01-12-2014, 01:40 AM
After reading a few posts and seeing some cool underwater pics of the perch down at Fish Lake, I decided on a whim, Thursday afternoon to make the drive down and fish Friday morning. I called my friend and asked her if she was game, she left work and hour early so that we could "beat the storm". According to all the weathermen it was only supposed to snow until 7pm and only north of Utah County. They were wrong. The 3 hour drive turned into 4.5. None the less we made it to the Snuggle Inn in Loa about 9:30. Nice little place and cost effective btw.
Woke up the next morning at 5 to make the 25 minute drive to Fish Lake. Got there about 6 and realized I had no Idea what I was doing. It was as dark as the inside of a mule deer and there were no cars coming or going. So we parked up by the little "convenience store" on the south end and waited. Just before 7 a truck pulled into the lot across the way and guys jumped out and started getting ready. My friend was asleep so I waited for the next car to pull up, about 7:10. It was light enough at this time to see a little, so we went and parked, got out and acted like we knew what we were doing.
It was only 25 degrees or so and not too much wind. I expected it to be waaaay colder and windier. We got lucky. The first group of guys headed out about 15 minutes before us and were setting up toward the middle of the lake and there was another group a little south of them. We decided to head toward the middle of the two groups. We went straight out from the parking lot about 200 yards and thought that would be a good place to set up. We were about 75 yards from the other groups. We must have chosen well because within 2 hours, there were 3 more groups within 50 feet of us.
[inline "First Light.jpg"]
Rather than set everything up and realize we had chosen poorly, I drilled a hole and put a line down with a little paddle bug/buck shot lure with a waxie. It wasn't 20 seconds before I had a perch on the ice.
[inline "first fish.jpg"]
We set up camp, drilled the holes, pitched the tent and started fishing. We were in about 23 feet of water. The first couple hours were pretty good. We would catch them one after the other for 10 minutes straight and then go 10 minutes without. During one of the breaks I dropped down a second line with a white, red-headed marabou tipped with perch meat. I put it about 18 inches off the bottom. It wasn't too long before it started getting hits too. It caught me a 16.5 inch skinny bow, but other than that it was too much of a headache running 2 poles. The trout hits were very different than the perch hits. The trout seemed to just grab it and spit it back out, so I missed quite a few drive-bys that were obviously trout because I was paying attention to my other pole. Those perch on the other hand are begging to be snagged and dragged to that icy heaven above. They love a little jig.
[inline wind.jpg]
When we got there the wind was not bad at all. I threw in the 4 corner anchors on my quickfish and called it good. About 10:30, the first wall collapsed. After a couple collapses I went out and tied on the wall supports. I only have 2. I've only had my quickfish 3 for a few weeks, do they only come with 2 wall support cord/anchor combos?
About 11:30 the first BIG gust came up and rattled our cage and dragged one of the nearby group's tent about 30 yards with one guy inside. It pushed my sled with the auger inside about the same. It was crazy. There were a couple more like that before we decided to pack it in about 12:30. The fish were still biting. That last hour or so, I was mainly trying to prevent us from being carried away to Oz, while my friend was reeling them in one after another. The wind sent a lot of people home before we gave up. By the time we came out of the tent there were only about 10 groups on the ice, down from about 25.
All in all it was a pretty successful trip. Lots of fun was had. My friend said it was the most fish she had ever caught in one outing.
I would highly recommend a trip to Fish Lake. The perch were quite a bit larger on average in comparison to my PV trips this season. Most were 8-9" a couple pushing 10".
We kept 36 perch, threw back another 20. We kept the one rainbow (He's camera shy) and threw back the other 5, 10 inch bows.
[inline "Bucket O Fish.jpg"]
A few tips.
1) If you bring a tent, make sure you have all 4 walls staked. That wind is nasty.
2) If you have cleats, wear them. I don't:
[inline iced.jpg]
During take down, I was taken down. That ice is SLICK! I fell 3 times.
3) After 1.5 hours of fileting fish, I can tell you the quickest way to filet a perch is to throw it back.
4)Everyone on this site talks about using strike indicators for perch. I've tried them and they work, but here is another option. I love using these bobbers with bobber stoppers. I actually use the Thrill brand, myself. If your jig and bobber are balanced correctly, you can tell when the perch inhales next to your jig. They are so sensitive. The only time that they can be a pain is if it is so cold that they freeze over and your line does not pass like it should. I like how you can keep an exact depth too. Does anyone else use these?
[inline SlipBobberKnot_b_close-1.jpg]
5)Those perch seem to bite anything. We didn't change lures the whole time. I used a Buck Shot lure that looks like a paddle bug tipped with eyes. I like them for their weight, quick up and down. My friend used a green Gil Getter, tipped with wax and meal worms. Both combos had the same results. My Marabou that was 18 inches off the bottom definitely saw less action, but it caught a few perch too.
