02-15-2005, 07:21 PM
[cool][#0000ff]My understanding, from several "reliable" sources, are that DWR has every intention of trying to restore the Yuba fishery to some semblance of the days of old. The first step, as you have indicated, is to get a decent population of perch going, as a forage base. That is going to take both some more plantings and some good spawns. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]With the water rising as fast as it is in Yuba, it would seem viable to dump in a bunch more perch and the newly flooded vegetation will make both good spawning habitat and a nursery for the hatchlings. I'm sure that DWR is following it as closely as us anxious Yubaholics. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One of the things I did not point out previously was that in the days of plenty, there were several year classes of perch in abundance at all times. Spawning was successful most years, and the young of the year swarmed in the shallows by the millions. By late summer or early fall, they clung together in huge schools of 3 to 4 inchers. They were just ideal munchin' size for toad perch and walleyes of all sizes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fishing Yuba in those days was a lot like fishing salt water. You did not look for individual large fish, or even groups of larger fish. You used your sonar to find the schools of bait sized perch, put over marker buoys and then fished around the perimeters. Whenever you could find small perch, the larger predators were generally hanging close by.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When the fish were in shallower water, and actively moving and feeding, you could cast or troll perch pattern Shad Raps or various colors of plastics. When the water cooled down, before ice up, you needed to "spoon" them or jig vertically with different metals and plastics. Adding a 1" strip of perch meat to a 1/2 oz. gold Kastmaster was almost guaranteed to get either a toad perch, a walleye, a channel cat or even a northern. The same stuff worked well through the ice, later, when you could find both the bait and the bigguns.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am optimistic. I just hope I can hang in there long enough for the cycle to kick in again.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]With the water rising as fast as it is in Yuba, it would seem viable to dump in a bunch more perch and the newly flooded vegetation will make both good spawning habitat and a nursery for the hatchlings. I'm sure that DWR is following it as closely as us anxious Yubaholics. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]One of the things I did not point out previously was that in the days of plenty, there were several year classes of perch in abundance at all times. Spawning was successful most years, and the young of the year swarmed in the shallows by the millions. By late summer or early fall, they clung together in huge schools of 3 to 4 inchers. They were just ideal munchin' size for toad perch and walleyes of all sizes.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fishing Yuba in those days was a lot like fishing salt water. You did not look for individual large fish, or even groups of larger fish. You used your sonar to find the schools of bait sized perch, put over marker buoys and then fished around the perimeters. Whenever you could find small perch, the larger predators were generally hanging close by.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]When the fish were in shallower water, and actively moving and feeding, you could cast or troll perch pattern Shad Raps or various colors of plastics. When the water cooled down, before ice up, you needed to "spoon" them or jig vertically with different metals and plastics. Adding a 1" strip of perch meat to a 1/2 oz. gold Kastmaster was almost guaranteed to get either a toad perch, a walleye, a channel cat or even a northern. The same stuff worked well through the ice, later, when you could find both the bait and the bigguns.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I am optimistic. I just hope I can hang in there long enough for the cycle to kick in again.[/#0000ff]
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