Perch
- Date added:
- Monday, 15 November 2010
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Question and Answer
Question:
Hello Mr Wegman,
I would like to take my youg son out to catch Perch on Kampenfelt Bay, Barrie. I only have a small 16 foot boat, can you tell me where I should try, and at what depth I should start with. Do not know much about fishing.
Regards,
David
Answer:
Hi David,
Most of the perch fishing has slowed down in Barrie for the year compared to a few weeks ago. Some nice perch can still be had close to shore however, so perhaps it might be just as easy and much safer to try some shore fishing from the docks at the City of Barrie Marina? Perch move in to this area now and for a few short weeks in late fall when the boats have all been pulled out of the water you can see other anglers taking advantage of this opportunity. I would suggest you pop into Rack and Reel Tackle and Bait shop in Barrie David where you and your son could get a few small jigs and some lively minnows from Penny who runs this shop. They should work well this time of year, but if you’d rather try artificials, she has some good small plastic baits that work well on jigs too.
I hope this helps for now ... as open water fishing season begins to wind down there aren’t too many good opportunities left to fish with your son before the ice sets in and even an hour or two can be well worth the effort.
Good luck!
Wil Wegman
Comments
Took your advice, we had a very nice day and caught Perch. We also talked to people who were also Perch fishing. My son was told that he has to try Ice fihing. NOW my son wants to go Ice Fishing for (a fish called) Whitefish? I was told to go off a place called Bear Point. tricky but I found it on the map. Need more advice, what depth sound we start at in an attempt to catch this kind of a fish. I went to our Library, but there was not much in the way of Ice Fishing information!
Regards,
David
Excellent ... I hope you and your son had a great time shore fishing together. You know, one of the greatest things about fishing is how very diversified this sport can be. From shore fishing, to boat fishing to ice fishing – there are just so many ways to enjoy this great outdoor activity.
Whitefish are a great species to ice fish for and I’m thrilled your son wants to give this a try. (Rest assured however, that perch can also be a lot of fun, might be an even better introduction to winter fishing and they can be caught right out of Barrie when ice is safe. Another location is out of the Town of Gilford in Cooks Bay. The southernmost bay of the 725 sq kilometre lake freezes much earlier, is much shallower and has ideal habitat for perch)
Bear Point can be one of the better spots to fish for whitefish on Lake Simcoe- especially early in the ice fishing season. The opening day is Jan 1st – but typically ice doesn’t become safe in that area until a couple of weeks later- sometimes even longer. One reason it can be productive there however, is that to reach the 60-90 feet of water where these whitefish reside, you don’t have to walk more than a mile to get to the deep water. In other parts of the lake- like for instance off Jackson’s point you need to walk considerably more than that to reach the deep water haunts of whitefish and lake trout which often reside in the same habitat. Basically- whitefish are a cold water species, that taste terrific and feed primarily on or near bottom. They can be caught with a variety of spoons and specialty baits like the Foxee Jig tipped with a small plastic grub or tube bait. To learn more about fishing this species and to gain further understanding about ice fishing David, I have written extensively on the subject over the years. Many of my articles can be found my own site and at www.fishonlineca.com . I will also be hosting a couple of seminars in the not too distant future. One in St Catharines on Thursday Dec 9 and one on the Saturday Dec 11 at Radioworld in Toronto. I’ll be posting more details about these events in the next few days.
Hope this helps David
Wil
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