This winter has been the coldest in a few years, causing many brackish water areas on Eastern Long Island to freeze over. Besides some questionably safe ice fishing opportunities, this was a difficult winter to fish out East. With the thaw comes an opportunity to chase my favorite panfish, white perch. The Morone Americana, a fish that shares a genus and many aspects of appearance with striped bass, is found in tidal estuaries, landlocked salt marshes, and freshwater lakes throughout Eastern North America. On Long Island, you’ll find them in areas where fresh and saltwater meet, usually creeks and marshes.
We are quite fortunate to have perch of extraordinary quality on Long Island, with many opportunities for fish like the one pictured above, a hefty 16.5” fish from last season that weighed over two pounds! Perch of this size are elusive and make for some gratifying tug in cold weather. In 2025, I have caught some quality perch already, including a dozen fish over 12” just a couple days ago. They are beginning to bite pretty well, and March figures to be a strong month when the wind isn’t blowing too obnoxiously.
When it comes to tackle for white perch, go light. An ultralight to medium-light outfit with 4-8lb line and matching fluorocarbon will suffice. In terms of lures, there are really only a handful of essentials. White marabou jigs in the 1/16 oz size, jigheads of varying weights from 1/32 to ¼ oz, and some 1.5-3” soft plastics to pair with those jigheads. Some personal favorites are the Lunker City fin-s fish and Berkley Powerbait curly tails. Spoons and spinners also work when the perch are feeding aggressively, but can be a tough sell to the finicky early-season fish.
For the bait angler, grass shrimp and nightcrawlers are superior baits. Small live killies account for some good action with larger perch. Baits can be fished on hi-lo rigs or suspended beneath a bobber, depending on location and conditions. I find bait to be very effective in the bitter cold. The perch can be picky with regards to presentation. Try worms on hooks, but also on jigheads. If a whole worm is not working, try a half. If one grass shrimp isn’t getting a bite, put on a second. The point is, you have to treat the perch a bit more like a game fish. They fully earn their ‘fake striper,’ nickname.
While perhaps not the same sure-fire bet as other panfish, white perch are a great way to get used to feeling that familiar thump of a striped bass, long before the larger cousins come to town for the Summer.