Thread: Going to monticello

Bait is always good. On last couple of trips, 40 to 50' is where we have been having the most luck. Spoons & minnows at the bottom is where the perch have been. They are not showing up in the water column. We have been getting a lot of bites where nothing would show up the graph.

The lower end of the lake is where we have been catching perch.

Also, beat the boat floor with a stick. This seems to stir them up.

Good luck

1/4 oz. spoon 30-50 of water. I like under water points. Just barely twitch the spoon, if you jerk it up 2-3 ft. You’ll have a long day and a tired shoulder. I like to find bait and get just out of it. On the edge of the bait is best. Like Charles said down the lake toward the power plant is best for size.

One more tip!! Beat the boat!! Trust me it works!!

Just a little tip, on your fishfinder. When looking for those pesky perch, they will actually look like broken specks right off the bottom when they’re hugging the bottom. They’re easier for me to see on 2-D. You’ll be moving along solid bottom, then it’ll look broken. Those are usually perch. If anybody can explain it any better please do so. Hope this helps. Good luck!!
Oh yeah! Beating the boat does work.

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Tackleboat nailed it. Get off to the edges of the bait. I actually am just fine not being around any bait as long as I'm seeing perch in tight groups on the bottom. If you see a massive bait school all tightly bunched, that bait isn't being preyed on. The depth of the bait does tell you what depth to look for your perch. I fished Murray today jigging. It was actually a little slower today but Dad and I got 67 perch, stripers and largemouth. The perch want the jig very slow moving right now. We got a lot of hits just slowly raising it or even holding it still. The stripers want the classic big sweeping jigging motion and it free falling so I was mixing that in a good bit. But if I was on Monticello that doesn't have stripers, I would be jigging just like tackleboat said, small movements. For perch I hit bottom every time with the spoon unless I see them blowing way up on the depthfinder. We have been picking up big catfish jigging lately too.

if you have structure scan it is a big asset in identifying perch right on the bottom. You will see little clusters of dots just a little bigger than the dots that the baitfish makes. If you see three or 4 of these dots in a tight cluster on the bottom, mark the spot and fish it. If they are actively feeding they will eat immediately. If they don't eat quickly move on and keep moving till you find ones that will eat right away.