Fishing Forum

I went to Mill Meadow Res. today with a fishing partner. I caught about 30 pounds of perch! Unfortunately that weight was the total for the 151 perch I caught today. Believe it or don't! My friend caught about 75 of the fish. We also caught a couple of brown trout.

I kept 17 of the larger perch. The biggest ones were between 8.5 and 9 inches. Most of them were in the 6 to 8 inch range with some smaller ones. We fished from 0930 until 1600 in the area of the boat ramp. We were doing best in about 14 feet of water over a flat bottom. We used a typical attractor with a leader to a small jig or Ratfinkie. We used perch meat to tip the jigs. To say that the action was almost non-stop is an understatement. This is by far the most perch I've ever caught in one day at Mill Meadow. My previous best was 126 perch in December. The trick is to always hold your rod and to set the hook at the slightest bite. These perch will often hit very lightly and you need to be ready to set the hook immediately. If you set the rod down, you will miss many strikes. I have to the take the line out of the water to take a coffee or sandwich break.
The ice is about 14 inches with about 8 inches of snow cover. There wasn't any slush in the area we fished. There were some tracks of snowmobiles and four wheelers from the weekend.
If you can handle the long drive down to the lake, it will pay off in a bunch of perch. Not big ones, but they are big enough to fillet or to make a batch of perch cowder....which is my plan for tomorrow.

This water can handle some additional fishing pressure and the removal of some more of the perch. This lake could benefit from the new 50 fish perch limit. It's also a great place for the kids because you won't have to walk far, there's a restroom at the top of the boat ramp and the action will keep their attention.
Mike
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yep...mill meadow is always non stop on the ice. sshhhhhh. im new, but i know hot spotting when i see it. LOL!

catching the perch is the easy part. its the fillets that take some time
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I've nailed them like that in the summer so it's good to hear that you can do it under the ice too. I've caught some 24" lake trout in there too,so there are some nicer fish in there to go along with the little perchies.
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Those were probably splake. Unless I have been told wrong, but I heard their was splake in Mill.
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Those smaller perch are great pickled.
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How do you pickle a perch?
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An earlier poster mentioned "hotspotting" when he replied to my post about the perch fishing at Mill Meadow.

I know enough about making fishing reports that can draw undue attention to a fishery that can't really stand additional fishing pressure. Mill Meadow is not that kind of fishery. Mill Meadow has an over abundance of perch. Mill Meadow is also managed as a trout fishery with browns, rainbows and splake in the reservoir. All of the fish compete for food when they are young and growing. All young fish feed on plankton as their primary forage. Mill Meadow can only benefit from the removal of additional perch. The reason the statewide limit on perch was increased to 50 per day is that the DWR Aquatics biologists recognize perch are not usually impacted by sport harvest. My report was intended to generate some added interest in Mill Meadow and for a selfish reason: I think we will see larger perch at Mill Meadow next year if loads of them are removed this winter. Ice fishing is the best way to target perch. It's a long drive from the Wasatch Front, but I think many will give it a try when the results are a sure thing.

Now go fish!

Mike
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The hot spotting has kinda turned into an out of control joke. But I agree you did no harm in telling people about Mill Meadows. I have caught Perch up to 14 inches out of there. I have also caught bucket fulls of 11 inchers. But by the reports I can tell the perch have gotten stunted in size since I have moved to wasatch county and I am not there harvesting the perch. Just to give you a tip about Mill Meadows in April you can fish at the mouth of the UM creek with small jigs and bobbers, and load up on them they are in there spawning on the willows. I believe the perch got in Mill Meadows from Johnson Res. But the thing is some bucket biologist has took them and put them in forthsyte. If I remember right 15-18 feet is a preferred depth ice fishing for the biggest Perch in Mill Meadows. Keep up the good reporting
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[quote jamon_negro]How do you pickle a perch?[/quote]

Get a BIG dill pickle, stuff the dink inside and munch away![laugh]
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Yeah the perch got to Willow through Fish Lake and Johnson Reservoir. That is too bad to hear they are now in Forsyth.

Anyone have any reports on Forsyth by the way? I havent's made it down that far this year.
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apparently i wasnt clear enough about the "hotspotting" comment...it was a joke. reread my post. notice i said in the same post that i frequent mill meadow and have the same results with perch their.

i also realize that the limit was increased in 2010 and the lake could use some additional perch pressure.
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I've had several P.M.s on this and I'll see if I can dig my old recipe up. Little bit of work involved but they are great, Northern Pike are also very good. If I can find my recipe I'll post it. [fishin]
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Muscles--
No harm, no foul. I just wanted to make the point that I also think it's unwise to highlight fishing spots or waters that could be adversely impacted by added fishing pressure.
Mill Meadow NEEDS additional perch removal to benefit all of the fish in that lake. It seems we agree on that point and I now know your comment was meant as a joke. I would like to retract my ealier "clown" comment about your first post. Internet fishing reports can be a great way to share information and to direct angler effort where it can benefit the fishery and provide anglers with unique opportunities. Now that we have cleared the air, let's get out there and thin the herd.
Mike
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Please do! I would also like someone to convert me to eating pike. As a kid I caught pike on expensive bass lures that were designed by some ol' boy out of Tennessee who has had a fishing show for several years [] . Never caught too many largemouth on those, mainly pike and gar. We would always throw back the pike and gar since as far as we knew, they were a trash fish. They also tore up those expensive lures too. [laugh] I would love to hear how to clean/prepare pike. They were fun and expensive to catch...
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It may have been a splake, but it was greasy like a laker when it was fried.
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Northern Pike are great table fare, just takes a little expertise on the filleting process to remove the Y bones. I haven't done it for years so I'm not much help on the exact procedure. I'm sure you could google it. [fishin]
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