11-06-2014, 11:59 PM
[#0000FF]Food is always a big part of the equation when fish are small. But in this case there is also the matter of the cyclical nature of the perch and crappies in Pineview. With the rising and falling water levels, and the weird weather patterns during spring spawning periods, it is uncommon for either perch or crappies to have a "normal" spawn.
Seems like about once every 4 or 5 years there is a good spawn and good recruitment. For the next few years there is an abundance of fish...but they are all competing for a limited amount of food. As natural predation and angling harvest reduces the number of hungry mouths a few of the remaining fish in that year class finally get larger as they approach the end of their life cycle. They are generally heavily harvested during the ice season. The remaining larger fish spawn and die in the spring.
Any year when there is at least a mediocre spawn there are initially a lot of fry swarming around the flooded brush in the shallows. But when water levels drop and the young of the year have no protection they are quickly slurped up by all the hungry mouths in Pineview.
After a good spawn there are still lots of small fry left over at the beginning of winter. They go deep and you can find them in clouds on the bottom in the deepest spots. At least we used to be able to...until the buoy line was moved further away from the dam. My best late fall spots have been off limits for several years now. And I suspect that if we were able to fish those areas there would be more of the bigger fish showing up.
Howsomever...crappies and perch do not live on meat alone. They also feed heavily on zooplankton and other invertebrates. Fishing crappies at night under the ice can be an education. If you have a good sonar you will see a line or band forming above the bottom. That is a zooplankton convention...if you are in the right place. When a roving band of hungry crappies finds them your screen will light up and your rods will bend. But if the zooplankton disappear, so will the crappies. And it is surprising how large the crappies are that are feeding on bitty bites.
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Seems like about once every 4 or 5 years there is a good spawn and good recruitment. For the next few years there is an abundance of fish...but they are all competing for a limited amount of food. As natural predation and angling harvest reduces the number of hungry mouths a few of the remaining fish in that year class finally get larger as they approach the end of their life cycle. They are generally heavily harvested during the ice season. The remaining larger fish spawn and die in the spring.
Any year when there is at least a mediocre spawn there are initially a lot of fry swarming around the flooded brush in the shallows. But when water levels drop and the young of the year have no protection they are quickly slurped up by all the hungry mouths in Pineview.
After a good spawn there are still lots of small fry left over at the beginning of winter. They go deep and you can find them in clouds on the bottom in the deepest spots. At least we used to be able to...until the buoy line was moved further away from the dam. My best late fall spots have been off limits for several years now. And I suspect that if we were able to fish those areas there would be more of the bigger fish showing up.
Howsomever...crappies and perch do not live on meat alone. They also feed heavily on zooplankton and other invertebrates. Fishing crappies at night under the ice can be an education. If you have a good sonar you will see a line or band forming above the bottom. That is a zooplankton convention...if you are in the right place. When a roving band of hungry crappies finds them your screen will light up and your rods will bend. But if the zooplankton disappear, so will the crappies. And it is surprising how large the crappies are that are feeding on bitty bites.
[/#0000FF]
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