05-26-2016, 07:18 PM
"I still contend that if you removed the perch from the equation at Jordanelle, you'd improve the smb population. Perch are not helping that lake. As much as people want perch to be a "forage" they are still a predator! Too many predators with no forage = a bad situation."
[#0000FF]I think that a major part of your thought process is predicated upon a basic dislike of perch. What you have never considered (apparently) is that perch were formerly a big part of the angler interest in Jordanelle. A whole lot of anglers fished that lake with perch as a primary target...both summer and winter.
There were many families that liked Jordanelle because it was a good place to take the kids for perch. They could catch a grundle and have a good time. Also, I'm guessing that over 90 percent of the ice anglers were fishing for perch and the occasional trout was almost a nuisance. It was with me and the folks I fished with. The last few years there have been very few ice anglers on Jordanelle, and they leave bitching about the dinky perch...and how few there are.
Even when there were still plenty of edible sized chubs in the lake the larger smallmouth bass would still pattern on six inch perch. Myself and many other anglers I know have had the experience of reeling in a dink perch only to be suddenly attached to a six pound smallmouth. And there have been more than a few times when I looked down into the water from my tube and watched several big smallies following a hooked perch up from the bottom. I know of one guy who did not believe in following the rules and deliberately caught and kept several small perch alive...to be send back down with hooks in them. And he caught (and released) numbers of bass 5-6 pounds or better. He didn't get caught. should have.
I still have trouble understanding how you can continue to say that perch should be eliminated from Jordanelle. But good luck with that. It will be virtually impossible to completely eradicate them. And my thinking is the more perch the better...not the less the better. Because in spite of your optimism about chubs magically flooding the lake with the perch gone, I seriously doubt that the smallies, trout and the large chubs will leave all the newly spawned chublets alone long enough for them to make an encore appearance.
Are we having fun yet? Am I good at taking your bait? Another case of hook in mouth disease.
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[#0000FF]I think that a major part of your thought process is predicated upon a basic dislike of perch. What you have never considered (apparently) is that perch were formerly a big part of the angler interest in Jordanelle. A whole lot of anglers fished that lake with perch as a primary target...both summer and winter.
There were many families that liked Jordanelle because it was a good place to take the kids for perch. They could catch a grundle and have a good time. Also, I'm guessing that over 90 percent of the ice anglers were fishing for perch and the occasional trout was almost a nuisance. It was with me and the folks I fished with. The last few years there have been very few ice anglers on Jordanelle, and they leave bitching about the dinky perch...and how few there are.
Even when there were still plenty of edible sized chubs in the lake the larger smallmouth bass would still pattern on six inch perch. Myself and many other anglers I know have had the experience of reeling in a dink perch only to be suddenly attached to a six pound smallmouth. And there have been more than a few times when I looked down into the water from my tube and watched several big smallies following a hooked perch up from the bottom. I know of one guy who did not believe in following the rules and deliberately caught and kept several small perch alive...to be send back down with hooks in them. And he caught (and released) numbers of bass 5-6 pounds or better. He didn't get caught. should have.
I still have trouble understanding how you can continue to say that perch should be eliminated from Jordanelle. But good luck with that. It will be virtually impossible to completely eradicate them. And my thinking is the more perch the better...not the less the better. Because in spite of your optimism about chubs magically flooding the lake with the perch gone, I seriously doubt that the smallies, trout and the large chubs will leave all the newly spawned chublets alone long enough for them to make an encore appearance.
Are we having fun yet? Am I good at taking your bait? Another case of hook in mouth disease.
[/#0000FF]
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