Found a Perch at Deer Creek

[TubeDude]

[quote SBennett]The walleye and perch got along with each other for many years.
I could be wrong but I believe smallies did the biggest damage to the DC perchery.
I too miss those days of endless 10"s.[/quote]

[#0000FF]Right ye be, laddie. Walleye and (lots of) perch coexisted for years in DC before smallmouths. After the smallies were dumped in...from Flaming Gorge...they displaced the formerly abundant largies, ate up most of the crawdads and then started in on the perch.

Larger smallmouths ate one and two year old perch. But young smallmouths have been the most destructive to the overall perch population. Schools of yearling smallies raid the balls of newly hatched perchlets and slurp them up by the thousands...before they can ever get large enough to provide food for larger fish. And since there is no other forage for perch...besides their own young...there is a breakdown in the food chain and less to eat. So there are fewer larger perch.

And, coincidentally, there are fewer large smallmouths these days too. Hmmmm?
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