Fished CJ this AM, and caught perch, bass, trout, and...yes....a crappie. I've heard a lot about how you have to throw every other perch back to find a keeper. Wow, those are pretty scrawny "keepers"! But they sure are thick. We were hooking one about every minute over by Cove, but tired of it pretty quickly, and tried other areas looking for bass. When heading back, we trolled for trout, and after about half an hour of nada, we finally figured it out, and it was a very quick limit after that. For trout details, I would be happy to share all info to members....PM me. Mike
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Thanks for the report .... this morning it was a choice of CJ, Swan Falls or Lucky Peak for some Koke fishing. Lucky Peak won out. Caught several Kokes and even managed to get 2 in the boat!
Any bass of size yet? Would love to hear the Trout Tricks via PM. I tossed two rainbows back today at LP. They just don't hold up to Kokes for eating.
Bob
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Went below the dam yesterday and did a little fishing with the kiddos.
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Wow nice fish and cute daughter .
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Ditto that. Mike
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I also fished CJ for the past 2 days and the biggest perch we managed was about 7". I am no biologist but I am going to blame over harvesting. It seems to be a trend at CJ in all the years I have fished it. I remember the perch doing this same thing in about 2004 and then the crappie in 2006. The fish show up followed by the caravan of folks filling up buckets of fish. I wish FG would get with the game and put limits on fish around here. God knows we cant count on the sportsmen to limit themselves. Everybody can argue it all they want but you will never change my mind. I have lived and fished all over the country and this is the only state I have been to with no limit on things like perch, crappie and bluegill. IDFG has told me that the drastic swings in fish populations/quality in the lakes here is becuase of a "7 year cycle" but I call BS. These fish have the same "7 year cycle" in North Dakota and Missouri but I can go out any day of the week in both of those places and catch quality fish. Hmmmm wonder if thats because of creel/size limits, I like to think it is. It makes me cringe evertime I see people pulling coolers of fish out of the lake day after day. I would rather go fish the lakes and sloughs of NoDak to catch 2 dozen quality perch any day over catching loads and loads of dinks.....end rant
p.s.
Nice bass man
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Limits won't help with the people keeping 1000 fish. I was at swan a few weeks ago and I saw a guy that had significantly more than 10 smallies on a stringer. If I had to guess it was at least 40 plus, all sorts of sizes. What blows me away is people who believe if a fish is caught it dies so you have to keep it. I believe it was over harvest that caused the problem, the fish that should be big and eating the small ones where gone, now the small are overpopulated and stunted.
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If a guy has 40 smallies on a stringer I'm calling the Game Warden.
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as with any law some people are still going to think they are above it and do what they want. Its all about keeping honest people honest. If I would have seen somebody with an illegal limit of any kind of fish I would definatly let them know they are in the wrong and call the warden. Plus in this day in age a cell phone picture is all the proof one needs to get somebody in trouble.
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And the bass are doing the best they ever have. I have caught lots of 3 and 4 lb bass this spring. Need to kill every perch and drop them back in the water. Wonder if the sturgeon are eating perch?
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I don't think it's over harvest. CJ has a massive number of small perch at the moment. They're everywhere.
According to perch growth rate charts, a 5-6" perch is 2-3 years old. Remember what a cold, nasty spring we had in 2012? Cold muddy water pouring down the rivers because of a couple of 80 degree days in late April? Back to back cold fronts beginning right after that and lasting six weeks? Bass and crappie still in pre-spawn patterns in late May?
Perch spawn earlier than other panfish, so I think what happened was the baby perch hatched that year had little to no competition because the bass and crappie spawn was so poor and the murky water made it hard for predators to find them. So now their numbers have exploded.
There are bigger ones in CJ. I saw one around 14" caught a couple of weeks ago. It's just hard to keep the little ones off long enough to catch them.
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The bio mass is unbelievable and everything is fat. I wonder if they are gonna run out of chow. Has to be hard on this years hatch. I have never seen the bass is such good condition. My son had a 20.75 bag with the big fish over 5. Friend caught a 6 12 last week. Those fish have bigger bellies than I do. Caught a few big crappie in front of cottonwood on cranks. Trout are kinda skinny, maybe they need some bugs.
