Fishing Michigan

When it comes to perch fishing there seems to be a fine line between attracting fish and having your hooks hold up over time.  No doubt gold hooks catch fish, and with a bead added to your dropper, there is little doubt that a bronze hook will catch fish too.

The difference between the two comes in how long your rig will last and stay effective.  If a perch happens to swallow your hook, how many times do you get a twisted hook out of the gut as a result?  More times than you want to count would be a good answer.

The rigs I tied up last week before fishing over the weekend were Mustad Ultra Point live bait hooks.  The same style of hook that I used for tying my walleye harnesses back in the spring.  Back then I used Size 2 for trolling, and 4’s for my weapons.  The perch rigs last week were tied with Size 4’s (most of them) and some Size 6’s just to try out.  The four’s were working so well, I never even tried to get the 6’s in the water.

The advantage of using this style hook definitely comes down to the strength of the hook.  I would still recommend using forceps to remove hooks that get buried, but at least they will be in the same condition as what you tied in the first place.  Frank’s Great Outdoors carries the hook in 25 packs, so if you get two, that’s 25 double hook rigs you can make, or a combination of singles and doubles.  Think you have to call to get them, but they should also be available locally at Jann’s Netcraft.

I broke down this afternoon and got busy making some perch rigs with only a single hook dangling off to the side.  I know a lot of folks won’t adopt this type of rig, because for one, it is a blast to get a double once in a while.  The second reason they just won’t give up that second chance for for catching that one perch who will bite high every once in a while.

I picked up a couple of things fishing those two days this weekend.  Most, like 97% or some crazy such number of perch came on the bottom hook.  The other, was that when there was a hit and miss, most of the time it was the bottom hook missing its bait.  The other was that all but one of the 9 inch or bigger perch came on the top hook.

So if most of the perch come on the bottom part of the rig, all the big perch came on that hook, and if that hook gets robbed the most…..conclusion, it is better to have only one hook on the rig.  Will put it to the test this week.  Looks like the weather will cooperate for a couple of good days of hitting the lake.