12-16-2005, 02:34 AM
Well jeewhiz...I've fished Deer Creek since the 60's and I've always caught perch in the 10" to 12" class. In fact I remember the first year icefishing was allowed and people were taking them out by the 5 gallon bucket fulls...all nice big fat perch.
The same was true with Yuba...in fact the first state record perch came out of Deer Creek...subsequent years they came out of Yuba.
In the early 80's I watched a truckload of walleye 4-6 inches long being dumped into Deer Creek by the then named Utah Fish & Game Department. They picked up any floaters so the fisherman wouldn't see them. I was told at that time this was the third planting in about the same number of years.
And how many of you know that we already have a warm water hatchery down by Big Water next to Lake Powell. The DWR only uses it for Tiger Muskies at specific times. I don't know if they use it for other warm water fish, but it was originally refurbished when they were raising smallmouth to plant Lake Powell. It's an unused resource to raising warm water fish. The Utah Bass Federation raised a significant amount of money to have it refurbushed for the raising of bass.
I find it interesting how the DWR will not acknowledge the warm water fish popularity in this state...and continue to dump their efforts into the raising of cutthroats who are notorious for aggressiveness. Yet the fishermen complain they wish the rainbows would make a comeback in Strawberry.
The rainbows in Yuba are growing fat and sassy because of the fat head minnows. It's a known fact that bass, perch, walleye, northerns and trout can co-exist if there is an ample forage base of several different types on minnows for them. A viable fishery can't depend on the perch being the fodder for both the predators and the fisherman.
The predators eat the small perch...the fishermen keep the biggest ones...so you're always going to look like you have a stunted class of fish.
A 12 inch perch is a monster and can be over 6 years old.
Nice perch, Fuzzy...it didn't look stunted to me.
How many years has perch been in fish lake anyway? 10 years? More...less??? Less may account for why we'll be seeing larger perch. It may take them longer to grow in that lake.
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The same was true with Yuba...in fact the first state record perch came out of Deer Creek...subsequent years they came out of Yuba.
In the early 80's I watched a truckload of walleye 4-6 inches long being dumped into Deer Creek by the then named Utah Fish & Game Department. They picked up any floaters so the fisherman wouldn't see them. I was told at that time this was the third planting in about the same number of years.
And how many of you know that we already have a warm water hatchery down by Big Water next to Lake Powell. The DWR only uses it for Tiger Muskies at specific times. I don't know if they use it for other warm water fish, but it was originally refurbished when they were raising smallmouth to plant Lake Powell. It's an unused resource to raising warm water fish. The Utah Bass Federation raised a significant amount of money to have it refurbushed for the raising of bass.
I find it interesting how the DWR will not acknowledge the warm water fish popularity in this state...and continue to dump their efforts into the raising of cutthroats who are notorious for aggressiveness. Yet the fishermen complain they wish the rainbows would make a comeback in Strawberry.
The rainbows in Yuba are growing fat and sassy because of the fat head minnows. It's a known fact that bass, perch, walleye, northerns and trout can co-exist if there is an ample forage base of several different types on minnows for them. A viable fishery can't depend on the perch being the fodder for both the predators and the fisherman.
The predators eat the small perch...the fishermen keep the biggest ones...so you're always going to look like you have a stunted class of fish.
A 12 inch perch is a monster and can be over 6 years old.
Nice perch, Fuzzy...it didn't look stunted to me.
How many years has perch been in fish lake anyway? 10 years? More...less??? Less may account for why we'll be seeing larger perch. It may take them longer to grow in that lake.
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