Jordanelle Perch Search 7-15-13

[TubeDude]

[#0000ff]Met up with LloydE at the PWC ramp at Jordanelle about 5:30. I got launched a few minutes before him and already had my first dink perch before the sun came up. First of many.

Air temp at launch was 60 and water temp 71. Too warm for trout but just right for perch and smallies. But not many of the later showing on sonar or on the ends of our lines in the launch area.

Headed over to the old quarry area to a couple of spots that have produced in the past. Found the fishies in 10-12 feet of water off the exposed underwater forest along the west side. Got quite a few smallies from 5" to about 12". Most on the lower end of that scale. Lots of perch. Some only about 5-6 inches but plenty of 8, 9 and 10 inchers.

Went through a lot of worms tipping my jigs. I used several different colors and they all seemed okay with the perch...as long as there was some sweetener on the hook.

I tossed back most of the perch but kept a few of the larger one for a meal and a few smaller ones for bait. Running short of minnows this year and strips of perch are candy to several species...where legal.

Lloyd also got molested by dink perch and small smallies. But he did catch a number of underfooter smallies that gave him a good time. He didn't keep anything. Not worth the sink time for a few small perch.

I was trying out my new Humminbird 561 sonar today and it worked great. Showed me some fish on the bottom in 32 feet as I was working my way back to the ramp over deeper water. I stopped and dropped...a jig. Wham...bendo...big time. After a few yards of line off the drag and a couple of tube turnarounds a two footer sized brown trout shook his head and let me have the jig back. Heck, I woulda let him go anyway but woulda liked to have him for the camera first. Bashful brownie.

Saw several small groups of bank tanglers in different spots. Didn't see any of them bring in any fish. Not the prime time for shoreline hugging troutskis. And the perch seemed to prefer the areas with flooded brush. Smallies too.

The power squadron served us with an eviction notice just after 10. Big boat, music on mega blast, everybody screaming, dump the skier less than 50 feet away from my tube, music blasting louder, more screaming. That was enough for this crotchety old dude. We hit the ramp and were down the road by 11. It was gettin' kinda wierd around there. Probably won't be back until after Labor Day.
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[WET1]

Nice report Pat. After our last conversation I spent a few hours on Saturday at Starvation searching for perch in Saluratus. I drug carwlers through the weeds and all over that bay for several hours with never a single perch bite. I did pick up quite a few walleyes, even some nicer 18 - 19 inchers and alot of under footers in shallow weeds but no perch. Talked to quite a few people fishing in the area that day as well and only one had caught a single small perch in the weeds in about 15 fow.
Definitely something strange going on at Starvation this year with the perch. Either they died out like you heard reports of or they are acting very different than they ever have before. I'm hoping to have a little time next month to take a look for them and see if I can find those schools in the deep water again and confirm what they are. I'm hoping that they haven't had a disease issue or something that caused them to crash as the walleye are in the best condition I've ever seen them in there and don't want to see them get skinny again like they were a few years ago.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Thanks for the update. Appreciate your effort to find some perch...even if those silly wallies kept interrupting you.

Have had a couple of off-the-board reports from other guys this past week that are about the same as your findings. One guy is a pretty fair perch-jerker and he got skunked for 2 days...on perch. He is ready to jump off his tackle box.

Kind of a scary thought about having those healthy walleyes facing an empty grocery store for a while. The same thing is happening at Utah Lake, with the white bass. Doubt the walleyes will crash but they are not likely to remain as fat and healthy as they have been. Like all Utah fishing...enjoy it while you can because you never know what next year might bring.
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[bornfishin]

Sounds like a blast! Lots of fish is always a good time killer. It is too bad you didnt land that brown, would have been great to see it. I have never caught a trout out of there before, just smallies and perch. I hear about them but never have see em.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]This time of year the trout are deep...except for a few small planters that take bugs off the surface at daybreak.

If you want a good shot at trout wait until about October. Then fish the area where the Provo River comes in...at Rock Cliffs. Usually lots of rainbows as well as some browns getting ready to run up the river to spawn. Watch the reports and get ready for the fall fishing.
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[bornfishin]

Sweet thanks for the info TD. Much appreciated.
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[WET1]

You're right on buddy. My dad used to always tell me when I was growing up in Idaho any time I had some good fishing or chukar hunting going on to "enjoy it while you can becuse nothing good ever lasts". [pirate]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]...and some of the bad stuff seems to go on forever.
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[WET1]

Have the perch in Pineview sized up yet?
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]More footlongs than the past couple of years. But still lots of dinks.
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[EvilTyeDyeTwin]

[]TubeDude going somewhere else other than Starvy, The Bay, and Utah Lake..........this warmer than normal summer has the bluegill, perch and the prince of pvc all messed up.[]

What a weird year[crazy]

Way to shake it up TubeDude! Keep it coming.[cool]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Sorry to put a ding in your space-time continuum by throwing in a different venue. Deal with it.

Actually, I would have had several other trips...to different ponds...to report on. Howsomever, the low water conditions, weird fish patterns and unholy Utah "zephyrs" have cancelled several of my planned trips before they happened.

Probably gonna get worse before it gets better.
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[TroutBumDave]

Thanks for the report TD, nice work as always. Glad your new sonar is working well -- what happened to your old one? If it's still working, I might could offer a few bucks to ya...? You see, I had my nifty Fishin' Buddy with me a few weeks ago almost in the same spot you were in, and I went to grab it up out of the water so I could cruise back to the ramp when the handle broke off and my unit went sploosh. I tried desperately to turn the motor off, turn my fat butt around and snag it -- it was sinking pretty slowly -- but missed it by a few inches. Several attempts at snagging it with my rod failed as well. Sad day for Dummy Dave.

