Rockport 9/26/24

[MrShane]

Fast catching of good, not quite great, Yellow Perch.
Scouted three spots for ice season and got Perch first drop in all three spots.
Action was non-stop and probably caught close to 100 fish.
A few very healthy Bows, a nice Brown, and a Smallie ended up in my net.
A few break offs on very healthy hook sets ( my fault for not trimming back leader 1” from jig from Perch tooth nicks) were most likely a couple more Smallies but in my dreams they were Brown Baggers.   
Anglers NEED to keep a limit of Perch or a bust is on the horizon, IMO of course.

[Paddler]

Fast catching of good, not quite great, Yellow Perch.
Scouted three spots for ice season and got Perch first drop in all three spots.
Action was non-stop and probably caught close to 100 fish.
A few very healthy Bows, a nice Brown, and a Smallie ended up in my net.
A few break offs on very healthy hook sets ( my fault for not trimming back leader 1” from jig from Perch tooth nicks) were most likely a couple more Smallies but in my dreams they were Brown Baggers.   
Anglers NEED to keep a limit of Perch or a bust is on the horizon, IMO of course.

Shane, "good, not quite great", is a bit vague.  Could you please be a bit more specific?

[MrShane]

Fast catching of good, not quite great, Yellow Perch.
Scouted three spots for ice season and got Perch first drop in all three spots.
Action was non-stop and probably caught close to 100 fish.
A few very healthy Bows, a nice Brown, and a Smallie ended up in my net.
A few break offs on very healthy hook sets ( my fault for not trimming back leader 1” from jig from Perch tooth nicks) were most likely a couple more Smallies but in my dreams they were Brown Baggers.   
Anglers NEED to keep a limit of Perch or a bust is on the horizon, IMO of course.

Shane, "good, not quite great", is a bit vague.  Could you please be a bit more specific?

Jon, here is my Perch rating scale for your pleasure:

Good=8-9” and heavy.
Great=10-11” and heavy.
Jumbo=>12” and heavy.

[dubob]

Anglers NEED to keep a limit of Perch or a bust is on the horizon, IMO of course.

Sorry Shane.  I refuse to clean more than 20 on any given day.  But I fully expect to catch my 20 every day I go and any perch over 8" is a keeper for me.  ?

[MrShane]

Anglers NEED to keep a limit of Perch or a bust is on the horizon, IMO of course.

Sorry Shane.  I refuse to clean more than 20 on any given day.  But I fully expect to catch my 20 every day I go and any perch over 8" is a keeper for me.  ?

No apology needed Bob, if everyone kept just 20 at Rockport it would help avoid a crash.
There were so many Perch in RP that when I was there a month ago trolling for those big Kokes I caught Perch in 92’ water on my pink squids.
And, a 8” Perch IS a good Perch!
You ready to shoot ducks?
I got my butt kicked on Archery Elk this year and I am about ready to mothball my archery gear any day now…..

[TubeDude]

I kinda doubt Rockport will ever see a perch crash...or even a major stunting.  It is one of those lakes in which the primary forage for larger perch is baby perch.  and with the rocky shoreline there is almost always a good spawn and TONS of baby perch in the lake.  Two years ago I was fishing the perch late summer and Chris Penne and the DWR folks were there doing some surveys.  At that time he indicated they were marking huge schools of baby perch from shoreline out to over 60 feet deep...and seeing marks of larger fish around even the deepest schools of young.  

I have observed larger perch stratifying at levels well above bottom in deeper water in several reservoirs.  Most notably in Starvation and in Deer Creek.  And even in Pineview a couple of times.  In cases where it was possible to examine more closely it was found that the newly hatched baby perch...upon which the larger ones were feeding...were following the stratified concentrations of zooplankton.  Kinda like kokes do.  And in Starvation, one year, trollers were catching walleyes only 10-20 feet deep...over 40 - 60 feet of water...because they were following the bigger perch that were following the smaller perch that were feeding on the zooplankton.  It's a food chain thang.

