Clam Drop Jig, Size 12, 1/16 oz, Wonderbread
Clam
Minnesota ice-house tungsten with a flat tie-eye that puts the hook where soft-mouthed crappies keep their secrets. Small, dense, and weirdly charming in Wonderbread paint.
View on Amazoncass-lake · 2026-09-18
Cass Lake — Perch Over the Weed Tops, Crowds Included
Source: Fishrapper / Jeff Sundin
The matching tray
If the dock talk is real, here’s the tray that matches
Same hardware we already point at on the species and gear pages. Not a secret, not a bite chart — just the stuff that lives in Minnesota boats.
Rapala Original Floater F03
Rapala
The wounded-minnow that started arguments in more Minnesota tackle boxes than we can count. Twitch it, drown it, or just believe in it.
View on Amazon
Mepps Musky Killer Inline Spinner Bucktail, Hot White
Mepps
The classic inline that muskie anglers argue about the way people argue about pizza toppings. Slow-roll early, burn it later — the blade starts spinning without needing a TED Talk.
View on AmazonPanfish notes →Panfish & crappie jigs →Cass Lake →
mnFISHON is an Amazon Associate. We may earn a commission if you buy through this link. See the affiliate disclosure.
Fresh public signal dated Sept. 18, 2026: Jeff Sundin’s Fishrapper “Fun with Dick and Paul” fall-session recap. Day one started on Winnie (eyes marked, bite stubborn — his read plus friends on the lake), then the crew bailed west to Cass for perch. This card is the Cass chapter only. We’re not turning his unnamed Day-two crappie lake into an MN Fish On pin.
What he walked into
Perch on Cass have been “widely reported,” and Sundin agrees the bite is real — with a honesty caveat he puts on the page: size quality is below what he’s used to in prior years. Expect sorting if you’re building a meal.
The other caveat: boats everywhere. He names clusters in front of Norway Beach Resort, around Cedar Island, and on East Bar, Steve’s Bar, Buck, and more. Crowding turned him off, so he kept moving for quieter water. Treat those names as “people were there,” not as a recommendation to stack in.
How they found keepers
Search pattern from that trip: troll weed edges with spinners until something keeper-sized shows, mark it, then stop and work it with jigs. The productive school he describes was on a small, weedy, shoreline-related point, with perch riding high over the weed tops — not glued to the bottom. Same high-riding pattern as a Cass trip he fished the week before.
Presentation that matched: 1/16-ounce live-bait jigs tipped with large fatheads or golden shiners, fished so the bait falls slow. He also kept pace on Berkley Realistix-style soft plastics with the same slow fall and a tip-tick bite. Bottom-hugging heavy jigs are the trap he warns against when fish are up in the grass.
One afternoon’s cooler (his numbers, not a census)
That Cass perch session: 39 perch total, 23 solid keepers in the 10–11 inch band, plus 16 smaller fish (~9–10”) they kept for a supper-club fry. One guide crew, one afternoon — useful texture, not a lake-wide average.
How to use this
Useful: dated midweek Cass perch note with presentations and a clear “fish are up in the weeds / crowds are real” warning. Not useful: treating bar names like a tournament map or assuming every weed edge is loaded. Confirm current MN DNR regs before harvest.
Sources:
- September 2026 Minnesota fishing reports — Sept. 18 “Fun with Dick and Paul” — Fishrapper / Jeff Sundin (Cass perch section of the fall-session recap)
- Older MN Fish On Cass card for early-September eyes/bars context: Cass Lake — Day Jigs, Night Bars