GREAT OUTDOORS: Perch spreaders give up ground to 'rigs'

When I was first introduced to perch fishing by my grandfather and dad more than 60 years ago, the standard operating procedure was to use a wire spreader with two snelled hooks, each baited with an emerald shiner.Each arm of the "perch spreader" would have a small blade at the end and the pre-tied snelled hooks would usually have a shiny spinner blade and red bead at the eye of the hook as an attractant.Later, tackle manufacturers tried to outdo each other by offering beads and blades in various colors to catch the attention of anglers who wanted to increase their chances of attracting perch and enticing them to bite.When perch fishing would get tough, many anglers minimized the amount of "bling" on their spreaders, thinking that sometimes too much flash spooks fish away.Others discovered that while spreaders still catch perch, better success can be more reliably achieved when using a perch "rig." Those come in a variety of names such as a crappie, bullhead, or drop shot rig. I am one of them. I haven't used a spreader since being "shown the light" while perch fishing one September morning in 1986 by Steve Szuch, known as "The King of Cooley Canal."He was a member of a family of commercial fishermen who became a minnow wholesaler who supplied bait stores with wild-caught Emerald shiners, the bait of choice for seasonal perch, walleye, crappie and white bass fishing.As I stubbornly clung to using my familiar wire spreader, he demonstrated the effectiveness of using a hand-tied perch rig by soundly outfishing me by a wide margin.I finally relented and asked him if he would tie another rig for me to use. Once I switched, he only outfished me 2:1 instead of 5:1. With one brief exception, I have not used a spreader since.That exception occurred when I momentarily fished with my grandfather's vintage 4½-foot J.C. Higgins rod and Akron Plueger reel just long enough to catch one perch in 2022. It was equipped with the same black braided line and wire spreader that he last used over 50 years ago.The low gear ratio on the reel and stiff wire spreader that dampens the detection of bites compared to the tug transmitted to the main line back to me using perch rigs made me wonder how we ever caught so many perch back then!One explanation is that they were much more plentiful, so we had more chances to catch them with our now-primitive equipment.Now, I am the perch rig guru who converted all my perch fishing partners to replace their spreaders with perch rigs by doing to them what Captain Szuch did to me back in 1986.Like Szuch, I hand tie my own effective "Crappie Rigs" that others may call a Skipper 9, Perch pounder or Bullhead rig. However, for those who do not have the patience, finger dexterity or desire to tie their own rigs, commercially made options are becoming numerous.Some of the brands include Apex Tackle Perch Bead Rig, White River Tackle Perch Pounder II, Thundermist Lure Company's T-Turn Bait Rig, Grapentin Perch Rig, Lindy Old Guide's Secret Perch Rig.Some local anglers use P-Line Three-Hook American Shad, Offshore Angler's Flash 'N Skin, or Hayabusa's Sabiki rigs.With reports still indicating that perch fishing is "on fire," I was able to join Captain Greg Kipps on Tuesday for a morning of perch fishing, departing from Turtle Creek Marina & Campgrounds.He is a member of Fishing Addiction's Pro Staff, which markets a multitude of fishing products and makes "Slammer Rigs" and "Perch Fly Rigs" sold in local bait shops.He charters with a Hewescraft boat, a heavy aluminum West Coast design that is becoming more popular in the Great Lakes.Armed with a selection of Perch Fly Rig colors, including Mellow yellow, red, orange, and purple, we were able to ice our limit of cooperative perch before 10 a.m. while fishing near D Can.