Outside the box for Jalopy Yellow Perch

At Jackfish Lures we believe firmly in an aggressive approach to fishing, no matter the species we target. Pike, Walleye, Yellow Perch, you name it we are going to get aggressive and get after it fast and furious. After all, fishing is more fun when your catching fish on a consistent basis, smiles get bigger with each fish landed and some bring a bigger smile than others. Yeah, Big Smiles, like my wife Laura had when we hit the jackpot looking for Yellow Perch on a field testing mission June 9th 2012. Conditions were perfect for it and we could smell it, wind had been blowing to the east for a few days pushing the bugs and prey fish into the slot as I call it. It's a term I use here at Jackfish Lures to describe a zone of water from 1 foot to 8 feet deep. I use this term SLOT when talking Perch or pan-fish, fishing in late spring to pre summer. When Laura heard me say the slot should be prime today, she got a big grin on her face.
Jackfish Lures Laura L #7 and Jalopy Yellow Perch that took an  MG Cadence series Spinner.

We went looking for perch in the slot, and in years past it's been fish under a pound and dominated by smaller fish. Jigs, worms, etc all work great and we would tally a few decent numbers but we were never totally satisfied. When Jackfish Lures team member Michael G and I developed the Cadence spinnerbait it was for one reason to be a multi species slammer. Along with that the development of our trout series and a new proto mini spinnerbait are part of this. It's why we decided to hit the slot this last weekend. The conditions were prime, water in the low 60's partly sunny and breezy with wind stacking up the eastern side of the lake for days. The slot 1 to 8 foot zone of water was just primed to perfection, and we took full advantage. We hammered it full on with an aggressive style most would never try in a million years. This time we got into the Jalopy's and documented the single finest field testing day for Yellow Perch in the history of Jackfish Lures.
That is my personal best Yellow Perch 1 pound 10 oz a real Jalopy.
Laura with a full color Jalopy on an orange Jackfish Lures trout spinner.

We started out casting Jackfish Lures MG Cadence spinnerbaits into the slot and right away we started getting hits from Jalopy perch. I am talking these fish were smashing the spinner, and sometimes as soon as it hit the water. Fighting Yellow Perch from way out is pure fun, and I tell you Laura was so excited. we went to the Trout series spinner and the little mini proto we are working on and the action just got faster and better. We were reeling these in at a medium fast pace, and the perch just slammed the lures. The lure size was critical because the little perch can't get these lures, only the Jalopy's can. In the 2 and half hours we spent in this particular slot we caught and documented 28 Yellow Perch over a pound, and some nearly two pound. Fish were in length from 12.5 inches to 14.5 inches, and fought like little freight trains. What we decided to do was get away from jigs and worms and other traditional perch fishing tackle. We went way outside the box and took the same approach as we do with Pike, Walleye and other species. The proof is in the photos folks, Perch like this are not something you see everyday. We hit the slot when it was prime and hit it aggressively with a fast Jackfish Lures run and gun approach.
This Jalopy took an oilslick color MG Cadence spinerbait.
Laura workin the trout spinner, one of her 14 Jalopy perch on June 9th 2012.

Perch this size are a true pleasure and I am so glad we got it right and hit this jackpot, it was one of the top 5 greatest Jackfish Lures field trips in our 17 year history. Now we have had a lot of people say wow bet they tasted great!! NO THEY DID NOT!!! We put every single one back!!!! Fish like this make bigger fish, we need to keep them going and keep fish like this with these genes in the lake to make more big perch. It is for this reason I am not going to mention this lake or the location. Because people will fish them out, and not think about the quality of the fishing. CONSERVATION it's one of the most important things we strive for when field testing Perch like this deserve to be in the lake. Now if your willing to get outside the box of conventional thinking when it comes to Yellow Perch fishing a day like this can be had by you also! However if your blessed to get into fish like this Please put them back!! Keep some of the smaller ones, for a dinner, and leave the biggies for a better future of Perch fishing, if we all do this, Perch like these will become the norm.

Gary Love, Jackfish Lures, WFN Ambassador, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada.