inquiring mind perch fish lake

[slimmer]

just got back from a fish lake perch bash. how come perch never get bigger than 10in or so? i have caught hundreds and never anything over 10 inch mark. is it to many perch, food help me out hope tube dude will reply
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Perch size in any body of water is dependent on several factors. Available food supply is the biggie. The young feed on zooplankton and small aquatic invertebrates...like daphnia and midge larvae...until they get large enough to begin eating larger stuff. Then they graduate to very young fish fry...perch and other species...and to larger invertebrates like crawdads, freshwater shrimp, snails, insect larvae, etc.

Once perch get above about six inches they grow bigger only if they can find a steady supply of the small invertebrates and fish fry of a size small enough for them to consume...for a significant part of the year. Some food resources are available for only a limited time each year. And fish metabolism slows down in cold ice-covered waters. The shorter the growing season and the less the food resources the slower the fish grow.

Closely interrelated is the population density of the perch...and other species that rely on the same food resources. Most other species also eat the zooplankton and tiny invertebrates while small, so there has to be good overall fertility in the water to support a big food chain...at least at the lower end. A lot of food will support a lot of fish...up to decent sizes. If the food resources are limited you will have either just a few fish of decent size...or a lot of small fish (stunting). Only so many cookies in the cookie jar.

The ecosystem of Fish Lake has changed since the initial introduction of perch. They showed up via bucket biology...and they liked it there. Plenty of weeds (milfoil) for them to use as cover and for spawning. And at first there were lots of chubs. That's what the macks and other larger trout relied upon for their primary food source. But the perch started eating up the newly hatched chubs as fast as they could be spawned and the chub population pretty much disappeared. Too bad for the macks.

In most perch waters the perch are prolific enough to spawn enough young to feed the older and larger fish...leaving enough to provide sport for anglers and to keep spawning and keep up the numbers. But most other perch waters in Utah do not have the underwater weed beds that Fish Lake has. In Fish Lake the baby perch have more cover and are not as easily hunted down by the larger fish. So more of them grow larger and competitive for whatever food is available otherwise.

Within a few years of perch first showing up in Fish Lake, DWR netted some HUGE specimens that were over 16 inches and between 2 and 3 pounds. So that proves that perch CAN grow big in there...with enough food and less competition. But as the perch multiplied into the millions the average size kept going down...and down. Today we see a huge population of smaller fish.

Unfortunately, perch are not on the menu for the biggest meat eaters in Fish Lake...the macks. Splake and browns will take some of the smaller perch but once they get over about 4 inches the only residents of the lake that will eat perch are the infrequent tiger muskies. And they prefer to eat the spineless planted trout. However, both splake and rainbows...as well as perch...will smack jigs flavored with bits of perch meat.

How's that?
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[fishgiver]

How are the ice conditions, edges, thickness and access?
Thanks....
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[slimmer]

thanks tube dude you are the man who knows a lot about fishing thank you soooo much pat
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[slimmer]

the ice was great no slush. we walked clear across the lake. ice still about 14 inches with about 4 inches of snow ice machine all over the lake looks like there had been slush before but it was all frozen as of 2/25/16 tee shirt weather well almost
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