Ice fishing for Perch
Complete guide — gear, lures, season and tips.
Gear
- Rod
- Ice rod 40–60 cm, medium action
- Reel
- Ice reel or inline reel
- Mainline
- Braid 0.06–0.10 mm or fluorocarbon 0.16 mm
- Leader
- Straight to mainline or a short fluorocarbon leader
- Hook
- Mormyshka 3–6 mm or balance jig #6–#10
- Weight
- Mormyshka 0.5–2 g, balance jig 3–8 g
13 Fishing Tickle Stick
Frabill Ice Hunter
Abu Garcia Ice Spike
Lures / bait
- Mormyshka tipped with maggot or worm
- Balance jig (Rapala Jigging Rap W3/W5, Nils Master Jigger)
- Small jigging spoon 5–15 g in silver or copper
- Vertical jig with a small soft-plastic shad (Bait Breath U30)
Season
Dec–March
Time of day
All day, often best mid-morning
Pro tip
Drill lots of holes and keep moving. Fish 2–5 m over shallow reefs. Short twitches with pauses. Perch shoal up — once you find them, stay put.