The Kenora section on Lake of the Woods can provide some good perch fishing. They are definitely secondary here to smallmouth bass, pike and walleye, but there are some perch in the area and if you can find the schools of them, you can put a lot of fish in the boat. In many of the areas though, you are going to find smallmouth bass and walleye. Fish the weed beds that you can find and don’t rule out the rocky shorelines and offshore structure. You may have to do some searching to find the schools of perch, but when you do, you can catch some quality perch here.
Fishing Kenora in the Spring
| Month | Avg. Temps °F (Hi/Lo) |
| March | 31° / 8° |
| April | 48° / 26° |
| May | 63° / 40° |
Schools of perch will move into the shallows in the spring and many anglers will target them along with crappie too. If you can find the schools of minnows in the bays, you should be able to find some perch and crappie a few weeks after ice out through their spawn.
Fishing Kenora in the Summer
| Month | Avg. Temps °F (Hi/Lo) |
| June | 72° / 49° |
| July | 78° / 56° |
| August | 74° / 53° |
Finding perch in the summer is a little bit harder, but there are good numbers of perch in the lake. If you have good electronics, search for deeper weed edges and suspended perch out in deeper water. Perch move a lot and there’s a lot of water to roam around in on Lake of the Woods.
Fishing Kenora in the Fall
| Month | Avg. Temps °F (Hi/Lo) |
| September | 62° / 43° |
| October | 49° / 34° |
| November | 30° / 17° |
In the fall, perch can usually be found in many of the same areas as the middle of summer. Perch continue to roam the open waters of the main basin. Some anglers report good success fishing the deeper weed edges until the green weeds start to die off.
Fishing Kenora in the Winter (Ice Fishing)
| Month | Avg. Temps °F (Hi/Lo) |
| December | 14° / -5° |
| January | 10° / -11° |
| February | 18° / -6° |
Ice fishing is popular on this part of Lake of the Woods and some anglers do well with perch. These fish can be hit or miss so if you find a school, you may do really well while on other days, you may just end up with some walleye and northern pike instead.
More Fishing Tips
Fishing the Bays
Fishing for perch early in the year is one of the more reliable patterns here. As waters warm in the spring, you can find them in many of the bays here. The bays with weeds will usually be the better areas to fish for them, but you can find them away from the weeds as well. In summer and fall, the bays may still hold plenty of perch, however, many of the bigger schools will roam the open waters.
Open Water Perch Fishing
Once water temperatures warm up, most of the better perch will go roam the open waters. Whether you find them on the offshore structure or just roaming the open water near schools of bait fish, there are some good perch in this area. They may not always be easy to find, but when you find a school of jumbo perch, you may catch a bunch in a hurry.
Fishing the Weeds
There are some weeds in this area, but definitely a lot more rocks. When you find the weeds, you’re usually going to find plenty of pike, but you will also find some perch in these areas. Perch love the weeds and this is a good pattern to fish if you’re looking for perch.