W
arm water fish spawn in the spring. The length of daylight in March, accompanied by increased oxygen levels from snow and ice melt, triggers fish to form large schools as they anticipate the coming spawn that will occur in the shallows after ice-out. This is the absolute best time of the year to fish for white perch. Several small schools will join to form large schools. These huge schools of fish have one thing on their minds this time of year…food! They need to eat before the spawn, and they’re after hatching insects in the mud and smelt. Finding schools of pre-spawn white perch means non-stop action that sometimes lasts all day. When I am fishing for white perch or crappie, you will usually see me sitting over a basin or on an inside turn as the sun rises. To clarify, a basin is a depression, and an inside turn is like an underwater cove. Whether I’m targeting crappies or bluegills, or white perch, I focus on areas 25 to 30-feet of water. Zooplankton rise from the bottom at dusk and feed until the sun begins to rise at dawn. This concentration of plankton draws baitfish, which in turn draws gamefish. Basins can be fished early and late in the day since zooplankton concentrations will be highest then and the bowl-like feature of the basin will hold the plankton and baitfish in that area, but they can also serve as a resting place for well-fed white perch or crappies, so basins are always worth a look.
