Do perch hit spinners, spoons and small hard baits — or only jigs and bait?

They hit them well, and hardware is a fine way to find a school. A small in-line spinner, size 0 to 2, retrieved slowly just above bottom or along a weed edge is a classic open-water perch lure — flash and thump call the competitive fish, and the rest follow. Small casting spoons and jig-spinners do the same job less often. Tiny crankbaits and minnowbaits of about 5 cm (2 in) take fewer but bigger perch, a useful filter when dinks swarm. Under the ice, a small rattling lipless bait has become a jumbo tool: it calls fish in, and the biggest, boldest perch eat it. The limit is the peck-and-taste bite — bare metal and plastic get tested and dropped, so on tough days go back to a jig tipped with bait.

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