I have recently been trying to mix in some more perch colored baits into my rotation as my lake is riddled with yellow perch and white perch. The yellow perch seem to be more dominant in the spring and then the white perch explode around summer time. I have always done really well with colors that mimic (what I believe are) white perch but it seems like the only thing that I catch with yellow perch baits are YELLOW PERCH. It’s like they are just dying to eat their own kind. I have also always done well with bluegill colors. Does bass just not feed on yellow perch as often or are the yellow perch so aggressive that they don’t give the bass a chance to get to my bait before they do? Any advice from some experience would be greatly appreciated. For reference, it seems like the majority of bait fish in my lake are yellow and whit perch, bluegill and some type of schooling minnows. I’ve added some pictures below. One is the fish I believe to be white perch. I have also caught a fair amount with a green tint to them. 

You run a crankbait through a school of perch that is the result, don't think it's a color issue.

Tom

9 minutes ago, WRB said:

You run a crankbait through a school of perch that is the result, don't think it's a color issue.

Tom

Ya - yellow perch are also predator fish, smaller cousin of walleye, so they'll attack something that looks good to eat...white perch I'm not as familiar with having last caught one almost 50 years ago in MA.

 

Far as the color - couple of my decent bass last year were on perch colored cranks, one on a #07 Rapala Rattlin Rap, the other on a DT-4. Find where the bass are hanging out and they'll attack a perch-colored crank.

I use a lot of swim jigs and I am usually imitating crappie or perch. I usually go with more subtle tones than the loud color of a firetiger scheme. Maybe your bass also like the more subtle colors of the white perch imitators.

46 minutes ago, WRB said:

You run a crankbait through a school of perch that is the result, don't think it's a color issue.

Tom

So maybe I’m just not placing the bait where there are bass? Do perch, pickerel and bass tend to hang around the same areas? Am I likely to find bass in an area where I’m finding a lot of pickerel and perch? 

I don't see bass intermixed with their schools very often. If you find perch schools and you know you have perch eating bass, I would try to get an idea of where the hunting bass are going to enter their area and be fishing the access points.

My in laws who lived in MN and Ontario moved to another area whenever they caught perch. Bass eat young of the year perch that hide to servive in cover protected areas. Musky and Pike eat larger size perch and I would expect the big predators would target perch schools.

The folks who fish northern waters often know better than me. My experience is limited to vacations spent fishing Lake of the Woods region of Ontario and perch schools tended to be located near mid lake reefs.

Tom

My most productive jerkbait over the last couple of years has been the perch colored 6th Sense Provoke 106. I got out for about an hour of bank fishing today and had four bass on a perch vision 110 When no one else was catching anything. I will say that I do catch the occasional perch on them though.  

I use a good amount of perch colored hard baits where I fish here in central Minnesota.  Particularly on big lakes where smallmouth are the target.  The smaller, weedier lakes tend to have more sunfish than perch so I'll use lures more closely resembling those instead when after largies.

 

As Tom said, not many predatory fish up here in the north that won't eat a perch.  Their shape makes them an appealing meal, as opposed to the more oval-shape of sunfish and crappies.  A lot of our bigger walleye factory lakes up here are loaded with perch and they are the primary forage in those systems.

I caught a perch on a perch colored jerkbait today. I also caught 3 trout on the same jerkbait.??‍♂️

What the devil was that one in the second picture planning on doing with that meal?

 

Like trying to eat a Big Mac in one bite.

I've noticed the same thing. Perch are definitely little cannibals.

I've had many a smallmouth jerkbait trip end up with a big perch taco dinner. 

If perch be catching perch, then it would stand to reason to use... 

15 minutes ago, Bassjam2000 said:

If perch be catching perch, then it would stand to reason to use... 

Yep - one 'color' I have in several crank/jerkbaits is...Baby Bass.

I cant count the number of 3-5lb smallies that threw up 6-9" perch.  Find Perch offshore and smallmouth will be nearby.  Adjust baits accordingly. 

For some reason cannibalism in the fish world is hilarious to me. Case in point, every frog I have ever caught on fishing tackle (and I have caught quite a few over the years) has been...on a frog. And I'm not talking about snagging them either, they were all going for a meal. At one lake I fish in particular, if I throw a SK Rage Toad into the lily pads during the summer, it's like the bullfrogs think I just threw in the last morsel of food on earth.

5 hours ago, walleyecrazy said:

My most productive jerkbait over the last couple of years has been the perch colored 6th Sense Provoke 106. I got out for about an hour of bank fishing today and had four bass on a perch vision 110 When no one else was catching anything. I will say that I do catch the occasional perch on them though.  

That’s great to hear. My 6th sense perch provoke 106 just came in last week so I’ll have it on the water Sunday. Hopefully I have similar results. 

4 minutes ago, Gazz said:

That’s great to hear. My 6th sense perch provoke 106 just came in last week so I’ll have it on the water Sunday. Hopefully I have similar results. 

New meaning to perch jerker!

Tom

I agree with MN on the baby bass pattern. Plenty of variations out there and they work well. In all honesty I don't do well with live photo image type crankbaits so I stay away from using them. Not sure if they are still being offered but I fish a few older smallmouth bass patterned crankbaits. They are made by Bomber, model "A's". Not a live image look to them but definitely smallie likeness. They are pre live image baits days.

 

I guess color means something but Crankbaits are a reaction bait and I don't believe color or pattern of it is everything. 

3 hours ago, Armtx77 said:

What the devil was that one in the second picture planning on doing with that meal?

 

Like trying to eat a Big Mac in one bite.

If you think that’s bad, I caught this little guy on a 5-1/2 inch 360GT searchbait last season which has a gaff of a hook on it. ? 

 

15 minutes ago, Gazz said:

If you think that’s bad, I caught this little guy on a 5-1/2 inch 360GT searchbait last season which has a gaff of a hook on it. ? 

 

LOL

 

What a greedy little bugger.

2 hours ago, plawren53202 said:

For some reason cannibalism in the fish world is hilarious to me. Case in point, every frog I have ever caught on fishing tackle (and I have caught quite a few over the years) has been...on a frog. And I'm not talking about snagging them either, they were all going for a meal. At one lake I fish in particular, if I throw a SK Rage Toad into the lily pads during the summer, it's like the bullfrogs think I just threw in the last morsel of food on earth.

So far my only catch with a frog is a big bullfrog. Was sitting right by shore in some veg and when I pulled the frog out he leaped up and grabbed it. Barbless hook at least

Perch are the main baitfish besides tullibee around where I mostly fish and they will try to eat anything. I have caught 8” perch on 5” swimbaits before. Another funny thing that happens a lot when I’m pike fishing with 7-8” perch colored swimbaits is that they will school up around the swimbait if I have it dangling in the water next to my boat, can’t tell you how many times that has happened to me. They are very aggressive and definitely not the brightest fish in the lake, makes them a great fish to target if you have kids or inexperienced people on the boat.

17 hours ago, Gazz said:

If you think that’s bad, I caught this little guy on a 5-1/2 inch 360GT searchbait last season which has a gaff of a hook on it. ? 

 

My avatar (I think that’s what you call it) is a river largemouth that I caught on a 200 series Bandit back some years ago. It’s smaller than a dink. It blew me away that day catching that.