Black Perch (green sunfish)

[Sam]

If you take kids fishing or if (like me) you're just a big kid yourself, there's some good fun to be had right now.  Every year at this time, I like to get after the larger black perch (green sunfish) when they come right up against Tablerock's chunk-rock banks that have deep water nearby.  In October and early November they come up close to the rock banks even more than usual, to stuff themselves with small crawdads before the water gets cold.

Yesterday my partner and I targeted them in the Buttermilk Spring area, using ultra-light spinning rigs and small plastic tubes on 1/16 oz. jig heads.  All colors seemed to work equally well, and they mostly bite on the drop around shady spots and any cover.  We've got 6 1/2" marks on our rod handles, and if they measure 6 1/2" or better they go in the live well.  We brought home 63 black perch and one 4-lb. channel cat - getting that catfish in was quite a deal for my partner on his ultra-light rig!  We caught a few black perch that were over 8", and that's big for them.  We threw back 3 or 4 short ones for every one we could keep, of course, so we never got bored - we caught fish most every cast ALL day long.

Fileting these little fish out is real microsurgery, but it's worth it.  There are a couple of good bites on each boneless filet, and the flavor is as good or better than any fish in the lake including crappie and walleye, in my opinion.  Good times!

[rps]

I totally approve of this! This is a great example of fishing for something worth eating with the appropriate tools.

 

[Sam]

I'll add that lots of bass were up by those rocky banks, too - spitting out little crawdads as they got unhooked.  Fishing with those small tubes, we caught and released short Kentucky bass, ranging from little-bitty up to 14" all day long.  One of them sure wasn't a Kentucky, though.  As I brought in a perch splashing on top of the water, a bucketmouth black bass of a size I haven't seen in years grabbed the perch and stripped off about 10' of line from my ultra-light in the time it took my jaw to drop.

The bass wasn't hooked, the perch was, and I couldn't have handled that fish on such a light rig anyway - but the encounter sure was fun!  That big mama will win BB in a tournament for somebody, and it's good to see (and get your rod nearly taken away by) a largemouth of that size.