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Saw TubeDude's post about chowder, and I got hungry for some whitefish.
I've pretty much been a trout angler since I got into fishing, but I'm looking to branch out now. Bluegill and Perch seem like good next targets since I like to eat what I catch 
I was all excited about the Yellow Perch at Yuba until I saw that you can't keep them yet.
Mantua looked good as well, but it's probably a two hour drive since I'm in Provo, and I'm looking at doing a day trip only right now.
Any recommendations on where to find yellow perch or bluegills both now and after some of the lakes around here freeze?
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[fishin] you can catch all you want if you use them at fish lake. after the 1st of the year
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Well Utah lake is your best bet for both but Deer creek and Jordanelle have perch.
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So . . . More than two hours away means it becomes an overnight trip??
Well there really is nowhere good for you to fish perch within that range. [angelic]
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[quote BHuij]
I was all excited about the Yellow Perch at Yuba until I saw that you can't keep them yet.
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This is wrong. You can keep perch at Yuba now. However, the pike ate most of them so it may be tough going.
Besides Fish Lake, which is astounding for perch, your best local bets are Jordanelle, Mantua and Pineview, if they freeze over. You might even pick up one or two at Utah lake as well, fishing for other species.
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Sorry, I didn't word that very well Pookiebar - I usually don't have an entire day to spend when I want to go fishing, so I am most interested in places that are nearby so I don't have to spend 90% of my available time driving there and back.
So from my location, it looks like about an hour and a half to Pineview assuming traffic and road conditions are good. How accessible is Pineview once the lake is frozen?
Think the perch fishing in Pineview is superior enough to perch fishing in Deer Creek to warrant the trip? Deer Creek is probably 30 minutes away, maybe 40.
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I believe others have suggested Utah Lake. Not sure how far of a drive that is for you but if you are wanting good candidates for chowder, Utah Lake has plenty. Bluegill, black crappie, white bass, and yellow perch all do well in chowder or run through some cornmeal and hot grease. To date I have caught just a handful of yellow perch at Utah Lake when the water is soft. The hard deck is a different story. There is not a massive yellow perch population like at Fish Lake but you can catch some at Utah Lake through the ice. You'll also be able to yank in white bass, crappie, and gills which are great table fare. I would say that bluegill and crappie taste very similar to yellow perch. At least that is what my taste buds tell me. A pot of white bass chowder ain't no slouch either.
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No worries I was just razzin you. Deer Creek can be very good. A few years back the rainbow Bay Area was pretty consistent but it died off. In my opinion it is due for a good season here soon. Perch are pretty cyclical they will be great for a short time then the little buggers eat themselves out of house and home.
Mantua is a better option for your travel time then Pineview. In my opinion. Because Pineview has the canyon or trappers loop to deal with. If you want to try mantua shoot me a pm and I might have a couple areas to suggest.
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Cool cool. Sounds like Deer Creek is the first place I'll try. If I get skunked there, maybe I'll get a day off of work in advance or something to take a full day trip up to Mantua.
Seems like that was pretty much what I read about the yellow perch in general - they have big boom years, and big bust years. It's hard to get current information on how this year is up there, but I check these forums every day, so I'm sure I won't miss it if someone takes home a bucket of perch from there.
I don't think I want to wait for ice before making my first attempt at panfish out of Deer Creek. I know this isn't exactly optimal time to fish for them, but would it be possible to catch them from shore in cold (but not icy) weather like we're having right now?
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Rock Port and Echo have perch as well, but the fishing there for perch the last few years has been slow. Hyrum used to have alot of perch but I haven't fished it for quite a few years.
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Until we get a few years of better water fishing for perch will remain slow and spotty.
Now that they do the big draw down every spring so that the chubs in Utah Lake can have better spawning conditions it kills any of the good cover that has grown for the smaller fish to hide and grow in. Throwing all of those fish out into the limited cover that they can find in the rocky shoreline which isn't much.
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[#0000FF]Perzackly. Perch need structure in the form of past or living vegetation upon which to spawn. In Deer Creek they only bring off a good spawn when springtime water levels are well up into the weeds on the flats by Charleston. That has not happened for several years in a row so there is no pending year class waiting to make anglers happy.
The other big downer for the perch is that the small smallmouths form big wolfpacks and hunt down the baby perch hatchlings and vacuum them up before they have a chance to even get big enough for the other perch to eat.
Before smallmouth hit Deer Creek the perch could get by on the low water cycles...and produced enough young to feed the predators as well as leave some to grow bigger for fishermen. There were huge schools of perch all over the lake. Didn't matter where you fished or with what. Since then the perch have become a rarity...except for the occasional small school someone will find and harvest. The 50 perch limit on Deer Creek means little. I'm a pretty good perch jerker and I doubt I have caught 50 perch from Deer Creek in the last 5 years.
