Are there any lakes with good population of Perch in the BWCA? I have seen a few in the surveys but they were old. Large plentiful perch lakes?

I have caught large amounts of perch in two places not necesarily big-

Canoe lake behind Hansen pretty small but agressive bit on plan hooks sorted through hundreds to get a few fish chips. Maybe a little exageration, but I am a fisherman.

John lake on the very east end caught quite a few on rapalas casting for Northern. Ten would follow your lure in to the canoe. They did not want anything to do with nightcrawlers though.

Caught quite a few on Kawishiwi Lake.....decent size. NW island campsite has a nice flat just east of it. There is a few "spots on the spot".

quote cowdoc: "Caught quite a few on Kawishiwi Lake.....decent size. NW island campsite has a nice flat just east of it. There is a few "spots on the spot"."

We pounded them on the Man Chain a few years ago......cannot remember the lake. Maybe the lake past Emerald.

Actually not the Man Chain. Might have been the lake North of Emerald, or the lake East( Plough).

I honestly cannot remember which lake though :(

Later,

Geo

Can't recall catching many perch in the bw, just a few here and there. There are lakes on the perimeter-SNF that hold big uns!

Two best perch lakes I've ever fished were Fourmile and Sullivan...both just south of the BWCA. Shagawa right in Ely has some big ones too. Of course this is 20 year old information so not sure if they still have big ones or not, but I would assume so...especially Sullivan due to limited access.

Inside the BWCA I have always gotten nice perch out of South Farm and Muskeg. Don't go to South Farm if you don't like motors though because they are allowed there and you will see/hear them...one of which will be mine! :)

I have seen a couple of shallow small lakes with really no other fish in them,just some very nice perch.

Gabbro has a good supply of nice size perch. We have caught a number in the 10-13" range.

Perch

Check out this previous thread on perch in the BWCA. My canoe partner and I posted some pics of our perch from Gabbro.

Crocodile has some huge perch.

Kekekabic has a few big perch-- not many,, but those that survive the medium sucker size-- get nerf football size.

quote walllee: "Crocodile has some huge perch."

+1

Bog also has some nice Perch...as does Eighteen Lake down by Isabella, just south of Bog.

quote Basspro69: " "

Those look delicious ! I hope everyone up there is surviving this harsh winter!

My friend caught the state record in Minnesota a 3 lb 4 oz perch.That was many years ago.

perent lake has some catch able perch. jigging for walleye produced nice perch.

Last year, we caught Perch with almost every cast two nights in a row on Gebe. Most relatively small, but a handful of nice sized "eaters".

North and South Fowl, as good as it gets for perch.

quote walllee: "Crocodile has some huge perch."

Agreed. I caught some huge perch there even on Rapalas. No walleyes for me, but the group near me sure did though.

My main experience with yellow perch was dissecting them in high school or college labs. I think Calif has only two small lakes with introduced yellow perch.

We have caught some perch every year for the last few years on Agnes in September. Not huge, but decent size.

Last year the big perch were about all we were able to find on Ensign. Toward the end of our trip we floated to the bay in the NW of the lake near where Dbldppr1250's fishing mark is on the google map.

There's a real shallow rock shelf in the middle of that area that drops off to a weed bed of around 6-8 feet depth. I think I was just dragging a leech around looking for 'eyes, but I switched to little beatle spin type lures and a roadrunner/slip bobber rig after I pulled up the first perch and had pretty solid luck bringing up some real nice 10-12+" perch along with a few decent pike who were there looking for lunch. I'd love to go back and just plumb the heck out of that area because we pulled up some real nice eaters.

Last year I tried using some little perch we caught from camp on a makeshift live bait rig made out of a #2 octopus hook, a twist tie, and a treble from a shad rap. In half an hour we had caught 2 pike over 30 in. One of which was pushing 37. A nice way to spend an little while in camp.

quote PINETREE: "My friend caught the state record in Minnesota a 3 lb 4 oz perch.That was many years ago."

Wow what a trophy.

quote ktoivola: "Can't recall catching many perch in the bw, just a few here and there. There are lakes on the perimeter-SNF that hold big uns! "

Love the color on that second one.

quote nladin: "Last year I tried using some little perch we caught from camp on a makeshift live bait rig made out of a #2 octopus hook, a twist tie, and a treble from a shad rap. In half an hour we had caught 2 pike over 30 in. One of which was pushing 37. A nice way to spend an little while in camp."

Isn't using caught fish as bait illegal? Might want to look into that so you don't risk getting dinged.

In MN you can use caught fish for bait (we do it often with Bullheads, Suckers, and Mooneye) but you cannot use "game"fish for bait. In MN perch are a "game"fish so they cannot be used for bait there. We do it in WI sometimes (it is legal here).