Do white, black or blue baits work for perch?

White does. A white or pearl minnow-profile plastic or small spoon matches the shiners and young-of-year baitfish that bigger perch chase, and because white reflects whatever light is left, it stays visible at depth after painted hues have faded. Black is a minor player: perch feed in good light and inspect from close range, so they seldom need a pure silhouette; small dark jigs are a clear-water niche, imitating insect larvae rather than shouting. Blue is the weakest bet — if the perch eye resembles the walleye's, as its family tree suggests, blue mostly reads as a dark shade, so a blue-and-silver spoon is working through its flash, not its paint. None of this has been tested directly on yellow perch; it is family resemblance plus what reliably fills pails.

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