I became an honorary member of the Price perch posse on Starvation today. All it cost me was a lot of free lures, most of my special perch meat bait and having to drill all the holes for all three of us. But, I did get some great smoked “Starvation steelhead” and some yummy perch chowder that I didn’t have to make myself.
Met up with BFTer TopH20 and fellow PPP member Dick about 7:30. Air temp a balmy 17 and no W*. Never did get worse than a light breeze all day and it was mostly sunny. Great day to be on the ice.**
Mike had a fully loaded sled…with stuff for cooking and serving his “shore lunch” spread. Didn’t know you could stack a sled that high and still pull it. Having a lot of slick ice probably helped. That and my TD tow rope.
Took us a couple of stops in “Dinksterville” before we finally found “Toad Town”. But once we found the SPOT it was game on. Dick scored the first decent perch. I followed with a couple more and then Mike joined us in the ZONE and we did not move for the rest of the day.
At the beginning of the day we agreed that Starvy had been treating all of us badly the past two or three trips and that this was probably going to be our last trip. By halfway through a perch jerkin morning we were planning a return trip next week.
First trip this ice season for me where I was catching more good sized fish than dinks. Got lots of “nice nines”, “fat tens” and “lovely 'levens”. Only got one close to a “footlong” but one of Dick’s dandies was right on the 12 inch mark. Mike lost one rainbow at the hole but landed a feisty “Starvy steelie” a while later to add to his smoker fodder. Neither Dick nor myself hooked any bows.
Set up the table and stove about noon to heat up Mike’s chowder. Good the fishing died down for a while so we could eat. But we still had to take our rods out of the holes or keep running back and forth from the table to our rods. Mostly smaller fish by that time though. The fast bite for larger fish kinda dropped off by then, although we did score a few chunky ones before I bailed out on the other guys just after 2 PM.
Saw a half dozen other anglers on the ice but they moved around and left earlier than we did. I’m guessing they did not do as well as the perch posse.
Thanks. Much fun. We have all cancelled our golf dates and other social engagements with celebrities and high ranking heads of state next week so that we can be free for more important things.
Hey tubedude, I’ve enjoyed your stories coupled with the visuals for a while now. The home Depot pic brings it all together though. Those are some.mighty fine perch! Great color, great size all around. Reminds me of the dc days of old…
I went to.starvation the last two years and was skunked every time, so I boycotted this year.
looks like a bad year to.stick to your grudges!
Josh
You’ve been promoted to the status of Regular, full-time, authorized and sanctioned member of the Price Perch Posse. All it took was a small Plano box of the TubeDude’s Perch Perfection jigs in assorted colors and styles.
It was a pleasure sharing the ice with you. Dick is still laughing.
I will simply say that you left before the real catching began in earnest (at least for me). There was a late bite in the same general area and depth which resulted in 12 keepers for me during the 1645 to 1745 time period.
There is a mess of perch to fillet in the morning. I caught another Starvation Steelie. Everything came my way with your Firetiger colored jigs and TD’s patented perch stink bait.
I’ll PM some photos of the final flurry in the morning. I think you topped me in total keepers, but I’ll bet mine weigh more!
Yeah, I have been around long enough that I have been fishing DC since it first opened to ice fishing about 1980. Piles o’perch on the ice.
Starvation can be fickle…or downright stingy. Until a few guys started learning more about it in the past couple of years it has been known for being worthy of its name. The fish just seemed to disappear under the ice…not to be discovered again until open water returned.
If you stayed away this year because of poor success in years past…that’s on you. Too bad. While the average size of the perch has been small for most anglers, there are still some bigguns to be had…if you find them and can get them to turn on. And with the recent additions of the rainbows to the fish biomass there is a much greater chance that the “average” angler can find some action. Those Starvy steelies hit hard, fight hard and are super on the table.
Glad you got into the “late shift” bite. That has been typical on Starvy the last couple of years. But it is a bummer to wait it out and then not have it come off on schedule. I know a few guys who have caught only hypothermia while waiting for the action that never happened.
It was great fishing with you guys. Go ahead and diss my “stank bait”, but I noticed you were quick to accept any handouts. And I also noticed that you iced some big perch with it.
