What Is The Perfect Hook Size For Perch For All Techniques?

Although many fishers only target yellow perch during the ice fishing season, there is the fact that they are available all year. Perch can grow over 3 pounds in some fisheries, and big trophy perch are a blast to capture all year.

However, proper setup and strategies are critical for catching perch successfully. Do you know how to choose the perfect hook size for perch for all techniques?

Choosing the appropriate hook size is a key component of rigging for perch, especially when finessing them with super light gear. We’ll go through the optimal perch hook size to utilize in this post and other sizing alternatives about different types of hooks and methods.

What Is The Perfect Hook Size For Perch For All Techniques?

Size 4 to 8 hooks are ideal for perch (with six as the best choice). However, you can use slightly larger or smaller hooks depending on the circumstances.

For example, when targeting large perch (or using large soft plastic baits), you can use a size two hook. If you’re targeting smaller perch (or using smaller bait), you can go down to size 10 or 12.

In my experience, it is possible to catch small perch with relatively large hooks, or vice versa, so the size of your bait decides the size of the hook. Also, since perch rarely grow larger than 3 to 4 pounds (and those sizes are uncommon), you have nothing to worry about a giant fish bending open a small hook.

As perch do not get very big, you can use a thin hook gauge, which results in a better hook setup. A thin hook is more effective at going into the yellow perch’s comparatively hard mouth.

What Kind Of Hook Should We Use For The Perch?

Some hook types that are suitable for catching perch:

Baitholder hook
Octopus hook
Circle hook
Drop shot hook
Treble hook

You should choose your perch fishing strategy, nightcrawlers, maggots, and wax worms. Work well with standard baitholder hooks. Minnows and other live baitfish are best fished with octopus and circle hooks.

When practising a drop shot rig, use a drop shot hook, and when targeting trophy perch with large baitfish, use treble hooks to optimize your hook-up ratio. Finally, you’ll need an offset hook if you want to practice weedless rigging with soft plastics.

Circle Hook Size For Perch

Sizes 4 to 6 are the ideal circle hook sizes for perch. Circle hooks should be snelled and have a large gap, and they’re perfect for live bait (minnows). Circle hooks rarely result in a deeply hooked fish and, instead, the fish hooking itself.

Suppose you want to use multiple rods with live bait. Using circle hooks is a perfect option or multiple tip-ups for perch ice fishing, even if you leave your rod unattended and give the perch a long time to swallow the bait. The perch will normally get hooked in the mouth corner, allowing you to release it after capturing it securely.

What Size Drop Shot Hook Should We Use For The Perch?

Sizes 2 to 6 are the optimum drop shot hook sizes for perch (with four as the best option). When utilizing large plastic swimbaits around 3 inches in length, a size two drop shot hook is useful since you want the hook’s point to jut out from the bait for the best hookups.

You can go down for size six and pair it with smaller soft plastics if you want to employ a direct drop-shot setup for smaller perch (or for fussy or timid fish in pressured lakes). When you see that fish don’t commit to eating your bait, or the bite slows down. It’s good to downsize a more sensitive and lightweight bait presentation.

What Size Treble Hook Should You Use For The Perch?

Sizes 12 to 16 are the optimum treble hook sizes for perch (with 14 as the best all-around option). Treble hooks are commonly used when rigging tip-ups for perch ice fishing since they help get more hookups and also perform well if you’re targeting to use this hook size for walleye and perch at the same time. A size 12 treble hook is also great for ice fishing with a single perch eyeball, one of the best perch ice fishing baits.

What Size Hook Should You Use For Small Perch?

A fishing hook size of 8 to 12 is ideal for small perch, and a size 8 or 10 octopus hook baited with a couple of spikes. A piece of nightcrawler or wax worms will easily capture little perch that don’t go much bigger than 5 inches in some fisheries. The identical arrangement works effectively for panfish and trout in many circumstances.

What Size Hook Should You Use For Ice Fishing Perch?

The optimal hook size for perch ice fishing is size 4 to 8. (with six as the best all-around option). Baitholder Hooks, either standard or octopus, can be used with worms or spikes and circle hooks with live minnows.

Many anglers use a jig head instead of a hook when ice fishing with live minnows because it helps keep the minnow down in the strike zone. You can also experiment with different jig head colors as an additional signal to induce more strikes.

What Is The Best Jig Size For Perch?

The optimal jig head size for perch is 1/32 oz to 1/8 oz. Tungsten jig heads are a personal preference as they are smaller and work better for delicate applications.

You can even use a 1/4 oz jig head when targeting trophy perch in open water, which will assist you in avoiding getting bitten by smaller fish. While yellow perch aren’t giant fish, you’d be astonished at how much bait they can do.

Conclusion

I hope you know how to choose the perfect hook size for perch for all techniques after reading this article. For more information, please check our website! Let’s go!