Perch rigging

[tangledline]

Would anyone be willing to show a picture and/or discuss how they rig up for perch. I'm interested in giving it a try on Seneca. Thanks!

[Nautitroller]

Main line to a three way 6-8" line with a minnow or whatever live bait, dropper to a jig tipped with waxie. Light line, finding em and not spooking them is hard!

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[Sk8man]

tangled line you have a PM

[Deebsey]

PM sent.

[tangledline]

Thanks for the replies ...................

[Nautitroller]

How far off was I from the pm's? If you had some small crayfish I bet you couldn't keep em off the hook.

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[tangledline]

you weren't off at all. Waxies, fatheads and oak leaf grubs are all the norm. Crayfish too! Thanks

[Nautitroller]

Hope you have better luck than myself in the past those fish have been finicky!

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Edited February 25, 2016 by Nautitroller

[jcrow75]

When I see the guys at Sampson fish off the breakwall, their rig looks a bit different. Looks like a 1 or 2 oz sinker and one or two droppers off them with assorted baits on them.

[pokerman]

When I see the guys at Sampson fish off the breakwall, their rig looks a bit different. Looks like a 1 or 2 oz sinker and one or two droppers off them with assorted baits on them.

Yeah, but those fellows are mostly, ummm.... not entirely stable.  (as C3PO would say).    

[jcrow75]

HA! I've seen them get some nice ones the few times I have been down there. I have heard of big ones 14" and more being caught on the "good days ". Never been there on a good day though.

[FishingTheFL]

HA! I've seen them get some nice ones the few times I have been down there. I have heard of big ones 14" and more being caught on the "good days ". Never been there on a good day though.

I hear that. Never caught much a Sampson. Vern says they were doing well down there, but I haven't seen any one catching since December.

[jcrow75]

I ice fishes the marina last March. It was a mad house but we did pretty well in a short time. 10-13" fish and half a bucket in a few hours.

[Lund SSS]

Tangled.....when you see large groups of boats there using the " bent rod locator" while you may be tempting do yourself a favor make note of depth and structure under them and go find you own fish. After 20 + years of fishing Seneca for perch I'll share this ... While everyone pounds on schooling fish the very rare Jumbo's form schools maybe 6-12 @ most. If the wind allows it search the edges of the drop offs .... 25-30' to the abyss.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Lund SSS

[steelydan]

Tangled.....when you see large groups of boats there using the " bent rod locator" while you may be tempting do yourself a favor make note of depth and structure under them and go find you own fish. After 20 + years of fishing Seneca for perch I'll share this ... While everyone pounds on schooling fish the very rare Jumbo's form schools maybe 6-12 @ most. If the wind allows it search the edges of the drop offs .... 25-30' to the abyss.

Very very true. I've been using a drop shot type rig ultra light

[2lbperch]

You can start with the lake erie rig, omitting the gold Aberdeen hooks. Black or red small octopus for stealth. Hooks tied 6" to 8" apart on 6lb mono leaders. Some days small flies on instead. I would wait a couple years for the cycle going on right now to straighten itself out. You might get discouraged and never go back. Lund has it pegged, but left a couple things out for you to discover, i.e. an abyss murk line. Hard fishing but satisfaction when it comes together.

[DJ 17]

You can start with the lake erie rig, omitting the gold Aberdeen hooks. Black or red small octopus for stealth. Hooks tied 6" to 8" apart on 6lb mono leaders. Some days small flies on instead. I would wait a couple years for the cycle going on right now to straighten itself out. You might get discouraged and never go back. Lund has it pegged, but left a couple things out for you to discover, i.e. an abyss murk line. Hard fishing but satisfaction when it comes together.

I very rarely fish Seneca ( 3x total) so I am trying to apply info from this thread to other lakes that I fish. When you are running the 6lb leader, are you fishing that in the abyss or just shallow? If so, how much weight are you using? Do you ever fish rubber with the octopus hooks or just live bait? Could you elaborate on the flies you run? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to add knowledge. Please PM me if you prefer.

[2lbperch]

It's a slight variation of the Skipper 9 rig as you cut the loop tails into a single line. Don't let the top hook go over the bottom one.You tube perch rigs and watch bill,mikes angling adv. Easiest one, no beads for seneca, cayuga you can. Don't tie the sinker on, get dropshot sinkers that clip on the bottom 12" tail of the rig. You can move it around to get bait in the zone. Tie the smallest black snap you can to the pole line, be sure the fish can be boated before that snap hits the tip guide. That snap let's you change rigs quickly. Like when bend or break a hook getting a cayuga pickerel off with pliers. Get a chunk of pool noodle to wrap the 10 or so rigs you'll tie up onto, smaller than that makes the rig get twisty. To fish deeper, clip on another weight or a bigger one. I use rubber and live on the rig. Flies I deadstick when they are tight lipped under the boat. Smallest trout flies you can find. No lead heads. A guy in TX on ebay makes sweet ones. Get it to the bottom and let the current move em around. Those octo.hooks almost hook the fish by themselves. Just my opinions and the rig I use mostly. Some people do it differently. Hope that helped some.

[DJ 17]

I too tie up spare leaders and wrap them on a noodle, I also run a double dropshot very similar to that rig. My main difference is I will run the leader through the eye of the hook and then tie in the loop so I don't have to cut the leader at all.  I also run the loops much smaller and closer to the main leader because I almost always am fishing rubber and feel that if I tie in loops that are too large that my hook up percentage goes way down due to the fact that there is a some slack line in the loop and the fish rarely "hang on" to the rubber like they do a minnow or other live bait.  I will tie up some rigs with longer loops to try on tough days and see if that makes a difference.  So you do run the octopus hooks with rubber? Would you share which fly patterns are productive?

[2lbperch]

Small like them. Float around in current. Tip em with a spike.

[DJ 17]

Gotcha. Thanks!