Greg, Allan, and Patrick: Curlew Lake - 1/18-23/2023

We enjoyed some very good ice fishing for perch at Tiffany’s Resort at Curlew over a long weekend. Allan fished from Tuesday afternoon through Monday. Patrick and I met up with Allan for several days while he was there. It took us a day or two to find spots that consistently produced keeper sized perch. We drilled a lot of holes in the part of the lake near Tiffany’s. Curlew is loaded with perch, but many are of the 5 to 8 inch variety…too small to keep. Sorting through the smaller fish to get to the 10 to 12 inchers took some work, but we were happy to put in the time at this beautiful lake near Republic. Ice depth was 9 inches.

Presentation and bait: Small spoons like Buckshots and Swedish Pimples tipped with bait caught fish, but a simple tungsten jig (3 to 5 mm) worked the best. Gold tungsten was consistently effective, but other colors also caught perch. We had success with wax worms, perch cut bait (tiny strips), and perch eyes. But the most effective bait for us was a maggot or two on a tungsten jig fished within a foot of the bottom.

Our best days were Friday and Saturday when we filled a 5 gallon bucket with perch. Many of them were larger than 10 inches. We mainly targeted depths of 25 to 35 feet of water. You could catch perch in deeper water, but the mortality rate was high for fish brought up from the deep.