Spring perch fishing excellent on Flathead Lake

The spring perch phenomenon on the far east side of Polson Bay is happening weeks earlier than normal. 

On March 27, Marty Herrick and I took the afternoon to research this incredible fishing opportunity.  First of all a temperature inversion kept fog on the Flathead to well afternoon so that the unfiltered radiant solar heat hadn’t begun to affect the water temperature.  We couldn’t see the shoreline but the sun had some penetration.  I was navigation by being aware of the sun position off my right shoulder but even at that we had to continually readjust to keep from running aground.  Finally the sun burned through the fog and we were able to see our destination.  Old school survived again without a GPS. 

As we approached ground zero for the schools of spawning perch we became aware that a fishery that at one time was little known has become wildly popular.  I looked at Marty and said, “Welcome to Perch City”.  There were close to 30 boats and probably 100 fishermen and women in a fairly tight knit group. 

As far as I could tell everybody was catching fish.  Marty and I ended up with near a 42 Quart cooler full of perch with one nice small mouth bass.  (see Picture)

Normally, night crawlers are the preferred bait but I found I caught more large fish with cut perch which I changed often throwing the leached out old piece back in the lake for chum. 

Because the water was slightly murky a setup with bright yellow flies was more visible and brought the fish in better than a plain hook.  Marty was also having success bringing the fish close to the boat using a large silver Vibrax Spinner. 

We caught fish anywhere from a 3 foot depth out to almost 6 feet. 

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