The Fish Foodchain & Migration Tables

Freshwater

a) Catfish (freshwater)
b) Snapper Turtle (freshwater)
c) Trout (stocked)
d) Pickeral
e) Perch

f) White Perch
Wrongly named, as this is not a perch at all, but a member of the bass family, and a close cousin of the striper. Once plentiful, the number of these tasty fighters has been drastically reduced to about ten percent of their population of 20 years ago. A dozen explanations could be afforded for this, but I believe the over protection of the striped bass is the whole reason for this.

Our estuary system is in trouble as it only produces enough food to sustain a certain amount of fish. As the striper is more prolific than the perch, the striper consume huge amounts of food which the perch also needs to prosper. As a result, the striper has become the dominant fish and not only eats the food that the perch eats, they also eat the perch themselves. So unless the limits on stripers is amended the perch is all but doomed.

The perch that are left can be caught on a large variety of baits. These include shedders, minnows, grass shrimp and blood worms. They can also be caught 12 months a year, even through the ice in certain area.

For a lot of action, I would be using a 1/0 hook on a 20 pound leader, a large swivel, 20 pound test would normally supply enough weight to cast. The bait would be bloodworms or shedder. For minnows a #2 shot shank on 20 pound, with the same swivel. If the crabs are thick, a bobber may be necessary. For grass shrimp, a #4 long shank on 20 lb. The reason for the long shank is so I cold put at least four to six shrimp on the hook. Also, if I were to use the grass shrimp, which I net myself, I would be sure to chum the hell out of the place with additional grass shrimp.

Two good variations for using any bait excluding minnow are 1/8 ounce bucktails in white, however the hair is too long, and about a half to an inch should be trimmed off. The other is a 1/0 teaser. Without the lead head, trim as above. One other thing I had lots of success with is to use a small ball of Styrofoam in place of the lead head on the teaser. The teasers would be prewar, and the ball slid down to cover the eye of the hook. I painted the balls with white acrylic and then used epoxy to cover the whole head and front of the leader. These worked great and some spring I’m going to used these as my main perch getter, only in two sizes

Saltwater Fish

a) Mackeral
b) Bluefish
c) Weakfish
d) Striped Bass
e) Drum – Red, Black
f) Snapper Fish
g) Kingfish
h) Tog
i) Seabass
j) Croaker
k) Sharks
l) Tuna