs just after ice-up, the flats being not more than 4 to 8 feet deep. Those are hot fish, though—perch up shallow with a determination to feed.

The sandflat pattern, by the way, is a sturdy one, overlooked by most anglers. Usually takes a fair amount of time to get on groups of fish, but once you do, you make up for search time.

The fastest way to search shallow flats these days is with an underwater camera like the Nature Vision Aqua Vu. One man drills and drops; that is, drills about 10 holes in rapid succession in a calculated way, then drops the auger, backtracks to get the camera, and moves with the camera from hole to hole, looking for perch. Plup, down goes the camera for a quick look. No perch here. No perch there. A fish or two here. Lots of fish there. Meanwhile, the other angler follows dutifully along, quickly dropping down into any hole that has perch. The routine also works without a buddy, just takes longer to execute.

Perch on shallow flats, by the way, usually are focused on feeding right on or just above the bottom. Drop the search lure, lift it slightly, so the jig’s just on the bottom. Then tickle the rod tip (shake it) to get the jig to dance on the bottom. That often does it.

Most of you know that perch spend considerable time in deeper water during winter. One more shallow pattern’s worth noting, though, that being that some perch often relate to the remaining weedgrowth in shallower bays. They’re there to feed on young-of-the-year panfish, usually bluegills and crappies, but they eat tiny perch, too. The lush weedgrowth that hides these tiny panfish all summer has thinned enough by winter to allow perch to forage easily on shallow weedflats. Most of this fishing is in water from about 6 to 15 feet deep.

In shallower water, the flash lure part of the combo may sometimes be too much to get perch to go. Then just drop down a plain jig dressed with four or five maggots packed tightly on the hook. (A jig packed with maggots looks sort of just enough like almost everything a perch might like to bite, from a tiny minnow or larval fish, to an insect nymph, or even a large zooplankton like the Daphnia.) That’s also how the maggots should be placed on the jig when it’s hanging below the flash lure.

The classic flash lure has always been the 1/10-ounce Acme Kastmaster. Works well even in 60 feet of water, so long as you’re using 4-pound line.

It’s absolutely vital that the jig hang on 4-pound line just about exactly 11⁄2 to not more than 21⁄4 inches below the flash lure. If it hangs down farther, the rig tends to tangle when jigged. Some anglers get to really thinking, get to really playing the Cool Hand Luke part of the equation, surmising they’ll catch more fish if they get the jig farther below the flash lure. Been there, done that, been fishing this rigging for 32 years, on the nose. Works best close to the flash lure. But then, all this was worked out long before I got to thinking about it and learned about the combo from other top anglers in the Great Lakes region of Iowa.

The original search lure or dropper rigging is of European design, which has been introduced and become popular off and on in North America a time or two over the last several decades. The Pilkie, originally introduced by Rapala, was the first Euro dropper design I used. Superb lures. One Pilkie model had a single long-shank hook below the flash body. Another design had a dropper made of light chain, with a small single hook, usually a #8, at the end of the chain.

A dropper chain (gold or silver) at first looks odd and one might presume would turn fish off. In fact, it just as likely does the opposite. Again, the angler adds maggots (or some other larvae) to the hook, and the flashing body of the lure attracts perch, which are then triggered upon moving closer by the maggots on the hook hanging on the chain below. A small portion of crawdad tail often works, too, if you can find such bait. Again, the length of chain’s critical. Not too long. Total length from hook shank to the bottom of the flash lure is rarely more than two inches.

Several years ago, Nils Master introduced a bait, the Hali, into the North American marketplace. The flash body on the Hali is narrower than on the old Pilkie design, but functions the same. Works superbly. I fished the Hali many times on good perch water in recent years and never failed to catch fish. Often I do considerably better than everyone else fishing a variety of standard baits. The Hali and lures like it, though, like all other lures, are just another fine option to add to your arsenal, not the only lure you need. The point is that our search lure or dropper design is a design modification of a standard European thingamajig that’s been catching perch for more than 50 years.

The best leadhead jigs have no dressing, that is, no plastic or hair; they weigh 1/64 or 1/32 ounce, with 1/64 ounce being the best choice in most instances. I do well with jigheads that aren’t painted, but its logical to try standard perch-attracting colors like chartreuse, pink, or fluorescent red. One of the best tiny jigs on tackle shelves is the Custom Jigs and Spins’ Rat Finke, which comes with a hook covered with a colored plastic body. Use a knife to remove the plastic body from the hook so you can get more maggots to slide on the hook.

It’s important that the jig hook be long enough to pack on four or five maggots. Some jigs have such a large head, compared to the hook, they have room for only a maggot or two. Part of the key is to keep packing on maggots, or in other words, to keep adding fresh maggots. Pack on five, catch a fish, pull off one or two, pack on two more. Once perch move close, the scent and taste from the fresh maggots apparently seals the deal. Keep packing. When in doubt after not catching a perch for 10 minutes—even though the maggots look fine—add fresh maggots. Think about sending a powerful chemical aura into the water surrounding the lure.

A lively minnow also works with dropper rigging, not just for perch, but for crappies and big bluegills. A 1/32-ounce jig works best with a minnow. Hold the minnow in your hand with the head away from you. Slip the hook point barely under the skin parallel to the dorsal fin, so the shank-end of the hook point ends up toward the head of the minnow, with the jighead away from the body of the minnow. Lift the combo slowly about 8 inches and let it fall, then hold and let the minnow move in place, swimming forward against the weight of the head of the jig and the flash of the body.

I like small shiners, but other minnows might be better where you fish. If you can get young-of-the-year bluegills or crappies, they can be unbelievably productive—something perch bite with total abandon. Late in fall, these baits often can be netted from small ponds.

In-Fisherman Editor Jeff Simpson, who is the primary editor on this Ice Guide, is an expert at adding droppers to swimming lures. His favorite combo consists of a Salmo Chubby Darter with the treble hooks removed in favor of a single 2-inch dropper line with a #8 single hook or a #8 treble hanging below. He connects the dropper to the lure, using a loop knot to keep the dropper line swinging loose below the lure. Again, maggots are the typical addition to the dropper. The big body of the Chubby Darter throws out lots of flash and vibration to attract perch. Once close, perch see the dropper rigging, and often as not, respond by taking the bait.

One of Simpson’s favorite combos is a perch-colored Chubby with a bright orange body. He first lifts it gently a foot and lets it fall to attract attention, then holds as perch move in to rub shoulders with what they apparently assume to be one of their buddies. Simpson’s convinced that once perch get close enough, they see the dropper and think it’s a tidbit dropped by the phantom perch.

This combo also can be worked aggressively to attract fish from a long distance. Simpson lifts sharply two or three times, then holds and watches his sonar to see when perch move in. When fishing’s difficult, it can be an amazing fish caller and getter in most conditions, whether the fishing’s easy or difficult.

Dropper rigging works with other swimming lures. Clip off the nose and tail hooks on a #3 or #5 Jigging Rapala and add a dropper consisting of just over an inch of line tipped with a #10 treble hook. Remove the nose and tail hooks to keep the combo from fouling when it’s jigged.

Dropper rigging incorporates the superior attracting qualities of a flash lure or swimming lure with the tremendous triggering qualities of a small jig packed with maggots or some other bait. It works, it works, it just plain works, from the Great Lakes to tiny prairie lakes and reservoirs, in clear or dingy water. Fishes better deeper than shallower, but it’s always worth a try. You’ll often find it’s the best possible presentation option for perch, for, as I’ve said before, it’s the best perch combo of all time.