mrfishy34

i have a question for u. i am 15 years old and i go ice fishing Devils Lake North Dakota for perch, and walleye about every weekend. i have had some trouble with the fish biting. i have a brand new vexalir
Fl-18 sonar and i mark fish constaly all day but all i cought was 1 5 inch perch. and i know that Devils lake's perch are normaly around 1.5 lbs to 2 pounds. we tried like 10 differnt jigs, we tried bobbers and nothing worked

deerslayer still

I grew up litterally living on Mille Lacs lake in a fishouse all winter. We fished for walleye and perch. Try different small jigs with waxworms or maggots on them or my favorite is a medium Swedish Pimple with the head or tail of a minnow on one of the treble hooks. You can see it on your vexilar and just bring it a few inches above the fish you are marking. Not right at their level, their eyes focus mostly to the sides and above. If I can get a fish to rise up to my bait I just gently jiggle my rod, most times that will trigger a bite. Sometimes just letting it stay still will get them to grab it. If they aren't aggressively biting you sometimes have to change your strategy accordingly. Smaller, or sometimes bigger baits and slower or even faster jigging. Try it all till you find something that works...Oh, some of those fish you are marking on your vexilar might be baitfish too so if they don't bite after a while, move a little ways. eventually you will get into a school of actively feeding fish. Good luck.

Remington700s

You need to give us a little more info, such as depth, and areas of the lake (points,bays coves) you are fishing etc. Add live bait to your jigs if you already are not. We use mealies for perch, but the walleyes like em too. Also small minnows works at times when, other baits slow down or dont seem to produce. Try looking for areas, where weeds may still exist,especially for perch. Best bit times seems to be late afternoon before sundown!

pabuckhunter

Where we ice fish we caught all our perch in 11 to 15 feet of water used minnows and meal worms on lime green jigs and fished two to four feet off the bottom but once they start spawning they would not bite any more no matter what we did Good Luck <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

gun4hire35

I think the weather is your problem. But we need more info. I think when it is cold ( really cold) the fish don't bite. When it is warm,like today it was 50 degree, the fish bite really well. This might not be true all the time. Just a thought.

Osprey

The key is being mobile, keep moving until you find the active fish. Also Perch are more a fish-of-the-flats than walleye, so you might not always be able to find walleye and perch in the same spots, so pick one to go after, you will still prob. get a few bonus fish of the other species though.
My favorite jig to use for perch is the Genz Fat Boys, there are two sizes, I use small minnows on the bigger ones and euro larva or spikes on the smaller ones. Usually I drop the jig a few inches above the fish like deer slayer was saying. I just jig it a little and then let it sit for a second or two and then jig it again, usually works pretty well.
Also be sure the gain isn't turned up two high on your fl-18 you might just be seeing a bunch clutter and not actually fish.

Jason N

Small minnows for perch and larger minnows for walleye and pike. I've caught lots of perch on 4.5&quot; emoerald shiners and spottails. The walleye take them pretty good too. Try wax worms or maggots on a jig head for the panfish.