Question for those who ice fish for perch. What is your go to bait? I am going on a trip to lake Mille Lacs this weekend and curios about what are good colors and lures. Thanks for any tips.

I use one of three things and they work well. A small sweedish pimple with a maggot and or perch eye on the hook. A small jigging rapalla or a glow hook with a maggot on a 8" leader under a bead chain, spoon or sweedish pimple. Perch generally hug the bottom. Good luck....

Jiggin' raps or Shad raps in chrome/blue, clown, glowor perch patterns. Nothland forage minnow jiggin' spoons. Northland buckshot rattle spoons. Gold perch in the Northland line as well asthe various glow colours. All these peoduce well on Lake Simcoe in Ontario. That's where I do mt perch fishing. All these baits will get the jumbos going.

Best of luck to ya,
Mark

Perch eyes work very well, but in MN you are not allowed to use perch eyes so don't get caught! Another trick is to chum (which in MN is also not allowed) with some grated yellow cheese. To stay legal minnows on colored flashers work - have to keep changing the flasher to see what the color for the day is. Pearl & Gold has been hot. I fish N/MN around Cass lake for perch and find Pike Bay in Cass Lake is alot better than Mille Lacs. I just got back a cpl wks ago from Lake of the Woods (4 mile Bay) fishing eyes and we took perch. Huge, 1 lb easy. 20 limit up there.