Anyhooters, shoot me a shout if it's just laying around your 'torium, will ya? Grassy ass.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I got a good deal on two of the 561s...one for me and one for Da Babe. We had been using the discontinued 565s for about 4 years. Hers was getting funky. Mine is still working okay and we might could work something out. Those things are pretty good for tubing and tooning. All the info you need without all the pricey bells and whistles.

Also have another HB that I just got through fixing up with a new power cord and transducer. Haven't tested it on the water yet though.

If you wanna come over I can turn them on to demo mode and give you a chance to see how they work.
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[TroutBumDave]

You are singing my kind of tune. PM incoming!
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[RangerRat]

So TD, do you have your 561 on your trolling motor? I'd like to buy one but need to buy an adapter to mount it to my troller.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I have the "skimmer" transducer...designed to be mounted on the stern of a boat. But I mount mine on my tube with a PVC shaft that can be raised and lowered during launching and beaching.

I also use a quick connect setup that allows the display and sonar shaft to be quickly installed or removed...and is easily rotated as needed. Kinda like a cheapie ram mount.

I have helped others set up sonars for boats, toons and yaks. Once you know where you want the display and where you have a good spot for the 'ducer you can usually get 'er done.

I'm attaching a single pic...showing the transducer in the down position. If you need more pics and or have questions about setting up the skimmer 'ducer for any kind of craft shoot me a PM and I can get you some more info.
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[SBennett]

Hello Pat,

Do you think the State will ever do anything about the loud music? I would think they would be able to issue a citation for noise pollution or something like that. I've had a gut full of it. I don't care if they listen to their music, just don't make me listen to it also!
It is getting so bad that I would almost support special use days at the more popular reservoirs, every other saturday for skiers alternating with fisherman only saturdays. I know it would suck to lose some days but would it be worth it in exchange for peaceful days?
Nice perch. Maybe it was the camera but they look a little skinny. Do you think Jordy has enough food in it to grow fatter perch? I don't but I hope I am very wrong.

Take care, Shane
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]The reality is that the State Parks have suffered a big hit this year with low water...and the oil spill mess at Willard. They will take fees from anybody who wants to go through the gates. No entrance exam on type of music or decibels played. And those folks with the big play boats probably contribute more during the summer than us lowly fisher types. Same deal at Pineview and other lakes. We can complain but it never does any good. Kinda like marriage.

You are correct in your observations of the perch. They are "sleek". A big part of that is they spawned a bit late, with the long ice covering, and the young of the year are just getting big enough to make a meal. They haven't had much to eat for a while. Of the few decent sized ones I kept to fillet only one had a larger perchlet in it...maybe a 2 incher from last year. Some of the others had newby fry that were barely an inch long. The good news is that they were still healthy...with fairly nice thick fillets. Not the paper thin fillets as with the white bass at Utah Lake.

The perch seem to be coming back fairly well at Jordanelle (it rhymes). At least there were good numbers last fall and for a few folks through the ice. Sizes are still not that great. I got a few footlongs in October last year but most are smaller...or much smaller. Looking for more 11 to 12 inchers by the end of this year...if the food holds out and the lake does not go dry.

Most perch lakes are similar in that perch are at both the top and bottom of the food chain. If the big perch have a good spawn there will be enough baby perch to feed the big ones and for a few to grow big enough to spawn eventually. But, as we have seen at Yuba and Deer Creek, a low water year with poor spawning conditions can wipe out a whole year class and leave the bigger perch hungry.

The big difference between Starvation and most other perch ponds is that there are still large areas of flooded sage brush and trees left in the lake when it was filled. That stuff is rotting away and will be gone someday but for the present it provides the type of underwater structure perch need to spawn...no matter how low the water gets. I'd say the prognosis for perch in Jordanelle might be better than for most of the other popular perch lakes.

Yeah, it would be nice to be able to have one or two days a week in which the power squadron had some imposed limitations. But no matter how the State Parks system tried to set it up it would never keep the blasterboaters happy.

Down in southern Arizona they have similar problems...the ongoing battle between serious anglers, small boaters and the wave wackos that equate noise and speed with enjoys. On one of the larger lakes (Lake Pleasant) they set aside a couple of popular fishing arms for wakeless only. And they restricted jet skis to one large arm that was buoyed off against bigger boats or fishing. You guessed it...civil war. On another small lake down near the Mexican border (Patagonia Lake) they restricted the use of big motors to weekend only. During the week there was a max of 10 hp. Again...open revolt. And there were many good fishing spots around that little lake where it was impossible to maintain any kind of 150 foot proximity rule. If you wanted to fish in peace, run a small boat...or float tube...or paddle a canoe...you had to be off the water by 9:30 or 10:00 or you could become part of the evening news. Lots of small boats swamped by huge bow wakes and several T-bones among the power squadron too. Didn't mind those.

Thou and I share a similar outlook. Regardless of what kind of craft you put on the water from which to fish you should be able to enjoy the esthetics of the experience without experiencing the onslaught of all the wackos.

But, because it is about money...always...our kind ain't gonna get no breaks. Just gotta wait it out until after Labor Day. Once school is back in session and the water gets cooler the crazies thin out and the fishing gets better. Any short pleasant interludes before that are blessings...for which we must be properly grateful.
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[SBennett]

Amen.
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