[watthe555]

hi guys, im going to go fishing at Bantam Lake this weekend for some pike. i want to use yellow perch as my bait to catch them, but i need some help. whats the best bait to catch the yellow perch with? what are some good places near burlington CT to catch the yellow perch? how should i fish them for the pike (cut up, or live bait)? ill be happy with any response.

-phil

[Crest Daddy]

I havent caught yellow perch besides through the ice in a long time, but i think i remember them hitting small spinners and minnow type lures. Probably worms too.

[watthe555]

ok thanks. i was thinking about just putting a worm and a small worm. i dont mind catching a sunfish too, anything that i can use to catch a pike.

[SAP284]

Yellow perch love worms. I've caught a handful on night crawlers lately. I was fishing for other fish and seemed to pull yellow perch left and right.

[watthe555]

if i may ask. where were you fishing?

[therieldeal]

I have always caught plenty of both yellow perch and sunfish on those little phoebe minnow shaped spoons. My girlfriend loves catching “little fish” and my gold 1/4 oz. phoebe is her favorite lure. However, I agree that using actual worms should give you a better ratio of time spent to fish caught…
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PB's:
LMB - 4 pounds - Stump Pond, Thompson
Carp - 11 pounds - W. Thompson Lake, Thompson

Still searching for some toothy critters big enough to be worth weighing...

[PECo]

A small shallow diving stickbait (e.g., floating Rapala) or crankbait trolled over submerged weeds will often get you both yellow and white perch. The little cannibals love a yellow perch patterned lure. There are tons of perch in the south bay of Bantam Lake. A big northern pike is a lazy fish, so I'd go with dead bait. I'd stick a mangled, bloody, dead perch on a big treble hook underneath a big bobber and just let it float out there behind my boat. Don't forget to use a steel leader.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[SAP284]

I caught them at rainbow reservoir in Windsor. Just don't go on the weekends it's chaotic.

[watthe555]

Peco, are you sure the dead bait would work? but i like your idea on making it bloody and cutting it all up.

-phil

[dcfryxell]

read this recently.... sharing because im not sure how good yellow perch will be for pike. maybe try to catch some small bullheads???

“Northern pike aren’t always the veracious eaters people think they are,” said Todd Kalish, fisheries biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “They prefer to eat soft-rayed fish. That’s fish without spikes, like suckers, herring, shiners and shad, versus prickly walleyes, panfish or bass.” According to data collected by the Wisconsin DNR, Kalish added, muskie and pike will feed on fish with poky pectorals if they have to, but these fish make up less than 5 percent of their diet.

[PECo]

I'm no expert, but Flipper says that big golden shiners or fallfish, dead or alive, are the way to go. I guess that those are both soft rayed fish.

Over the last two days, mep21 (aka Mark) and I proved my hypothesis that yellow perch like to hit yellow perch patterned lures. He got one on the Hockanum River yesterday and I got one on the Farmington River today. I'm not sure what kind of lure Mark used, but mine was a Rapala SSR-5.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[dcfryxell]

was fishing mhollow today at mouth of fenton. a guy was freespooling fallfish and landed a nice pike... my guess is 10 or 11 pounds. i was jealous.