Good to see you got into some of the bigger perch. I too am one of those guys that got discouraged trying to find fish under the ice at Starvation. The recent rainbow plants and a few more perch being found might encourage me to go look again…As always great report
Thanks. My third trip and my first good one. Usually catch a couple of bows but this time we stayed shallow fishing for perch. Mike did end up with two bows, however, that were only a few feet under the ice.
That lake is tough and I hope I haven’t created the impression that it has suddenly changed. We were all properly grateful that we were lucky enough to find a good spot that kicked out some decent fish. Almost made up for the other trips that produced only dinks. And we don’t have any false illusions that we can go back and duplicate that whenever we want. Doesn’t seem to work that way.
Sounds like a fun out. Good you didn’t get blown away this time. Ok - I’ll bite. What’s this ‘stank perch’ bait business?
Do you have some oldy-moldy fillet strips? Or some kinda special sauce to soak em in? Salt and garlic?
I had a waxie cup of perch eyes that got, well - a bit ripe. My son wanted nothing to do with it. So I put him in charge of collecting fresh ones from our perch pile. He enjoys that kind of thing a bit TOO much sometimes! Must be all them violent video games.
Saw some jigs on Ebay that reminded me of your little Perch Finkies. All kinds of stripee critters. Curious - do you pain your jigs with a brush, or do you do air-brushing?
Alas - no walleye come to play? Too bad. Thanks for the story -n- pix.
I often save a few small/big perch (7 - 8") to cut up for future bait. I scale them and then fillet them…leaving the scaled skin intact. I then put about 4 fillets in a small plastic bag with a bit of water and then squeeze out all the excess water…to remove air and reduce freezer burn.
The day before a trip I thaw a package at room temp (no microwave) until they still have a few ice crystals. Then I use a sharp knife to cross cut the fillets into bait-sized bits. I sprinkle them with some sea salt, squirt on some crawdad oil, stir it all up and then put them back in the bag to percolate in the refrigerator overnight.
Mike was giving me a bad time about using “stank bait” or catfish bait. A lot of guys prepare such concoctions for kitties. But the fresher the better for perch. Oh yeah, you can also use shrimp oil.
I hand paint my lures. Hard to get the right effects with an airbrush on such small lures. And I don’t care to invest in equipment that will do the job. After all, making lures is what keeps me off the streets and out of trouble (mostly).
The truth is that there are a lot of lures that will do a fine job of catching fish. The stuff I make and use is the end result of investing about half the national debt in fishing lures over the years to conduct tests and find out what works best FOR ME. Doesn’t mean it will or won’t work for anybody else. There is a lot more to fishing than mere choice of lures.
Good report Pat. I’ve spent allot of days up there this winter and had a few good ones. Even put a 23" eye on the ice one of those days but I have yet to put together a good pile of jumbos like you guys did. I’m green with envy. It’s not like you all don’t put in your time though. Looking forward to our next outing together once the open water gets here. Hopefully I won’t park you anywhere your rod starts humming again.[sly]
TD dang nice…one of these days we’ll make the trek outta thata way to Starvation…them Perch remind of roughly 2 years ago at PV as that was the size…think’n a year or so and PV will have them back.
Great job as always you know how to getter done with fish’n hard deck and soft water. Color us envious…
**That was definitely a better day than we had on PV last week. And, if it makes you feel any better, I thought of you whenever I iced another one of those bigguns…thinking “I know a couple of gals who would REALLY like this kind of action.” **
Yes, I have some pictures of some dandy perch from the Pineview of old. And, I have hopes that we are thinning the herd (little ones) enough to let some of them get bigger in the next couple of years. There has been lots more pressure this year and (thankfully) a lot more smaller fish being invited home for dinner. But, in the final analysis, anglers usually do not affect the perch biomass nearly as much as other “natural” factors of food, predation, spawning, recruitment, water chemistry, etc. When it all comes together right…enjoy it.
I became an honorary member of the Price perch posse on Starvation today. All it cost me was a lot of free lures, most of my special perch meat bait and having to drill all the holes for all three of us. But, I did get some great smoked “Starvation steelhead” and some yummy perch chowder that I didn’t have to make myself.
