My olive hued bucktail jig settled to the rocky bottom of the reservoir.

A few seconds later, a light tick signaled a bite from the 12-foot depths. Moments later, a fat yellow perch was on the leave-covered surface of Piney Dam, an impounded portion of the Clarion River. It was one of several that made its way into the boat during an outing last week that produced a mixed bag of not only yellow perch, but walleyes and smallmouth bass, too.

Certain species are know for biting well in cold water. The yellow perch is one of them, providing some of the last action of the open water season, as well as when a layer of safe ice covers lakes and reservoirs, and hard water anglers continue the quest.

Many of our state’s waters harbor yellow perch, but it’s quality sized perch that interest anglers the most, ones over nine inches in length.

That trims the list down significantly. In the western part of the state, two waters that come to mind are Presque Isle Bay and Kahle Lake. Both of these waters see a significant effort directed toward yellow perch, especially after they are ice-covered.

Thanks to its northern location, Presque Isle Bay typically provides a lengthy ice fishing season. The same is true of Kahle Lake, where anglers work channel edges in the lower portion of the lake for yellow perch, as well as quality-sized crappies and bluegills.

The past couple of years, I’ve caught some nice-sized perch from the lower Allegheny River, Pool 6 in particular, while fishing for walleyes. But it’s unlikely the population is dense enough to target them specifically, but they are welcomed bonuses while fishing for ‘eyes. I’ve seen the same thing there with crappies over the years; you don’t catch many, but the ones you do catch tend to be big.

Though not noted for large yellow perch, a few years ago my friend Dave Lehman and I got into big numbers of big perch during the late fall/early winter period. Again, we were targeting walleyes when be happened into a school of large yellow perch talong the edge of a large submerged hump in the lower end of the lake.

For several consecutive weekends, blessed with moderate (for the season) air temperatures and wind, we loaded up on nine to 12-inch perch that were more than willing to hit our jigging spoons fished in 18 to 20-foot depths.

It’s been a few seasons since I’ve returned to Pymatuning to target perch during the fall, but hope to this season. Given the numbers of small to medium-sized perch we caught this summer while walleye fishing there, it’s quite possible there are larger ones out there, fish that don’t show up until the water is cold.

Though it flies under the radar, Piney Dam is also a worthy destination for good-sized yellow perch. Since my family has a camp only a couple miles from this long, twisting reservoir, some of my first fishing experiences took place from it’s boulder-lined banks.

We caught big perch then, when water quality was marginal. With the river much cleaner, it’s even more productive.

A variety of lures and baits will take yellow perch during the late fall. I prefer to keep things simple, relying on blade baits, jigging spoons, jig-and-minnow combinations, and bucktail jigs.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle