The last few trips that I've taken in search of perch, I've caught 80% female fish. However, today it was 80% male. The consistency of the numbers leads me to believe that it hasn't been just a conincidence. Does anyone know if perch school up in masses of one sex or the other? It sure seems to be the case as near as I can tell. The perch I caught today were all smaller and they were nearly all male too.
Also, I brought home three equally sized rainbows. One was very full of eggs and another had full sperm sacs, but the other two were not in any kind of spawning mode whatsoever. Do rainbows spawn every year or just every so often? Or, could they have planted some of the sterile rainbows in Jordanelle? I just thought it was wierd that some were getting ready to spawn while others were not. Any ideas?
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Yes, I believe Perch school by both sex and size. I've seen this same thing many times. The mature females are almost always larger than the males.
I'm not sure about the trout but I do know that at Deer Creek for example, they have both Spring and Fall spawning Rainbows.
FM
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Last time I was at Jordanelle . I caught mostly male in the perch . I think they may school of by size but it could have something to do with sex too .
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dont know about perch schooling in sexes or not. as for the rainbows they are spring spawners. the only time they spawn outside of that is when they are raised in a hatchery and the hatchery conditions them to spawn at other times. when they are planted after this they will spawn for the time they were conditioned too. therefore different spawning times for rainbows in different bodies of water. you know you have a good rainbow fishery when they all spawn in spring since they will all be wild or natural reproducing fish in there. unless of course they were planted with the same spawning times but i have noticed for some reason all the planters seem to spawn outside the natural rainbow spawning times.
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I don't know if they do, but it's a definite possibility. Other fish, such as LMB and carp school up by sex. Thats why you very rarely get big fat bass, but once you find them your more likely to catch more.
The rainbows are spring spawners, just like xman said. They go in and contend with the spawning cutthroughts, which is why the DWR is planting more and more sterile bows where cuts are.
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Good Info on the spawning practices of the fish. So you know of a good book that explains it more throughly?
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[#d91717]like my ole grandpappy always said,the more you know about fish the more fish you will catch. rainbows in the spring browns and macks in the fall.i dontknow anything about perch.[/#d91717]
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I knew that rainbows were spring spawners, but I couldn't figure out why only two of them were prepared to spawn, but X-Man's explaination makes a lot of sense. With the emergency dumping of so many bows into Jordanelle when the Midway Hatchery had its problems, it would only seem right that not all of the trout would be on the same schedule.
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Bows will spawn at different times during the spring. I'm sure you notice how long the streams and inlets are closed. You can catch spawning fish before the closures and well after but you'll never see the amount of fish running up river.
Most lakes down south don't really spawn naturally, they swim the shores until they are done. I really dought those fish reproduce very well. Other places the spawn is so awesome, you'ld have to see it to believe it.
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being planters i doubt they will spawn well also or even get a spawn since alot of the planters are sterile. nobody pointed that out on this thread. so there you have it they are going through the motions of the spawn based on the conditioning they had at the hatchery. as far as i know most rainbow reared hatchery fish are sterile for the intent of the state to control populations in heavily fished areas and manage it as a put and take so to speak.
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