Yellow Perch tips? Snohomish county

[Kumacub]

Hey all. I’m a new angler. I’m looking into fishing here in the spring for yellow perch at some lakes near me. Most likely lake Stevens. I am hoping to buy some gear to have a set up in my tackle box for yellow perch. Any chance anyone is willing to give me a few tips to be successful? Trying to make some fish tacos if I get lucky.

[GWP]

Weed line if there is one. About 20’ if not. Drop shot rig with a smallish whiteish ‘something’ on it or match what is in the water.
If you are an ‘active’ or ‘nervous’ fisherman (as I am) slow drag weedless through the weed edge into open water or hop it along the edge of the weeds.
Or, if you have sonar on the front drive around with a trolling motor until you see a school, kill the trolling motor and drop same rig down to depth of fish so it passes through and settles in them. Nothing like a little competition! You can usually get a couple before they move on and you have to find them again or another school.
I watched three guys doing that and They literally had a 3/4 full 5 gallon bucket of them and were still fishing.

[birdshooter1189]

As stated above, I usually use one of 2 things:  Smallest jigs i have, cast and retrieve VERY slow, occasionally giving slight twitches.

First choice:

6lb test main line. Drop shot with 3/8" weight tied to end.  about 12" up the line I tie a small loop, and then attach a 4" leader of 6lb test tied to a size 12 plain dry fly hook. (low profile hook for tying your own flies).  I then put a small piece of live worm on the hook, or use powerbait artificial worm.  Cast out and retrieve very slowly.  This usually works great for me.  I took my boat out to a local lake about a week ago and tried this method with 3 rods between me and my kids. We caught 4 perch in 2 hours. Past trips with this method have landed 30+ fish in an hour with a single rod.

[Kumacub]

 Li didn’t even think they were active now. I thought I had to wait until closer to April/may. Thanks gents! I’ll be fishing from the bank but I’ll try my best here. Will post if there’s any success.

[30.06]

I use the same technique, # 8 or 10 baitholder hooks. Perch are active in winter. I tried off the bank a few weeks ago with no luck, didn't stay long. They tend to bite well near dusk in the summer.

[Shrimper]

On first perch you land, fillet small thin skinless strips off of that and use for bait.  This will out fish most other baits 10-1 in Lake Stevens for perch.  This method is also very effective for bass in Lake Stevens too, with larger fillet strips. Good Luck!

[Mfowl]

The Danielson double drop rigs are excellent for perch. Also just a standard bait plunking rig with egg sinker, barrel swivel and hook leader. A chunk of nightcrawler is the best starting bait but once you get into them chunks of actual perch meat work really good too! Small jigs/curlytails and beetlespins are standards as well. When drop shotting I usually use a heavy lure like a castmaster or small dart as the weight with hook/bait about 18" up from that. In the warm water months I catch them often on bass plugs, sometimes as big as they are. If you are fishing from shore a jig or bait under a bobber in the weeds will get them too.

[jason stevens]

Keep it simple, bobber an a small piece of night crawler. Or worm on the bottom. We get a bunch at fish lake. Good eats an fun to fish.

[jason stevens]

I know you said snohomish county  but fish lake is 1.5 hour drive. It's worth the trip

[Skillet]

If I had to pick one lure to fish perch with for he rest of my life,  it would be a 2" chrome Swedish Pimple with a perch eye on a #6 hook.

[WSU]

If I had to pick one lure to fish perch with for he rest of my life,  it would be a 2" chrome Swedish Pimple with a perch eye on a #6 hook.

Did this ice fishin at fish lake and it was real effective! Great fun for winter time fishing and fish tacos!

[206]

The Danielson double drop rigs are excellent for perch.

I've caught hundreds in Moses on my only one I own.  I can't find a new one in stores to replace the 15 year old rig.  The long shank make it nice to unhook and get back out fast when yarding them in.

[Bullkllr]

There are a lot of ways to tie up your own multi hook rigs. Simplest is a couple dropper loops with hooks right on the loops. You can tie hooks right to the main line also.

Agree on the perch meat for bait. Nothing beats it, imo.

Fishing from shore I would probably go with a slip float rig, depending on water depth. While perch are active in winter, it seems like they're usually in deeper water. I've had better luck in shallower water later after spring warm-up.

Good luck!