South Dakota weekend trip

[quivira kid]

Well, JerknperchSD aka Andy talked me into heading up north for an early ice trip. Then I talked my grandpa into making the trip with me, and we made it happen.
First morning, we decided to go to an ace-in-the-hole crappie spot before trying for what were really after, perch. Six of us ended up putting 54 black crappie, 2 big bluegills, and a walleye on the ice in about an hour and a half! Once the sun got up, they got super picky so we decided to go find some perch. Well, apparently they were biting great early and then shut off. Ended up with 13 for the day. Here's a pile shot...



The crappies were all cookie cutters... Blacks 11-12.5" and thick. Here's me with one of the bigger blacks and a nice perch.



The fish were WAY turned off sunday, and we were lucky we got these:



Crossed a few off the bucket list with this trip! Gonna have to make another to get myself a nice perch... I caught a couple keepers, but nothing impressive. The aggressive, nice blacks through the ice were awesome! We got into some dinky perch that would come 5ft off the bottom as the jig was falling to hit. Did some sight fishing! South Dakota was awesome. Definitely going back!

[huntcapn]

those are nice fish? why did you want the perch so bad? do they eat better?

[birddog one]

perch eat like walleye only better. Nice mess of fish

[quivira kid]

I wanted the perch because we don't have 'em around here, and I've just wanted to catch them for a long time. They're so different from the panfish we get around here. That and I was told I'd swear off crappie once we layed into a mess of perch fillets! We'll see this week if they're lying to me or not.....

If nothing else, a change of scenery was much needed. What I saw of South Dakota was beautiful. Tons of small water, plenty of big water, and a lot of just nice rolling farm country.

[birdman]

Perch are amazing eating fish!

[fishfearme]

Nice report from up north guys! Cmon wyperhyper, let's round up Big D and cross a couple borders to hit some hard stuff! My Marcum is getting anxious!

[springhillwantabe]

yeah what birddog said the walleye is bout the top of the food chain perch just alittle better nice trip nice report don't know how big a perch your after but some of them looked like piggy's to me wtg

[shane]

Zach,

Sounds like you, Grandpa, and Andy had a great time. Call me or come by and tell me more about the trip. Looks like it was good times...

[quivira kid]

Shane, gotta take momma out to dinner tonight. She's leaving tomorrow for the rest of the week to go spend the holidays with her side of the family. I'll call ya later this week. Might be a trip in the works for late February or March for serious perch action...

[azslabber]

Very nice perch.Great trip and report.