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[quote StacyR]I don't think it's over harvest. CJ has a massive number of small perch at the moment. They're everywhere.
According to perch growth rate charts, a 5-6" perch is 2-3 years old. Remember what a cold, nasty spring we had in 2012? Cold muddy water pouring down the rivers because of a couple of 80 degree days in late April? Back to back cold fronts beginning right after that and lasting six weeks? Bass and crappie still in pre-spawn patterns in late May?
Perch spawn earlier than other panfish, so I think what happened was the baby perch hatched that year had little to no competition because the bass and crappie spawn was so poor and the murky water made it hard for predators to find them. So now their numbers have exploded.
There are bigger ones in CJ. I saw one around 14" caught a couple of weeks ago. It's just hard to keep the little ones off long enough to catch them.[/quote]
you mean the 500 people everyday out there the last 2 years ice fishing keeping 5 gallon pale's full of perch isn't hurting the populations? of bigger fish? please..... yea perch have a ton of little babies, how many of those last 5-6 years too get big and fat for eating? not many...... I think the same is gonna happen on Cascade, need the big fish too help keep the little fish down and not get into the way it was 20 years ago where nothing got hardly bigger than 12", same applies too CJ, i'm no biologist but I believe we need too take a look at how ND handles there medium too large reservoirs that consistently produce year after year....
Matt
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Glad to see you are back on the home front. Hopefully I will get my boat out of the shop by the weekend, I'm itching to get on the water. I didn't do much ice fishing this past winter, my son and I made one trip to C.J. the weekend before Christmas and caught a grundle of small perch and shot a few honkers while we were there.
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All I know is that everywhere I went 2 weeks ago out there I caught 5-8" perch... While trolling for trout... My fish finder was literally hitting large schools of perch everywhere I went. Over and over and over. My opinion (which is like a-holes) is that there are too many perch and they are getting stunted due to lack of food. Once those perch get much bigger than 5" there are not really any predators to control their numbers. CJ is an amazing fishery and I think all that ice fishing pressure didn't make a dent.
lot's of little perch or mediocre numbers of big ones?
I never keep more than 40. That's plenty to fillet more than that and it's just not fun. 40 perch lasts me 3 months.
The smallies should get real big on all these little perch which will be cool. Wish the trout would get big enough to eat em like at Cascade.
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[quote Duck-Slayer][quote StacyR]I don't think it's over harvest. CJ has a massive number of small perch at the moment. They're everywhere.
According to perch growth rate charts, a 5-6" perch is 2-3 years old. Remember what a cold, nasty spring we had in 2012? Cold muddy water pouring down the rivers because of a couple of 80 degree days in late April? Back to back cold fronts beginning right after that and lasting six weeks? Bass and crappie still in pre-spawn patterns in late May?
Perch spawn earlier than other panfish, so I think what happened was the baby perch hatched that year had little to no competition because the bass and crappie spawn was so poor and the murky water made it hard for predators to find them. So now their numbers have exploded.
There are bigger ones in CJ. I saw one around 14" caught a couple of weeks ago. It's just hard to keep the little ones off long enough to catch them.[/quote]
you mean the 500 people everyday out there the last 2 years ice fishing keeping 5 gallon pale's full of perch isn't hurting the populations? of bigger fish? please..... yea perch have a ton of little babies, how many of those last 5-6 years too get big and fat for eating? not many...... I think the same is gonna happen on Cascade, need the big fish too help keep the little fish down and not get into the way it was 20 years ago where nothing got hardly bigger than 12", same applies too CJ, i'm no biologist but I believe we need too take a look at how ND handles there medium too large reservoirs that consistently produce year after year....
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Preach on brother! Look at all the major fisheries up in the northern mid west. Fort Peck, Lake Darling, Devils Lake and Lake Sakakawea for example. People have been flocking to those lakes from all around the country, im talking thousands of folks a day during peak seasons on Devils Lake alone, and I can go there any day and catch a limit of 14-16" perch. I am fairly certain that is because you are only allowed 15 fish a day. To clarify I was not saying that there are no perch in CJ. What I am saying is that there were way too many big perch pulled out that were keeping those little perch in check. On a side note I will be moving back up to the great white north this June and all of the lakes mentioned above will be within an hour or two drive.....feel free to come on up and I will show y'all what real game management produces.
