Thread: how to find ring Perch

Hello people, i am trying to find someone who can point me in the right direction for finding Ring Perch (Yellow Perch). I live in Virginia and have found some small ones in Swift Creek Reservior, some larger ones in Newport News City Park but no numbers. I haven't tried Lake Chicahominy yet though.

1. How do you find numbers of ring perch? time of year, depth, structure/cover, etc.

2. What is the best way to catch them or to search for them?

I got the crappie down cold in my area (except the summer months). I need yellow perch knowledge.

I never heard of Ring Perch, but I can see where they could be called that. Around here they seem to hang close to the bottom. We use small tube jigs with a maggot on the hook or even a plain old hook and worm. They can be anywhere from shallow to deep. Normally I find the bigger ones in deeper water. Hope this gets you started. Perch are usually pretty easy to catch. Good luck.......

find deep weeds on points or humps and there will be perch. the deeper weeds you can find there will be bigger fish. best rig to use is a worm or a jig. i think minnows work good to (can't use them in washington)

thanks guys, its a start. I think they are more of a northern fish. There are some lakes rumored to have good numbers here in VA but i catch them sporadically. Chicahomony Lake is supposed to be great. What time of year do they spawn? Do they spawn shallow? What type of cover?

perch spawn in early spring/ late winter in water temps in the mid 40's. they spawn in weeds, rocks , and other stuff on the bottom. i caught about 175 perch at a lake in the middle of february this year that were full of eggs. i only kept 10 though. but of course there was some people keeping bucket loads of them . and people wonder why the fishing is worse in that lake.