A GOOD READ

[PIKEMAN99]

http://www.in-fisherman.com/ice-fishing/...ant-perch/
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[k2muskie]

Thanks for sharing.
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[wormandbobber]

[quote PIKEMAN99]http://www.in-fisherman.com/ice-fishing/the-search-for-giant-perch/[/quote]

Good stuff....it also contains a lot of information that I have harped on a lot over the years including the idea that fishery managers always try to keep fish in the zone of maximum growth and that growth is limited when fish numbers are too high. Generally, big fish are a result of fast growth and not old age....

"People such as Nate Herman of Herman Brothers Lake Management in Peoria, Illinois, tell you it’s simply a matter of perch having everything they need, at all stages in their life cycle, to sustain maximum growth. With good water quality, high concentrations of food, low competition for that food, and minimal predatory impact, Herman can grow adolescent perch to 14 inches in just three years."
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[bowhunter3]

Thanks for sharing.
That is a good read.
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[Anglinarcher]

It was an interesting article, but not that well written. I can see in this article that it could lead people reading it to "read into it what they want". Of course, as an engineer, I read things for content and not entertainment value so I admit bias.

The writer's opinions, not facts, were often sprinkled into the mix as though they were facts, in such a manner that it suggested that his opinions were facts. This is just not true. For example, he condemns the fisherman for "not only are anglers keeping unlimited numbers of perch on a daily basis, some also are taking to unethical practices of leaving piles of smaller perch on the ice."

Had the author done more research and filtered out the HIS BIAS, he would have know that Idaho lakes, including Cascade, have a boom and bust cycle with perch. The lakes overpopulate with perch, the perch stunt, the other fish stunt, the state kills off the entire lake and plant trout back in. Then bucket biologist illegally plant perch, the perch get super big, they perch fishing is excellent for a few years, then they overpopulate again, and the cycle starts over. The fact that they had an issue with Pikeminnow (previously known as squawfish) is a rare issue.

The fact that the anglers are taking "unlimited numbers of perch" and "leaving piles of smaller perch on the ice" reflects local and State knowledge of the cycle that exist in Cascade and other Idaho lakes. A knowledge that I also had when I spent many formative years fishing Cascade and other Idaho lakes.

Idaho has gone to planting more predators to try to keep the perch populations down. More Small Mouth Bass, more Brown Trout, etc., are making it into the mix now to keep the perch densities down. The State has largely conceded that they will never prevent the bucket biologist from planting perch, so they try to find a better way then killing off a lake every 10 years.

A case in point is Magic Reservoir in South Central part of the state, North of Twin Falls about an hour and a half. That lake was one of those cycle lakes and when the perch were overpopulated the trout fishing was terrible and no one fished for perch. You know the cycle, the UTAH cycle for years as well. Kill, replant, enjoy, 10 years later kill again, replant............... Now they have a better balance with SMB and Browns and Bows and Cutts, and yes, perch. It has been many years since the last kill off.

In the old days, when In-Fisherman Magazine was controlled by the Linders, they use to talk about a lake having a "biomass". The total mass of living biological matter, to include prey, predators, food for prey, was stable and unchanging unless the lake had in flux of nutrients. I guess that the author had to restate it in his terms. So, to summarize my monologue, I will quote the author:

"Focus on those with an adequate supply of macroinvertebrates to sustain perch early, and a fish-dominated forage base for adult perch to achieve their maximum size. For true trophies, forgo fisheries with high-density perch populations for those that produce fewer but potentially giant perch."

I hope that in some way the above monologue on my part will help to explain why giant perch are not so easy. My concluding thoughts are as follows:

1) I love to catch, and eat, perch, but they are not part of our native balance so Utah will never have a stable perch population without help.

2) To help the perch, we need to control their ability to overpopulate.

3) Controlling perch populations is an art, not a science. Adding a self populating predator is often as bad as no predator.

4) We have Water Storage Reservoirs, not Lakes, for the most part. This means constant changes in water levels eliminate a lot of the water weeds, and therefore the food associated with the weeds. Our "biomass" will always be lower than stable lakes where perch are native.

5) When we find a good lake for perch in Utah, enjoy it, because it will not last. The good news is that another one will come around in time.