The local lake I've been fishing is loaded with pickerel, and I keep losing baits. I've switched to fishing mostly soft plastics, and while its helped, I feel I'm missing opportunities for quality fish by limiting lure selection. Its a very clear body of water and color selection really seems to matter. 

The main forage is perch, what are some of your favorite perch style/colored baits?

Quite a few of the Rapalas come in Perch - Original Floating, Shad Rap, DT, Jointed Shallow Shad Rap just to name a few. Range of actions/techniques.

 

Some might look at other manufacturers, but I've been a Rapala guy since the 70s.

3 1/2" green pumpkin boot-tail grub

Rapalas came to my mind too, before I even opened the thread. 

 

If they're feeding on perch many lures will do. 

 

Try a swim jig with a menace trailer. Or a curly tail grub etc. 

Huddleston 68 Special weedless in Perch patten . It'll definitely improve the quality of fish.

8 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Huddleston 68 Special weedless in Perch patten . It'll definitely improve the quality of fish.

Unfortunately the lake was drained a few years ago with very few holdovers so the size just isn't there yet. And if I hate losing a few 5-6 dollar lures, not sure id be comfortable with something 5 times that much. 

A watermelon gold flake fluke is a great imitation or even the swimming fluke in that color.

Keitech Swing Impact Fat  in ProStaff Special or Sungill.  Their Perch colors are otherwise too cartoonish. 

Swim jigs/chatterbaits with a perch colored skirt. They're a little hard to find, so I've been building my own. 

A-Jay 

13 hours ago, Doctor Dingle said:

The local lake I've been fishing is loaded with pickerel, and I keep losing baits. I've switched to fishing mostly soft plastics, and while its helped, I feel I'm missing opportunities for quality fish by limiting lure selection. Its a very clear body of water and color selection really seems to matter. 

The main forage is perch, what are some of your favorite perch style/colored baits?

Where are you fishing?  It sounds like a lot of the places I fish here in eastern pa.

The key with pickerel is heavier line, moving baits and quick hooksets. 

 

Also, retie after just about every single pickerel catch or hit.  It's one of the biggest reasons I use fluoro leaders because they hold up better to pickerel teeth.

3 hours ago, fishballer06 said:

Swim jigs/chatterbaits with a perch colored skirt. They're a little hard to find, so I've been building my own. 

Yeah I was having the same problem thus the search. And a picture of a bait, without a name, does me no good. 

On 9/23/2019 at 10:00 AM, Doctor Dingle said:

And a picture of a bait, without a name, does me no good. 

Reverse image search in Google resulted in "Megabass Ito Vision 110+1"

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Megabass_Ito_Vision_1101_Jerkbaits/descpage-MBIV11.html

Unless the fish are very large, buzzbaits are largely immune to bite offs.

4 hours ago, fishballer06 said:

Swim jigs/chatterbaits with a perch colored skirt. They're a little hard to find, so I've been building my own. 

 

59 minutes ago, Doctor Dingle said:

Yeah I was having the same problem thus the search.

Here's the skirts I've been making. The little bit of red and orange matches the belly/fins of the perch around here perfectly. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/lcZd5yp.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/HxwcmUa.jpg

 

 

 

One of my all-time favorite bass cranks is a #9 Rapala Minnow Rap in yellow perch.

Many 6th Sense and Berkley cranks come in yellow perch colors

21 hours ago, Doctor Dingle said:

The local lake I've been fishing is loaded with pickerel, and I keep losing baits. I've switched to fishing mostly soft plastics, and while its helped, I feel I'm missing opportunities for quality fish by limiting lure selection. Its a very clear body of water and color selection really seems to matter. 

The main forage is perch, what are some of your favorite perch style/colored baits?

Get a large JB in fire tiger (or another loud color) and take the front hook off if it has 3, Use a 15-30 lb mono leader if using braid. A buzzbait, popper or wakebait will work well too if you have a lot of grass.

1 hour ago, BassWhole! said:

Get a large JB in fire tiger (or another loud color) and take the front hook off if it has 3, Use a 15-30 lb mono leader if using braid. A buzzbait, popper or wakebait will work well too if you have a lot of grass.

Whats a JB? 

2 minutes ago, Doctor Dingle said:

Whats a JB? 

JB - Jerkbait (floating Rapala as an example)

CB - Crankbait (Shad Rap as an example)

Ha, now I feel stupid. Brain wasn't working. I have a large amount of small ones that I use for trout, but only two larger ones (shadow rap shads). 

 

 

6 minutes ago, Doctor Dingle said:

only two larger ones (shadow rap shads). 

That will work, but I'd go bigger (longer) catches bigger fish, and keeps line away from teeth better. something 5 1/2 to 7". I'm throwing some of my smaller striper ones, and they are working great.

5 hours ago, Pickle_Power said:

One of my all-time favorite bass cranks is a #9 Rapala Minnow Rap in yellow perch.

Wife has a stash of finnish ones she won't share. Perch and gold are her favorite colors.

On 9/22/2019 at 9:44 PM, Doctor Dingle said:

The main forage is perch, what are some of your favorite perch style/colored baits?

According to the eletrofishing survey they performed last year on the lake, golden shiners appear to be the number one forage.  This opens the door to pretty much any colors.

 

https://pfbc.pa.gov/bioreports/bio2018/4x06-15-LakeJean.pdf

2 hours ago, JediAmoeba said:

According to the eletrofishing survey they performed last year on the lake, golden shiners appear to be the number one forage.  This opens the door to pretty much any colors.

 

https://pfbc.pa.gov/bioreports/bio2018/4x06-15-LakeJean.pdf

Pickerel (and pike) will often prefer bright gaudy colors over natural ones, which is not to say they won't hit a forage colored bait. My wife nicknamed 2 of the ones I painted for pike Elton John, and Liberace...

17 hours ago, billmac said:

Unless the fish are very large, buzzbaits are largely immune to bite offs.

Yup, spinnerbaits and JBs too. I usually fish them on 15 lb mono, and hardly ever loose any.

as everyone has stated already, the classic Rapala perch is 

Would titanium wire leader solve your bite-off problem?

 

https://www.rapala.com/terminator/leaders/single-strand-titanium-leader-wire/single-strand-titanium-leader-wire/Single+Strand+Titanium+Leader+Wire.html