Hot Tips for Cold Weather White Perch

White perch bite through the winter months and have no qualms about feeding through a calm, quiet snowfall. OutdoorTom.com photo.

For such an agreeable panfish, white perch can be surprisingly elusive. Find the schools with a hot bait or lure and the action can be top shelf. Guess wrong as to where the pods might be holding and a skunking is not out of the question. This might not be news to those experienced at the game, but for anglers just beginning to explore the possibilities of targeting these feisty finsters it can be a surprising reality to discover.

Although available in some Long Island ponds, most white perch encounters in our area take place in tidal waters. Larger rivers, like the Connetquot, Carmans, Nissequogue and Peconic hold local populations, as do selected South Shore and East End tidal creeks. It’s in the brackish waters of these flows that most of the action takes place. For those making their first white perch reconnaissance missions, the larger creeks and rivers mark good starting points. More experienced anglers, however, tend to challenge themselves by exploring smaller creeks with access to freshwater origins in the hopes of finding a honey hole all to themselves.

In short, there is no substitute for hard work and a lot of poking around when it comes to discovering white perch hot spots, and now is the time to start looking. Pockets carved out by the flow along creek curves, deeper mid-creek stretches, holes proceeding culverts, a small bridge crossing over a creek, and bulkheads or docks that jut out into the current in four- to six-foot depths are all solid contact points with the first half of outgoing water the best time to take your shots.

A phragmite-lined shoreline interrupted by a small wooden dock is a classic white perch hot spot scenario. OutdoorTom.com photo.

You’ll want to get up close and personal when inspecting potential white perch lairs, checking for access to the right kind of water by foot rather than using a drive-by approach. It’s also important to get out and take some casts at each location you suspect could hold some schools as it’s rare you’ll actually spot the whites from shore unless they are holding in very shallow water. Still, you don’t need to waste several hours deciding if a spot is worth the effort. As long as you time your trips to match moving water on either side of high tide, 30-minutes is a sufficient period to work up a few bites. You can, of course, also choose to search by kayak or johnboat - but be sure to fully outfit for winter safety should you take this route.

While fishing in search mode, it’s smart to keep things simple when whites are the target.  Sure, you can challenge them with small soft plastics, spinners and lightweight plugs, but for initial reconnaissance missions it’s hard to beat half-a-night crawler or a whole garden worm impaled on a small beak style hook positioned six inches above a one-quarter-ounce bell sinker. With a light spinning setup designed for panfish or trout, simply cast out and let your line settle to the bottom. If the fish are around, they’ll quickly reveal their position with a simple twitch or two of the line. While whites aggressively inhale small lures at times, it’s rare that they’ll pass up a fresh worm or grass shrimp, so lead with these to ensure each spot gets a fair test before moving on to the next.

Once you've figured out how to score consistently with the basic worm presentation, the natural progression for white perch fans is to add more sport to the game. With a little patience and practice, it’s possible to significantly elevate your white perch enjoyment by tossing smallish soft-plastics including Leland’s Lures Trout Magnets and two-inch-long Berkley PowerBait Power Grubs around concrete or wooden structure. One- to two-inch-long Rapala Countdown Minnow Lures also work well near boat docks, shoal edges and cove mouths, and they can be absolutely deadly slow-trolled against the tide slightly after dawn and an hour or two before dusk if fishing from a johnboat or kayak. Don't be surprised if these lures also tempt an occasional school bass, or a sea-run brown or rainbow trout in stretches below stocked lakes and ponds. To get down to the bottom in deeper water, try slowly retrieving a 1/8-ounce Road Runner Original Marabou Jig tipped with a small segment of worm.

White perch respond well to a variety of smallish lures. OutdoorTom.com photo.

Yet another fun way to up the challenge with white perch is to borrow from your ice-fishing arsenal. Place a small white, red or chartreuse tear drop jig - designed to catch yellow perch and sunfish through the ice - three feet below a small float. Tip the jig with a grass shrimp or two, small segment of worm or pair of wax worms and cast it out. Give the tiny lure a few seconds to settle toward the bottom and then provide the slightest of twitches every few seconds. Strike hard if the float begins to bob.

Did you know you can catch white perch with the long wand, too? Indeed, four- to six-weight set-ups are all you need to place small streamers, tiny shrimp patterns and large nymphs in the strike zone – and they have enough backbone to land the occasional small striper that might also find your presentation tempting. Two-inch long white streamers are easy to track in the often dingy waters of smaller tidal creeks and perfectly match the silversides, killies and sticklebacks that are around this time of year. Work this pattern so it quarters the current for the first several casts, then drag it back across the flow in short bursts.

Currently, there are no regulations on taking white perch from Long Island's tidal waters. While there is nothing wrong with bringing a few home for dinner now and then, we encourage a conservative approach. As with most species of fish, you'll probably find that the smaller whites  taste best so releasing those fat, egg-laden females you'll sometimes catch this time of  year makes a lot of sense.

These fish are surprisingly aggressive for their size. This one struck a suspending jerkbait that was intended for bass!

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