Late Autumn Perches
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Autumn is the time, when in the Archipelago the perches gather up as large schools. Their main purpose is to eat as much as possible, because the heavy winter and ice-deck are coming soon. Then there is not much of food to eat. All fishes are cold-blooded animals. That is why they minimize their moving in the cold winter waters. The autumn, when water temperatures still are high, is the time to load energy for the winter. The perches can then have incredible eating orgies. What a nice thing for us fishermen! From September to the end of November is the time, when it is possible to catch large amounts of perches. You only have to remember Your limits: No delicacy is good when You have it too much. Just take what You eat.
The weathers this time of the year can be raw and heavy. That is why the boat and its equipments have to be in top form. Every fisherman has to have floating systems: A rescue- or a floating-suit. If You have only the floating-vests, remember the warm and water-proof clothing. The anchor is a must. When the wind is blowing heavily, it is impossible to stay on the hot spot without the anchor. Good system is to have a double anchor. Tie a smaller anchor two or three meters in front of the main anchor. This helps a lot, because this way the holding angle will be correct. It is important to have navigation equipments, too. There is no idea to go fishing without a sea-map and a compass. The fogs and rains can be so thick, that there is no visibility at all. Weather forecasts are important. If there is a warning of coming storms, stay in the harbour. Warm up the sauna and wait for the better weather conditions.
Fishfinder is the easiest way to locate the schools of perches. The only problem is to find the schools which are eating. Effort and error or success is the way to find the hungry fishes. Deepwater areas, over ten meters, try first to find underwater hills. If the echo shows a nice hill and even a school of fishes You are perhaps on the hot spot. Not all the underwater hills are marked on the maps. You can find these secret spots by echo sounding. These hills cause water to stream and streams bring the food to the perches. If there is no technical helps to find the fishes, it is still possible to have good catches. Excellent places are the streams between the islands or under the bridges. Perches do not stay in the heaviest parts of the flows. They prefere the sidestreams where it is easier to stay and to wait for the food to come available. Perches gather up as schools in front of the bays and on steep underwater slopes, too. You have to find the right depth. The air bladder of a perch is a closed system. In the high pressure fishes swim to shallower waters and in the low pressure they swim to deeper waters. Barometer helps to make conclusions of the catch depths.
When the perches are hunting small fishes on the surface, all baits are good: jigs, spinners, small wobblers and even flies. These splashing schools show the places where to fish, when no surface life is going on. Late autumn time perches do not swim long away from hunting areas. They lay on the bottom and wait the minnows to come to their reach. The number one baits in autumn are jigs. Grub-, worm- and minnow-tails are all effective catchers both in shallow and deep waters. Easiest way to find the right colour is to start fishing with a jigtail-rig with three or four different colours. When the hit colour is found, go on fishing for instance with UL-tools. Fishing perches with light equipments is a pure enjoyment. When fishes are eating in deeper than six meters water, good baits are pilkki (=vertical winterfishing spoons), bottom rigs, jig- or vibro-rigs. Perches love to eat living worms (nightcrawlers). Even a jigsystem catches more fish, when a little piece of worm is added on the hook. The smell and the taste attract fishes. Good bait on the vertical pilkki is a small piece of fishmeat or especially fisheye. This autumn the number one bait has been three inches long grubtail jig in colour Motor Oil. Other good colours have been chartreusse, red and crystal clear.
When You are fishing perches in autumn, You have to remember the proverb: "Limit Your kill, don’t kill Your limit!" Take up and kill the fishes You are going to eat! Of course it is possible to store some beautiful filets in freezer, too. When waiting the ice-fishing season it is nice to make a delicate meal of perch-filets. In the philosophy of sportfishing there is no room for selling the catch. Pity, nowadays this happens too often here in Finland.