Perch spawning times in Willard

[TubeDude]

One of the members on the Premium board reported catching a 13" (female) perch through the ice at Willard.  Unlike all of the big fat females we caught before and right after first iceup, this one was slender...as if it had already spawned.  The question was raised as to the spawning schedule for perch in Willard.  I thought the answers might be of interest to all BFT members so I am posting here.

From my past experience and studies I have understood that (like walleyes) perch spawn when water temps reach about 45 degrees.  But they have been known to spawn even under the ice on some lakes...with water temps still below that mark.  As a general rule, they spawn anytime from March through April...with some having been observed to still have eggs in early May.

I sent off an email to Chris Penne (DWR) asking if they had done any studies on perch patterns on Willard.  Here is his reply:

Good question, Pat.  We haven't conducted any studies on the timing of spawning perch at Willard.  That said, we occasionally observe skeins of perch eggs on the gill nets we are emptying towards the end of the  walleye spawn, which is usually around mid to late April.  
 
Chris

[FishfulThinkin]

Good info, thanks for sharing. Why do you suppose the fish in question looked so skinny and spawned out if the spawn is still at least a few weeks out?

[TubeDude]

Good info, thanks for sharing. Why do you suppose the fish in question looked so skinny and spawned out if the spawn is still at least a few weeks out?

The angler who caught the fish did not keep it but reported that it was much skinnier than others caught in weeks before.  Without an "official" autopsy, it is only guessing as to the reason why it was thin.  Could be an infertile and non-spawning female.   That happens.  Doubt it was already spawned out.  Could have been the result of a disease or injury.  Then again, it might be on a new perchie Weight Watchers program. 

The one thing for sure is that at 13" it was most definitely a female.  Max size for males in Willard seems to top out at a little over 10".

[filletedalive]

What information do we have on identifying the sex of male vs female perch? Would identifying spawning females and releasing them be in our best interest long term, or would make perch survival be more beneficial?

[TubeDude]

What information do we have on identifying the sex of male vs female perch? Would identifying spawning females and releasing them be in our best interest long term, or would make perch survival be more beneficial?

There are no distinguishing physical characteristics to make it easy to differentiate between male or female perch.  During most of the year...until pregnant females get greatly swollen abdomens...all we can do is guess that the largest fish we catch are females.  Smaller fish can be either males or young females. 

Selective angler harvest is almost never an issue with perch.  Their population is influenced a lot more by water levels (spawning conditions) and natural predation than by anglers keeping a few females.  Wherever perch exist they become a part of the food chain.  Their young (up to 2-3") are a diet mainstay for not only all other predators in the ecosystem...but for adult perch as well.  And until they grow larger than 4 or 5 inches they feed bass, walleyes, catfish, pike and other species.  But perch are prolific spawners (under ideal conditions) and they are generally able to maintain good populations even with natural predation and angler harvest.

However, at least here in Utah, we have seen occasional crashes in the perch populations.  Some are the result of low water and poor spawning conditions in reservoirs.  Other drops in perch numbers have been due to sudden dieoffs throughout the lake...due to disease or parasites.  And once there is a big decline the whole lake suffers until the perch are able to rebuild their numbers...if they ever do.  Yuba Reservoir, Starvation Reservoir and Jordanelle reservoirs have all seen decimations of perch numbers due to low water or dieoffs.  And Deer Creek reservoir has never been the same after the introduction of smallmouths into the food chain.  All of these used to be full of perch...and produced lots of "teen-inchers".

Willard has been an interesting phenomenon.  Perch were never planted in Willard.  But, like smallmouths...and even a few tiger muskies...they found their way down from Pineview and gradually established a population in Willard.  Perch were seldom caught in Willard until about 2010.  Then a few would show up each fall for anglers fishing for crappies...but almost none were caught during the warmer months.  Beginning about 2018, anglers fishing Willard after late September began catching more perch...and some bigguns.  Since very few Willardites bothered to fish Willard except during the crappie run, the walleye run or during the striper boils, there was not much attention given to perch.  But when a few serious perch jerkers began making good hauls of porky perch in the late fall, more and more guys delayed winterizing their boats and began fishing the perch right up until iceup.

With the decline in wiper numbers the young perch had a better chance of survival during the lean months with no baby shad for the wipers to feed on.  During that shadless time all the predators in the lake have to subsist on whatever they can find...crawdads, log perch, spottail shiners and the young of bluegills, crappies, perch and even catfish.  But when the predator population declines, so does predation on the young of other species...like perch.  So today, we have a pretty big population of perch.  And those that survive past the edible sizes grow fast...and big.  During part of the year they have to make a living on abundant midge larvae.  But as soon as the shad start hatching the perch start glutting on those...and feed on them heavily until they get too big in the late fall.

However, there is one phenomenon in Willard that keeps the perch big and healthy.  That is that the shad have an extended spawn...from sometime in April through late May or early June.  The first shad to hatch reach 5" by iceup.  The last to hatch are only about 2" when water temps drop below about 55 degrees in late September.  Those late hatchlings have not developed enough to live on anything but zooplankton and when the zooplankton decrease in the cold water, millions of baby shad die off.  Their carcasses are gobbled up by terns and gulls on the surface.  The ones that die and sink to the bottom are eagerly slurped up by catfish and perch.  And each year the perch form large schools both for feeding on shad and to prepare for the late winter spawn.  All the big perch caught by anglers in the late fall are usually swollen...not only with ripening eggs but with shadlets too.  Good nutrition that produces big fat perch that are great eating.

[Therapist]

While DWR may not have done any studies of Perch at Willard Bay, Central Region has on Deer Creek. Back when Charlie Thompson was the head bio in the Central Region, he and his assistant Doug Saguchi (sp) did some studies on Perch spawning in Deer Creek. While not about Willard, those studies could offer some insights into Willard. These were done back in the late 70's early 80's. Chris may not be aware of them, but I am sure that they were written up and are in the DWR's files somewhere. They did these in conjunction with their efforts to reestablish and enhance the Perch at Yuba. Both Charlie and Doug are retired now, but their work lives on !!!

[TubeDude]

While DWR may not have done any studies of Perch at Willard Bay,  Central Region has on Deer Creek.  Back when Charlie Thompson was the head bio in the Central Region, he and his assistant Doug Saguchi (sp) did some studies on Perch spawning in Deer Creek.  While not about Willard,  those studies could offer some insights into Willard.  These were done back in the late 70's early 80's.  Chris may not be aware of them, but I am sure that they were written up and are in the DWR's files somewhere.  They did these in conjunction with their efforts to reestablish and enhance the Perch at Yuba.  Both Charlie and Doug are retired now,  but their work lives on !!!

Thanks, Matt.  I forwarded your input to Chris along with a request that he try to find those reports and maybe make them available to us.  I'm sure we would be able to glean some good info from them.

[wiperhunter2]

Thanks for reaching out to Chris about this Pat and good writeup on the history of perch in Willard.

[filletedalive]

Thanks for the info. My nearest fishery is bountiful pond. I would love for the dwr to add perch and crappie there. There are supposedly bluegill in there but in all my years of fishing it I’ve caught one, through the ice, about the size of my pinky finger.