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Looking at Perch fishing vs bluegill fishing, they seem pretty similar. I kinda suspect they would taste pretty similar in a chowder as well 
How is the bluegill population at Deer Creek if I can't expect to catch a lot of perch?
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[#0000FF]There are quite a few green sunfish but I have not really caught any plain old bluegill there. And the greenies are usually pretty small. However, any good white fleshed fish will work fine in a chowder. The small smallies in both Deer Creek and Jordanelle are excellent eating and need more harvest. And they would work well in the chowder too.
Best bluegill and white bass...Utah Lake. Also good for crappies at times. Not as much for perch but they do show up.
As you learn that lake better you will get to know the different harbors and the habits of the smaller species that hang out in them. And that is where a lot of the best fishing for "panfish" occurs throughout the year. Probably not a better pond along the Wasatch Front for both quantity and quality of those species.
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Bluegill are non-existent.
At Deer Creek you'll probably have more luck for Small Mouth than anything in the panfish variety -- but this certainly isn't an ideal time for them.
You'll probably catch more trout than anything up there this time of year.
I live in your area and I'd hit Utah Lake for Pan fish long before I hit Deer Creek.
White Bass would be just fine in a chowder and if you hit a school of them at UL, you can be happy stocked for a very large party.
I think you'll have better luck for perch at UL than Deer Creek.
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[ ]Yep. See my earlier post. I know it helps make it more true if TubeDude says it. Anyhow, bluegill are delicious. Go get some. Fry 'em. Put 'em in chowder. They are good baked in butter too. White bass and crappie won't let you down either. I'm glad others mentioned smallmouth. Those small smallies will taste like candy.
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Thanks for the info everyone! Sounds like Deer Creek, especially this time of year, is not the place to be for me haha. I've only been there one time, and it was during the summer. Total bust. I don't think the reservoir is very good for shore fishing, although I saw a lot of carp carcasses laying around.
So anyone have recommendations on where to find panfish at Utah Lake before it freezes enough to ice fish? It's not going to be frozen anytime soon at this rate, so I don't want to wait. I'm not real picky, I'll take bluegills, green sunfish, perch, whatever. I think I know how to rig to catch them pretty well once I can find them, but I'm not sure where they hang out. Like I mentioned in another thread I started, I got totally skunked at the State Park part of the lake in Provo the other day. I suspect that had something to do with the wind though.
Edit: Forgot to mention, I'll take white bass too... from what I'm seeing around the board, they might be my best bet for catching something out of Utah Lake this time of year. Any and all recommendations welcome!
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[quote slimmer][fishin] you can catch all you want if you use them at fish lake. after the 1st of the year[/quote]
When I first read this yesterday, it inspired a lot of thought on camping there a week with my pressure cookers and canning jars and ice fishing to fill up cases of high quality food storage for free and with the fun of the vacation of doing that.
But, today after reading the additional posts, I see that I might have been mistaken in thinking no limit means a great abundance and catching a lot fast.
I mentioned that to a friend and he said that I might also consider burbot from Flaming Gorge and catching the larger fish will be more productive for cleaning and canning in less time.
Since I've not tasted either fish, I'm not sure which I should favor. Taste is important and I also want to make a good choice on low mercury because I'm very health conscious.
The idea of canning for adding to my preparedness food storage has been on my mind for the past two years. With mercury concerns, I even considered using a casting net for Utah chub particularly since getting them small and being near the bottom of the food chain likely means minimal bioaccumulation of mercury. But, others have told me they would be an oily fish to eat. I'm not knowing if that will be bad (never tasted it) or good because fish oils are healthy to consume being high in the Omega threes.
What other fish / location should I consider for this project / vacation?
Perhaps, people here who have much more fishing experience have a better idea on which fish to target for no limit on food storage. Also, I need to know what is added to help the heat of canning to soften the bones. I'm thinking it might be a little vinegar that will do that. About, if I'm going to do all that work to can up cases of canning jars of fish, then I want to get it right. Information will be greatly appreciated.
I like the commercially canned Alaskan pink salmon. I like that it says on the can three times the omega threes and twenty times the calcium as tuna. That combined with much lower mercury content makes it a healthy choice. The bones in the can are soft like wet chalk and are eaten with hardly noticing them. That's the healthful extra calcium and that's what I want to learn to do with home canning of fish here in Utah, so any posts on the techniques to accomplish that will be appreciated.
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Deer creek, around this time of year, actually provides decent shore fishing for trout. Some of my most productive days have been just before it ices up. Perch (and walleye for that matter) however, always seem to elude me.
If you were looking for someone to guide you in the ways of Utah lake Tubedude is our native expert. He can probably direct you to a couple of places and at least get you in the right for the fish.
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Very easy to catch all the perch you want on Fish Lake. Just get out to 15 to 20ft deep - the perch are all along the weed edges all along the shore.
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