Good luck to anyone going down there. I hope to make it again this season. We'll see.
And watch for my friend at Sochi, she will be competing in the "Figure Skating With A Bucket O Fish" event.
[inline "ice skating.jpg"]
[signature]
Woke up the next morning at 5 to make the 25 minute drive to Fish Lake. Got there about 6 and realized I had no Idea what I was doing. It was as dark as the inside of a mule deer and there were no cars coming or going. So we parked up by the little "convenience store" on the south end and waited. Just before 7 a truck pulled into the lot across the way and guys jumped out and started getting ready. My friend was asleep so I waited for the next car to pull up, about 7:10. It was light enough at this time to see a little, so we went and parked, got out and acted like we knew what we were doing.
It was only 25 degrees or so and not too much wind. I expected it to be waaaay colder and windier. We got lucky. The first group of guys headed out about 15 minutes before us and were setting up toward the middle of the lake and there was another group a little south of them. We decided to head toward the middle of the two groups. We went straight out from the parking lot about 200 yards and thought that would be a good place to set up. We were about 75 yards from the other groups. We must have chosen well because within 2 hours, there were 3 more groups within 50 feet of us.
[inline "First Light.jpg"]
Rather than set everything up and realize we had chosen poorly, I drilled a hole and put a line down with a little paddle bug/buck shot lure with a waxie. It wasn't 20 seconds before I had a perch on the ice.
[inline "first fish.jpg"]
We set up camp, drilled the holes, pitched the tent and started fishing. We were in about 23 feet of water. The first couple hours were pretty good. We would catch them one after the other for 10 minutes straight and then go 10 minutes without. During one of the breaks I dropped down a second line with a white, red-headed marabou tipped with perch meat. I put it about 18 inches off the bottom. It wasn't too long before it started getting hits too. It caught me a 16.5 inch skinny bow, but other than that it was too much of a headache running 2 poles. The trout hits were very different than the perch hits. The trout seemed to just grab it and spit it back out, so I missed quite a few drive-bys that were obviously trout because I was paying attention to my other pole. Those perch on the other hand are begging to be snagged and dragged to that icy heaven above. They love a little jig.
[inline wind.jpg]
When we got there the wind was not bad at all. I threw in the 4 corner anchors on my quickfish and called it good. About 10:30, the first wall collapsed. After a couple collapses I went out and tied on the wall supports. I only have 2. I've only had my quickfish 3 for a few weeks, do they only come with 2 wall support cord/anchor combos?
About 11:30 the first BIG gust came up and rattled our cage and dragged one of the nearby group's tent about 30 yards with one guy inside. It pushed my sled with the auger inside about the same. It was crazy. There were a couple more like that before we decided to pack it in about 12:30. The fish were still biting. That last hour or so, I was mainly trying to prevent us from being carried away to Oz, while my friend was reeling them in one after another. The wind sent a lot of people home before we gave up. By the time we came out of the tent there were only about 10 groups on the ice, down from about 25.
All in all it was a pretty successful trip. Lots of fun was had. My friend said it was the most fish she had ever caught in one outing.
I would highly recommend a trip to Fish Lake. The perch were quite a bit larger on average in comparison to my PV trips this season. Most were 8-9" a couple pushing 10".
We kept 36 perch, threw back another 20. We kept the one rainbow (He's camera shy) and threw back the other 5, 10 inch bows.
[inline "Bucket O Fish.jpg"]
A few tips.
1) If you bring a tent, make sure you have all 4 walls staked. That wind is nasty.
2) If you have cleats, wear them. I don't:
[inline iced.jpg]
During take down, I was taken down. That ice is SLICK! I fell 3 times.
3) After 1.5 hours of fileting fish, I can tell you the quickest way to filet a perch is to throw it back.
4)Everyone on this site talks about using strike indicators for perch. I've tried them and they work, but here is another option. I love using these bobbers with bobber stoppers. I actually use the Thrill brand, myself. If your jig and bobber are balanced correctly, you can tell when the perch inhales next to your jig. They are so sensitive. The only time that they can be a pain is if it is so cold that they freeze over and your line does not pass like it should. I like how you can keep an exact depth too. Does anyone else use these?
[inline SlipBobberKnot_b_close-1.jpg]
5)Those perch seem to bite anything. We didn't change lures the whole time. I used a Buck Shot lure that looks like a paddle bug tipped with eyes. I like them for their weight, quick up and down. My friend used a green Gil Getter, tipped with wax and meal worms. Both combos had the same results. My Marabou that was 18 inches off the bottom definitely saw less action, but it caught a few perch too.
Good luck to anyone going down there. I hope to make it again this season. We'll see.
And watch for my friend at Sochi, she will be competing in the "Figure Skating With A Bucket O Fish" event.
[inline "ice skating.jpg"]
[signature]
