Cooks Bay Jumbo Perch

So its a rainy day and no fishing. time to talk fishing. Been out on Cooks last week a few times and cant buy a jumbo. Only dinks. have the jumbo schools moved out? tried deep and shallow same results small perch. Anyone have any luck? tips? thanks

When I find them this time of year I find them on sand and small rocks.
Usually somewhere where completely plain with little to no structure.
A small drop is enough.

Agree with Disco.

Try more rocky and sandy bottoms . I am periodically catching jumbos in such areas when fishing for walleye (not on Simcoe though).

Big perch love crayfish so try those areas and crayfish imitators as bait.

When the peak of the post spawn bite is over (around this time of year) it slows down for a while and then it picks up again.

Thank-you for the tips. I will try again later this week when the weather clears up I never used crayfish baits for perch? Thought that was only for bass. Very interesting. thanks

It's hard to find a good small crayfish imitator. Something like Crazy flapper by Keitech in 2.8" size would work.
Keitech makes amazing plastic baits - top notch.

It's hard to find a good small crayfish imitator. Something like Crazy flapper by Keitech in 2.8" size would work.
Keitech makes amazing plastic baits - top notch.

Cool thank-you! I was looking for crayfish baits and they are all too big. Looks like the small crazy flapper is perch sized. I also found these at Cabelas, but they are bigger

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/90308/yum-crawbug

hey riverrat look for Z-MAN they have crawfish about 1" long...

Wow thanks! Found the z-man craws can't wait to try these. Will report success or failure. lol

Ive caught 2 jumbos on a pumpkinseed tube while aiming for crappy. LOTS of very tiny ones and one enromous sunfish.

Micro tubes like this imitate a fleeing crayfish. About an inch, Red tube with yellow tentacles has historically been the most productive for me. Can even tip it with a 1/4” piece of worm to sweeten the deal. Cast out in 15-25 fow and slowly bounce it back over the bottom…. Bass love em too.

We were out a week ago on Cooks Bay, and we did not mark any big schools of perch in 10-30FOW. The wind picked up and we decided to hit the NE shoreline as our launch was on the east side of Cooks. We ended up with 2 jumbos at around 8FOW with rocks and sand bottom, then my partner just started hammering the rock bass with his grub jig similar to the above picture, but only a little bigger in size as we were trying to target perch still. We probably caught around 30 or so rock bass and a bunch of dinks within 2 hours. It was so much fun once we got constant bites. I think we are done with perch searching this year and wait until fall. But bass is opening soon!!!

Thank-you everyone for the tips. Crawfish baits worked and we did get a few jumbo perch. Nothing really during the day but at dawn it was good fishing. Thanks

Hi,
Is anyone catching perch these days?
For the last 3 weekends I only get small dings.
Nothing seriously. I am going from 11FOW to 42FOW. I am marking some fish but only small ones biting.

The past two weeks we have found bigger perch, all have been in the 18-24' depth.
Around the islands off the shoals. Anywhere people are fishing smallies where there are boulders and sand. They are adjacent to those areas, just in the deeper water. Right now they have been in open flats with no real structure. Allowing your bait to drag weed and slime free along bottom. Soft plastics, minnow/goby and any brownish 2.5" swimbait have been better than natural minnow colours.

Yup. I caught more jumbos than smallies