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Y'all are fogetting that it is the snake river and there has been to free flow for a couple of years. Cleanest I've ever saw the water. Been fishing there 40 years and the bass are awesome due to last years great spawn. All them little perch gonna have lots to eat soon. Next year ice fishing will be great. None of em are native and sturgeon are starving. Fire truck.
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[quote Duck-Slayer]
you mean the 500 people everyday out there the last 2 years ice fishing keeping 5 gallon pale's full of perch isn't hurting the populations? of bigger fish? please..... yea perch have a ton of little babies, how many of those last 5-6 years too get big and fat for eating? not many...... I think the same is gonna happen on Cascade, need the big fish too help keep the little fish down and not get into the way it was 20 years ago where nothing got hardly bigger than 12", same applies too CJ, i'm no biologist but I believe we need too take a look at how ND handles there medium too large reservoirs that consistently produce year after year....
Matt[/quote]
The majority of the years CJ does not freeze. When it does, it freezes for what, two weeks max?
I have been fishing my custom hair jigs below the dam pretty consistently for the past month. At least 2-3 times a week. Practically every cast I am seeing dozens of 5" - 7" perch mobbing my jig on the way in. This is an area where there was NO ice fishing and most people are not targeting perch.
Last summer we were getting bites from huge schools of 4" perch out in front of Cottonwood on every cast. Probably fish from the same year class as the ones I've been seeing last month.
They're flipping everywhere.
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first off, you obviously missed the winter of 2012-2013. I walked all the way from black sands to the opposite end of the narrows on the ice. I would call that the majority of the lake. Secondly, you said moist people aren't fishing for perch? Are you sure you have been fishing the same lake as everybody else? On the ice u never once meet anybody that wasn't fishing perch and on open water I usually see a few boats out looking for bass and even fewer trolling for trout I would say the majority of the people are indeed looking for perch out crappie. Thirdly, we weren't saying that there are no perch. Read back through all of the posts and you will see that we are saying they are ask small because their main predator, big perch, have been all but cleaned out.
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[quote 66Birdman]first off, you obviously missed the winter of 2012-2013. I walked all the way from black sands to the opposite end of the narrows on the ice. I would call that the majority of the lake. Secondly, you said moist people aren't fishing for perch? Are you sure you have been fishing the same lake as everybody else? On the ice u never once meet anybody that wasn't fishing perch and on open water I usually see a few boats out looking for bass and even fewer trolling for trout I would say the majority of the people are indeed looking for perch out crappie. Thirdly, we weren't saying that there are no perch. Read back through all of the posts and you will see that we are saying they are ask small because their main predator, big perch, have been all but cleaned out.[/quote]
CJ perch are NOT getting hit hard in the winter because most years it doesn't freeze over. In another post someone said thousands of anglers a day flock to Devil's Lake to ice fish for big perch. Do you really think there's that kind of fishing pressure on CJ in the winter when the water is open 99% of the time? I fish it regularly at all times of the year, and in the winter you may see a handful of boats out.
Before 2012, when was the last time CJ's main basin froze over? One guy I spoke with said he'd lived in the area for 30 years and it was the first time he'd ever seen it happen. Hell, most years the Bruneau arm doesn't even freeze.
Why don't you read what I wrote more carefully before jumping all over something I never said? I said people weren't ice fishing or targeting perch BELOW THE DAM. Most anglers there are targeting sturgeon or bass, and I imagine if you'd tried to ice fish there you'd sink pretty damn quick. And yet there are still zillions of perch exactly the same size as there are in the reservoir.
Big perch are A predator of small perch but hardly the only one. Crappie, bass, squawfish and trout also eat them by the thousands. There's also a limit on how big of a baby perch a big perch can eat. Once they get larger than a couple of inches, perch are off another perch's menu no matter what size.
I could point scientific studies on perch management, but why bother because you've made up your mind with zero actual evidence beyond "I saw a bunch of people keeping more fish than I thought they should one week in the year and I know better than those fancy shmancy biologists." People blame overharvest because they're looking for an easy solution to a complex problem.
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