Monster VT Perch

I woke up Christmas Day, eager to wet a line. After hanging around for the morning festivities at my aunt's house, which involved eating delicious cinnamon buns and watching everyone tear into their presents, my Dad and I ate lunch and headed up to Stiles for the evening. We arrived at around 12:30 or so. As we were unloading our sleds and gear, Williev18 showed up with a pack of kids. He gave us some pointers on where he had had success with big perch in the past and we were on our way. Once we reached our general destination, a couple holes were punched and we began to probe the waters in search of some fish. At this point it was probably around 25 degrees and sunny with winds 10-15 mph out of the north. I fished the first hole that I came to and it wasn’t long before I was hooked up with a 20+ inch pondweed!! After icing a couple more weeds and providing a free lawn care service for the fish, it was time to make a move.

I ventured off on my own and began to fish an area fifty yards or so from the previous. It was deeper here, probably in excess of twenty feet, and my 1/16th ounce tungsten wasn’t going to cut it. I threw on a jig better designed for fishing deep water and sent it on it’s way down the hole to the icy cold waters below. Almost immediately, I was being pestered by a constant barrage of nibbles. I probably set the hook twenty times before I finally hooked up with my quarry, or at least, I thought I had. The fish wasn’t putting up much of a fight at all. Once in the hole I saw a tiny little perch on the end of my line, no more than four inches long. I plopped him into the hole and got back to fishing. For the first hour or hour and a half, it seemed like we could only catch one or two fish in each hole, most around that 3-5 inch mark with a rare few any larger than that. We kept hole hopping until both my Dad and I found holes that were offering consistent action.

“Do you want to set up the shanty?” I asked my Dad. We still had over two hours left of fishing and the wind didn’t show any signs of letting up. Engulfed by the shadow of the Western hill, the temperature seemed to be dropping fairly rapidly.

“Sounds like a good idea!” he replied, pulling the Clam Junior off of it’s sled. Before long, we were inside, sheltered from the wind and the cold. As usual, the bite died under the shanty and I decided to sacrifice my warm hands for some action. It bewilders me how a hole 15 yards away from the shanty can produce fish after fish, while the shanty is almost completely dead! The bite was ON in the hole I was fishing and the perch seemed to be getting a little bigger and a little bigger. Still looking for a MA Yellow Perch, I would race any decent sized fish back to the shanty to be measured. 10 inches, 11.5 inches, 11 inches. Apparently I haven’t seen a big perch in a while because I thought that every fish with some shoulders on it was pushing that 13 inch target length. Little did I know, that was about to change.

At around 4 O’Clock, I moved back to the hole that my Dad was fishing when he first found the school of dinks. By this point in time I had switched over to a new lure I had received for Christmas. As soon as my bait hit the bottom I had a SOLID thump and set my hook into a monster!! My UL rod was doubled over and I could barely get the fish to budge. Big head shakes signified that this was a big fish. Was it a perch, a smallie, a pickerel? I looked down the hole to see what I had on. Suddenly, a massive perch filled the 4.5 inch hole, with the tiny hook threatening to pop out at any moment. I muckled on and dragged her onto the ice. I yelled to my Dad to get the tape measure out and sprinted back to the fish hut. 13.5 inches!! Unfortunately we had forgotten our camera back at the truck so this fish was coming home for dinner. I jumped around for a bit and exchanged fist bumps with my Dad, my body full of adrenaline, and then got back to fishing.

Moments later I was tied into another slab, probably around 12.5 inches. The next fish was bigger than them all. With drag pulling runs and big headshakes, I called out to my Dad for backup. He said that he had a fish on as well. I ripped off my glove and got my hand ready to grasp the fish on the end of my line. Once I got my thumb in the fish's mouth, I began to realize just how big this fish was. I was soon staring at the biggest perch of my life, just shy of 14 inches!!! I began hyperventilating with excitement and awe and my Dad ran out with his fish. We laid them on top of each other and they could’ve been twins! Both fish were put down the hole and we got our lines back down as quickly as possible, fearing that the bite would shut off. Just the opposite happened though. As darkness began to fall over the pond, the fish just kept on coming and biting more ferociously. I could barely keep my bait in the water. The final fish of the day was a beast. As soon as I set the hook into it she began stripping drag. With 4 pound test line, all I could do was keep the pressure on her. Eventually the fish began to tire and neared the hole. My Dad ran over when he saw me remove her from the water and said “You have to keep that one!” The beautiful fish measured 14.1 inches long and weighed just over 1 pound and now stands as my biggest Perch to date! It was certainly a trip that I will never forget.

A special thanks to Will for pointing us in the right direction! I can’t help but to think that if you weren’t there we may not have caught a single fish that day. Hope to see you on the ice again sometime!