HOT THIS MONTH

First and far most, June is a post spawn period. It’s hard to find heavy fish but it’s easier to find long and hungry fish

As I said, in many waters June is a month of post spawn fishing. The fish are feeding like crazy on all type of baitfish depending on what’s in your water, roach, bleak and so on. When I personally aim for big perch in the summer I got 4 simple strategic.

1. Do not fish during the midday sun. Sure if it’s bad weather with clouds, maybe winds and rain its ok but in general I’d say fish from when the sun starts raising until maybe 10-11 am. And then take a break and return to the water at around 6-7 pm and fish until midnight. This is where I find the perch and especially the big perch are most active.
2. Where do I find them? Look at the surface, often you can see the surface of the water “boiling” that’s whitefish hunted by predators often perch that pushes the whitefish to the surface and hunts them underneath.
3. If you can’t see the boiling water then look at the birds. If you see bird’s diving and grabbing minnows you will find the perch around the same area as the minnows being eaten by the birds.
4. If boiling water and diving birds isn’t enough I’d give you my best suggestion. Look for what’s underneath the water. If you got a sonar in your boat or if you can study a chart over the water that you are fishing you should be looking for structure like an underwater mountain. This is a normal habitat for baitfish to hide and circle around and the perch goes to these places to feed. If you are fishing these ledges and steeps don’t forget to fish out on the deeper water. It’s often that the big perch are standing outside these type of structure and waiting.

When I target the perch that are chasing minnows in the surface I often start by using a topwater baits for example the Prorex Micro Frog rigged on a single hook, popper frog from Daiwa or the brand new topwater Prorex Crazy Stick Floating. If they aren’t biting on top water I choose baits that swim close to the surface, like the Prorex Lazy Jerk 9 cm or a 7g Prorex Spinner bait that I start retrieving just as they hit the water or even the Prorex Pencil Bait and Prorex Flat minnow.

The best chance for catching a real monster-perch is according to me by fishing these ledges around the underwater structure. Favorites baits when I fish deeper and cast out from the ledge is for example a Prorex Metal Vibe that I jig up and down just like when you use a small rubber jig. If that isn’t working I choose a Duckfin shad 9 cm with a quite heavy jighead to get down to the bottom fast, let’s say 10-15 grams but this depends on the depth on you lake, heavy wind and so on.

If I do fish on top of the structure i.e. fishing on active perch that are up and hunting on the top of the structure I do prefer a crankbait like the Prorex Toddler Crank or a 10 gram Prorex Spinnerbait. Sometimes I also use the Prorex Minnow SR in 12 cm, a quite big bait but a hunting perch above 500 grams will slam that bait with no hesitation!

I hope my way of fishing big perch can help you who read this short article to succeed in the summer hunt of big perch! I hope my way of fishing big perch can help you who read this short article to succeed in the summer hunt of big perch!

Br, Martin Rees / Team Angler, Team Daiwa Scandinavia.