yuba perch

[TubeDude]

"this fish had small #8 shot like eggs in his stomach. They were a greenish color"

[cool][#0000ff]Those little greenish "eggs" were not eggs. They are the little crustaceans known as copepods. They often form dense schools under the ice and trout rely on them for a large part of their diet. The fish just swim through the mass of little critters and slurp them up. Being members of the crustacean (shrimp & lobster) family the bitty bites are rich in nutrients and help produce the bright pink flesh in some trout. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]They are present in most of our lakes and other species feed upon them too...including perch. In fact, some species have very poor recruitment (survival of the young) when the population of copepods and daphnia is low. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It is not unusual on days when the sun is bright and the holes are not icing up quickly to be able to see them coming up into your drilled holes and floating near the surface.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Still way too early for perch to spawn yet.[/#0000ff]
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