Fished Jordanelle Res yesterday in the storm in 40', 30', and 20' no difference. the perch were hot really didn't matter what I used other than it being small tipped with something, they would nail it. most of them really small but some bigger ones were coming up. broke off a very nice rainbow at the hole.
They sure tasted good for diner.
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I think if we all gang up and hammer the perch to keep their numbers in check we could have a jumbo perchery here in the very near future.
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Where were you fishing.....Hailstone area or Rock Cliffs? Been getting some jumbos myself, but 5 out of every 20 I catch in the Shad Rap size.
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When I was a kid here in the 60's people kept their trout and tossed back their perch. Now they toss back their trout and keep their perch. The right move. Trout taste like a plate of fishey mashed potatoes.
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he was fishen in the water [laugh]
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I was off the point east of the main parking lot. when the water level is normal it is covered by water. I fished today and just got 1 rainbow and one perch. but it was beautiful today. glad I was out.
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Well done. There are a few lakes here in Utah where a storm day is the best time to be there. Less folks are willing to get out in the storms too!
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Before you kill all the little perch remember this...
All fish was small then got bigger, and bigger fish eat little fish to grow bigger..
Perch will only grow about 1 to 1 1/2" per year..
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I'm pretty sure we would rather kill the dinkers because the perch will just stunted out if we let them back down the hole!! There is too much competition for all those perch for what they eat!!!
The perch might start looking like the brookies in catherine lake.
Here is some example how skinny they are if you let them all back in that lake.
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I hit Jordanelle today. Full of some of smallest perch I have ever caught. 2 inchers. I didn't keep them even for bait. They were that small. The bite was slow after the storm. It was still fun to get out.
Hindsite - I should have kept some of the little guys, because perch are prone to have stunted growth. Keep your share of perch and the fish will get bigger, because more food with less mouths = bigger fish.
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[#0000FF]You guys got it wrong. The problem with lakes where perch stunt is poor spawning and not enough babies to feed the larger fish. If they have nothing to eat but zooplankton they WILL stunt. Jordanelle is just coming back from a big perch dieoff 4 years ago. Right now there are 4 year classes in the lake. The tiny tykes are last year's hatch. That is what the bigger perch are eating and growing bigger on. There are more 10 to 11 inch perch in the lake than there have been in years. The smaller ones are healthy and growing.
By the end of next summer we will be catching some nice footlongs...well fed on last year's and this year's spawn.
Also, you will see more big smallies starting to show up too. They also depend on small perch for food. When the perch dieoff happened the size of the smallies dropped way down.
Advocating killing off the small perch in Jordy is like cancelling lunch period at the school. Saves the school money but doesn't help the kids.
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You need to learn what the fish need to eat to grow, whether it be perch to brookies and other fish..
Find out what they eat and it gets easier to catch the bigger ones, and to take out the food of the bigger fish all you get are long and skinny..
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Like TD said.. Small perch today feed all the other fish year round..
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Well they were released back into the lake and hopefully I'm wrong and you're right.
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[cool][#0000FF]Bless you, my son.
I ain't a perch-hugger. Yeah, I like to chase, catch and eat the little buggers. But I am more about the ecology of any particular lake.
Some lakes...like Pineview...are overpopulated with small fish that don't ever seem to grow beyond a certain size. That is mostly because of a gap in the food chain that does not allow them to get past the food items that grew them to the stunting point.
Jordanelle is a lake capable of producing bigger fish but is now full of smaller fish only because it is recovering from a big dieoff. The older/bigger year class is the least plentiful but the year classes for each succeeding year are more abundant. Last year was the first year for a long time that I have caught numbers of decent sized perch...and they were all barfing up young-of-the-year perchlets. That is the best indicator of a balanced and healthy perch situation.
Those baby perch also feed the smallies and the big trout. Since the predators reduced the chub population to a small number of huge dinosaur chubs and few surviving babies each year the meat eaters have to rely on small perch.
There are no crawdads, shiners, fatheads or other forage species in Jordanelle. Without perch that lake would starve to death. Another "Starvation" but without the good fishing that lake provides. And it is also now a good lake mostly because of the abundant perch.
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I grew up fishing Pine View and that is where I drew the wrong comparison to fish stunting Jordanelle.
I look forward to the day when I can catch limits of good sized perch at a lake other than fish lake. Ha ha
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It looks, so far, that we will have another decent water year this year. Hopefully that equates to another decent spawn and another class added to that ecosystem. I smell a comeback.[cool]
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I have been out sifting through the dinks. My buddy got this one today pic below. Took about sifting 500 "catchable" fish in the last month to get one this size. I am getting good at filleting those little guys though. 38-40 FOW seemed most active.
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[quote LordoftheFlies]It looks, so far, that we will have another decent water year this year. Hopefully that equates to another decent spawn and another class added to that ecosystem. I smell a comeback.[cool][/quote]
[cool][#0000FF]In most perch waters, the timing of the spawn is critical. There has to be high enough water levels to flood vegetation or stickups for the perch to spawn successfully. But since the water levels of Jordanelle are at extreme low levels, that could be a problem. Thankfully this lake is still new enough that there are remnant patches of old sagebrush and scrub oak at just about all levels. So there is usually some kind of suitable spawning habitat.
In future years...after the rest of the remnant brush rots away...spawning might be a bit more problematic for the perchies.
And yes, it does look like Jordanelle is recovering nicely...perchwise.
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Good morning TubeDude, I appreciate all the information you provide and your expertize you share on line. Got a question about DC. I used to do well for perch on the railroad side east of the dam. Haven't been able to locate any perch along that bank this year. Any thoughts on where they are hanging out. Trout fishing was good - just couldn't locate any perch. Many thanks for your input and happy fishing.
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