(08-07-2024, 10:28 PM)chubby chaser Wrote: Im curious, for a "sweetener" have you ever tried using the gulp maggots? I wonder if they would attract perch as good as a worm?
I haven't ever tried the maggots, but I have caught a lot of perch on the small Gulp minnows...1" or so. Have also caught some on larger 3" Gulp minnows while fishing for other species. And a small piece of perch meat is usually well received...and stays on the hook better than crawlers. I suspect that anything with a bit of the right kind of smell will get munched.
(08-07-2024, 11:18 PM)MrShane Wrote: Lots of those striped devil’s in RP, they need to be thinned out and put in hot oil.Definitely a "sustainable" population in that pond. Like most perch waters of the past, when there is a lot of bigger perch they produce lots of babies...and the bigger ones feed on their own young. Almost becomes a biological perpetual motion machine.
Went there last Fri looking for some four year old Kokes.
Was setting back a silver dodger/pink squid combo about 40’ behind boat in 91’ water.
Right when putting line in clip something grabbed my squid.
Reeled in about a 6” Perch.
Very hungry…..and lost.
In the glory days of Yuba there was no other forage base in the lake except the young of the year perch. And the bigguns were able to spawn enough each year to feed all of the predators...perch, walleyes, pike, and catfish. But as soon as there was a big drought...right after the year 2000...water levels dropped and there was no perch spawn. And the whole lake died.
Doubt we will ever see that in Rockport, but who knows. Both Starvation and Jordanelle had big perch dieoffs and the fish populations plummeted. And once the smallies began eating up all the baby perch in Deer Creek before they could get any size that lake took a nosedive too. Still some good fishing but not like the good old days.
Now if DWR could only come up with a cross between perch and kokes....