04-10-2014, 03:37 PM
[quote StacyR]I don't think it's over harvest. CJ has a massive number of small perch at the moment. They're everywhere.
According to perch growth rate charts, a 5-6" perch is 2-3 years old. Remember what a cold, nasty spring we had in 2012? Cold muddy water pouring down the rivers because of a couple of 80 degree days in late April? Back to back cold fronts beginning right after that and lasting six weeks? Bass and crappie still in pre-spawn patterns in late May?
Perch spawn earlier than other panfish, so I think what happened was the baby perch hatched that year had little to no competition because the bass and crappie spawn was so poor and the murky water made it hard for predators to find them. So now their numbers have exploded.
There are bigger ones in CJ. I saw one around 14" caught a couple of weeks ago. It's just hard to keep the little ones off long enough to catch them.[/quote]
you mean the 500 people everyday out there the last 2 years ice fishing keeping 5 gallon pale's full of perch isn't hurting the populations? of bigger fish? please..... yea perch have a ton of little babies, how many of those last 5-6 years too get big and fat for eating? not many...... I think the same is gonna happen on Cascade, need the big fish too help keep the little fish down and not get into the way it was 20 years ago where nothing got hardly bigger than 12", same applies too CJ, i'm no biologist but I believe we need too take a look at how ND handles there medium too large reservoirs that consistently produce year after year....
Matt
[signature]
According to perch growth rate charts, a 5-6" perch is 2-3 years old. Remember what a cold, nasty spring we had in 2012? Cold muddy water pouring down the rivers because of a couple of 80 degree days in late April? Back to back cold fronts beginning right after that and lasting six weeks? Bass and crappie still in pre-spawn patterns in late May?
Perch spawn earlier than other panfish, so I think what happened was the baby perch hatched that year had little to no competition because the bass and crappie spawn was so poor and the murky water made it hard for predators to find them. So now their numbers have exploded.
There are bigger ones in CJ. I saw one around 14" caught a couple of weeks ago. It's just hard to keep the little ones off long enough to catch them.[/quote]
you mean the 500 people everyday out there the last 2 years ice fishing keeping 5 gallon pale's full of perch isn't hurting the populations? of bigger fish? please..... yea perch have a ton of little babies, how many of those last 5-6 years too get big and fat for eating? not many...... I think the same is gonna happen on Cascade, need the big fish too help keep the little fish down and not get into the way it was 20 years ago where nothing got hardly bigger than 12", same applies too CJ, i'm no biologist but I believe we need too take a look at how ND handles there medium too large reservoirs that consistently produce year after year....
Matt
[signature]