Caught 529 inches of perch today!

[TopH2O]

Yea, you guessed it, that was 101 perch. [] A friend and I fished Big Sand Wash Reservoir in the Basin north of Duchesne. We got on the lake at the Sportsman's Access point on the north end of the reservoir. The ice was about 8 inches thick where we fished and there is still some open water visible down near the dam.

I ended up keeping 23 perch in the 7 to 9 inch range but it was about 6 or 7 perch for each keeper. We started using small jigs with either a mealworm or nightcrawler piece. Once we had a few small perch we switched to eyeballs or a strip of belly meat. We had to move around a little at first but we found the perch in 26 to 30 feet of water about 200 yards from the access. The ice surface is slick so you should have some cleats to avoid a spill.

The action was fairly steady all day and we were there from 0830 to 1430. I also caught one rainbow of about 16 inches but I targeted the perch most of the time. I'm sure this water will be a dandy perch destination in the years ahead as the perch get bigger.

Mike
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[hookngrinin]

Thanks for the report, Mike. I'll have to go give Big Sandy as shot and get me some young perch fillets.
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[Fishrmn]

Until they stunt, and then they'll get smaller.
[crazy][crazy][crazy]



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[TopH2O]

You are right on the possible stunting. In my opinion, and mine only, I think with the current numbers of perch there will be continued growth for a few years before the stunting begins. There are enough adult perch in the lake to consume large numbers of young perch each season. This lake is drawn down for irrigation which doesn't leave much escape cover for small fish. The larger perch and the SMB and some walleye in the lake will eat many of the young of the year perch.

I guess we'll see what happens.
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[Fishrmn]

Good perch fisheries in Utah are rare.(Non existent). The best thing for them is to harvest them. And don't worry about preserving the jumbos to reproduce. The way to grow big perch is to have enough food left for the survivors to grow.

Sounds like you were sorting through too many dinks for there to be a whole lot of growth potential. IMO, you shoulda kept 'em all, and reduced the competition for food.



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[wyoguy]

Well Mike, if your trying to make me feel bad for not going...it worked. Sounds like you guys did well, good on you.
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