what bait to use for perch and bluegill

[fishballer06]

Fathead's.

Perch, crappie, bluegill, white bass, rock bass. They will catch them all.

[Big Bait Fishing]

don't know about perch since there are none where i live but for blue gill , i find that the best bait is raw shrimp !

i go to the seafood counter in my local grocery store and ask them for a dollar or two of medium size peeled shrimp ( about 6 or 7 shrimp) , take them home and dice them into tiny pea sized chunks and throw them in a zip lock , at the end of the day , just throw them in the freezer to use for another day !!

[jr231]

Are we still talking about how to catch bluegill lol.. anything on a hook. They can fit in their mouths, they will eat. 

The perch techniques are a ittle more interesting IMO 

[NYWayfarer]

I was fishing on a dock this weekend for smallmouth when along came a group of young ladies to fish. They were using live nightcrawlers and were catching both perch and bluegill.

I was nice to see girls interested in fishing and how many perch they caught. My ego was saved when I pulled in a keeper bass that looked like it could have swallowed their biggest fish.

[2tall79]

Best bait I have ever used to catch perch?   Perch.   After you catch a couple on worms or whatever, fillet the last 3" off the tale.  Leave the skin on and hook right thru meat and skin.  You might have to use a swivel and leader to prevent line twist.

[jr231]

Interesting ^

[IndianaFinesse]

28 minutes ago, 2tall79 said:

Best bait I have ever used to catch perch?   Perch.   After you catch a couple on worms or whatever, fillet the last 3" off the tale.  Leave the skin on and hook right thru meat and skin.  You might have to use a swivel and leader to prevent line twist.

Yep, the nice thing with using perch meat for bait is it only takes one worm to catch a limit of perch.  I have also done this for rainbow trout in light current, except I put it on a drop shot. 

[MikeWright]

Why has nobody said, CORN! Canned corn is so awesome and cheap....you'll pull in so many off a dock that it'll be annoying taking them off the hook. 

[NYWayfarer]

13 hours ago, MikeWright said:

Why has nobody said, CORN! Canned corn is so awesome and cheap....you'll pull in so many off a dock that it'll be annoying taking them off the hook. 

Amen! I have so many memories of catching Sunfish with canned corn at the end of a bobber line as a kid. Cheap and 1 can will last the whole day and then some.

[N Florida Mike]

Try worms.?

[fishwizzard]

 I fish for white perch a lot and have the most luck with small spinnerbaits or inline spinners.  Chartruse seems to be the magic color around here. 

[Bassun]

Can't beat a nightcrawler around here... course, you may end up with something other than a small panfish, and we wouldn't want that, lol.  But, artificial wise I have the best luck for gill's with flies.  Popping or any floating really, work amazingly well.  

For spinning gear, I prefer tiny grubs. 1 to 2 inch works well, scale size vs numbers, and mix up colors.  White, yellow, pink are the three I toss the most though.  Perch will nab the 2" variety pretty well too, especially white.  But, honestly, I do better with small thin baits like a countdown rapala etc for Yellow Perch.

Crappy, well, I'm a crappy Crappy fisherman.  My best luck has always been minnow shaped, silver rubber.  (Live minnows are king locally though.)  2" rubber minnows have done the best for me, occasionally I've done well with rooster tails, but tend to loose too many brushing the cover.  If they are hungry, you can catch some slabs on bigger grubs though.

[S. Sass]

On 9/18/2016 at 8:42 PM, Penguino said:

worms, worms and more worms.

There is one pool we named perch pool because of the large size and number of perch. We ran out of worms and caught grasshoppers. When we got tired of chasing grasshoppers I tried a small tube on a 1/8oz jig and never missed a beat. But worms are the irresistible meal here. 

[clayton86]

I've been drop shotting for gills and perch lately with gulp 1" minnows, gulp crickets, gulp 1" leaches. Went last week and caught 30 keepers pie plate sized and threw back twice as many. 

[Molay1292]

A small piece of split shot, a small hook and a small piece of worm will catch you a lot of bluegill/sunfish.

[Outdoor Zack]

On ‎10‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 1:42 PM, Molay1292 said:

A small piece of split shot, a small hook and a small piece of worm will catch you a lot of bluegill/sunfish.

This all day long.

But hooking them with lures and flies can be more fun