ive caught some large smallies on live perch and perch swimbaits

I've never seen a Smallie here chuck up a perch while it was hooked, but I do have a lot of success on perch colored lures. In particular a perch colored Husky Jerk or Shadow Rap will always produce for me. 

Then again, whites and silvers work really well too. It makes me think that whether I'm imitating a perch, shad, shiner, minnow, crawfish or hellagramite... the fish are opportunists. If they can eat it and want to eat, they will probably try.

Thanks for the input guys.

On 3/7/2018 at 3:05 PM, A-Jay said:

I know the feeling - I broke down and geared up with a fly rod.  

Super fun and something I look forward to every summer.

When the bite is on - it's totally ridiculous.

#suicidalbass

A-Jay

 

 

I don't use a fly rod.  ?

8 minutes ago, Wildbillb said:

I don't use a fly rod.  ?

That's Wild Bill.

A-Jay

On 3/7/2018 at 9:38 PM, Adam.love05 said:

Very true! Usually I'll get the ones that half ass it and just nip it.. but sometimes those suckers hammer and inhale it, which gets the heart pumping until you feel you line go slack.. 

It seems like I lose lures to pike almost every time I fish and it sometimes keeps me from using presentations I'd like.  

 

But there is nothing like the way a pike can do a high-speed broadside slam on a topwater or buzz bait!  Or nothing that will snap you out of a crank-and-wind-induced daze like having a big pike explode on your bait just as you're lifting it out of the water to cast.  I've had the latter happen so violently I actually yelled in surprise.  (Don't ask if I screamed like a girl.  There were no witnesses, so my story is that I let out a manly cuss.)

 

Water wolf, indeed.

 

Tight lines,

Bob

Most of the waters that I fish for smallmouth here in PA have pretty healthy perch populations and pretty much everything loves them.  In relatively clear water, it's one of my favorites to mimic.   DT4s - DT10s, Shad Rap, Husky Jerks, and X-Raps in perch have been go-to hard baits for me in PA for quite some time.  More recently, I've even started tying articulated perch streamers.  Here's a toothy critter that was all about a DT6 in perch this past fall.

 

Here's what's been dubbed the "Disco Gypsy":

 

 

 

 

And Mayfly hatches on the Susquehanna's North Branch have been so dense that they shut down traffic.  If you time them well, you can catch literally anything by throwing a size 12-18 white fly (depending on the hatch).  Generally, I like throwing a popper (often perch colored) if I'm targeting larger fish, but for numbers of EVERYTHING, it's tough to beat throwing a white mayfly pattern at anything that rises. 

 

When I go to the St Lawrence I rig up two dropshot rods, one with a long leader and a perch-imitation bait, one with a short leader and a goby bait. On some spots they munch the perch better, others the goby. I think that at least up there the diet largely consists of both perch and gobies.

 

Weirdly enough though I too have had less success with perch colored hard baits than whites and other colors. I don't know why that is other than maybe the fact that they're just so aggressive that they don't pay much attention to such baits, other than when it's real cold.

 

Who knows!