In short, perch create their own perpetual motion machine.  The more adults and the more they spawn the more food there is and the more the adults can grow to spawning size.  In lakes with those conditions the fish are much more susceptible to dieoffs from species specific diseases or parasites than to angler pressure.  And that is what we have seen in Starvation and Jordanelle over the years.  And Yuba used to be a fantastic perch fishery...until the major drought of the early 2000s killed off all the big spawners and it never recovered.  Broke the food chain.

[brookie]

I kinda doubt Rockport will ever see a perch crash...or even a major stunting.  It is one of those lakes in which the primary forage for larger perch is baby perch.  and with the rocky shoreline there is almost always a good spawn and TONS of baby perch in the lake.  Two years ago I was fishing the perch late summer and Chris Penne and the DWR folks were there doing some surveys.  At that time he indicated they were marking huge schools of baby perch from shoreline out to over 60 feet deep...and seeing marks of larger fish around even the deepest schools of young.  

I have observed larger perch stratifying at levels well above bottom in deeper water in several reservoirs.  Most notably in Starvation and in Deer Creek.  And even in Pineview a couple of times.  In cases where it was possible to examine more closely it was found that the newly hatched baby perch...upon which the larger ones were feeding...were following the stratified concentrations of zooplankton.  Kinda like kokes do.  And in Starvation, one year, trollers were catching walleyes only 10-20 feet deep...over 40 - 60 feet of water...because they were following the bigger perch that were following the smaller perch that were feeding on the zooplankton.  It's a food chain thang.

In short, perch create their own perpetual motion machine.  The more adults and the more they spawn the more food there is and the more the adults can grow to spawning size.  In lakes with those conditions the fish are much more susceptible to dieoffs from species specific diseases or parasites than to angler pressure.  And that is what we have seen in Starvation and Jordanelle over the years.  And Yuba used to be a fantastic perch fishery...until the major drought of the early 2000s killed off all the big spawners and it never recovered.  Broke the food chain.

Interesting you would mention Jordanelle - I have been marking huge swarm schools of bait fish all kokanee season. They are still there but the size is now bigger - up to about 8". A few days ago, after koke season ended I was up there fishing for rainbow and got bored so I went looking. Found huge schools, so I threw out a jig tipped with worm. I had swarms chasing - after about 20 C&R I got bored again and move on. Could have caught all I wanted. I think the perch are back in Jordanelle.

[MrShane]

I kinda doubt Rockport will ever see a perch crash...or even a major stunting.  It is one of those lakes in which the primary forage for larger perch is baby perch.  and with the rocky shoreline there is almost always a good spawn and TONS of baby perch in the lake.  Two years ago I was fishing the perch late summer and Chris Penne and the DWR folks were there doing some surveys.  At that time he indicated they were marking huge schools of baby perch from shoreline out to over 60 feet deep...and seeing marks of larger fish around even the deepest schools of young.  

I have observed larger perch stratifying at levels well above bottom in deeper water in several reservoirs.  Most notably in Starvation and in Deer Creek.  And even in Pineview a couple of times.  In cases where it was possible to examine more closely it was found that the newly hatched baby perch...upon which the larger ones were feeding...were following the stratified concentrations of zooplankton.  Kinda like kokes do.  And in Starvation, one year, trollers were catching walleyes only 10-20 feet deep...over 40 - 60 feet of water...because they were following the bigger perch that were following the smaller perch that were feeding on the zooplankton.  It's a food chain thang.

In short, perch create their own perpetual motion machine.  The more adults and the more they spawn the more food there is and the more the adults can grow to spawning size.  In lakes with those conditions the fish are much more susceptible to dieoffs from species specific diseases or parasites than to angler pressure.  And that is what we have seen in Starvation and Jordanelle over the years.  And Yuba used to be a fantastic perch fishery...until the major drought of the early 2000s killed off all the big spawners and it never recovered.  Broke the food chain.

I hope you are right Pat.
RP is a fun place to fish and ‘most’ of the PS don’t put in the extra miles and drop in at Jordy or EC.