Perch trip to Lake X

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]kentofnsl talked me into providing some immoral support on a trip to Jordanelle, to harvest some perch. Forecast was for a 20% chance of showers. It "twenty percented" on us a bunch today...rain and snow pellets.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Couldn't believe how warm it was. 35 degree air and water temp of 49 on Kent's sonar readout. Of course, that is cold enough to send the perch looking for a "sunken" living room in deeper waters. We couldn't find any.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Casting a variety of spoons and jigs early, Kent scored the first fish, a small rainbow. I had a couple of bumps but no hookups until we anchored up to vertical jig. Casting a white baitbug in about 12 to 15 feet of water I got to play with a feisty 14" brownie. Pretty little guy. Posed for a pic and dove over the side. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The wind and rain started to come up within an hour of launch. While anchored in another spot, I whacked a couple of rainbows on Roadrunners. Then, nothing but chills for the next half hour. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Too windy for "touch" fishing so we decided to troll a bit. Kent hooked and lost a nice brown. Estimated over 20" and about 4 pounds. Beautiful fish. Jumped three or four times in quick succession and spit out the small hooks on Kent's Flatfish.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The rest of the morning we trolled a variety of different minnow baits and spinners. I caught several rainbows on several different spinners. I also got a surprise 14" cutt on one of my Yuba special spinners.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fishing was not as fast as the wind, but we both caught several fish. In fact we had two different doubles. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We had to leave early, due to some scheduling commitments, so we were off the water by a little after noon. The sun came out as we were tieing down the boat, but we drove through more snow on the way back to Park City.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Thanks for the invite Kent. Always good company and usually good fishing.[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[Kent]

Pat, enjoyed the outing, the company, and the fishing. Too bad we didn't hook up with any perchies to replenish our bait supplies.
[signature]

[Theekillerbee]

At least you didn't get skunked! The fish you landed look nice. Thanks for the report pat. Did you guys see any bass?
[signature]

[ironworker]

great looking fish, looks like you guys had a great time
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]This time of year most of the bass are really deep...up to 80 feet or more. We did not even meter water more than about 50 feet, so we did not put ourselves in good position to find perch or bass.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]In the "olden days", standard procedure on a late fall perch expedition...Deer Creek or Yuba...was to find a long point going down into the water and then to run the sonar as we worked back and forth out into deeper water. There were also some underwater humps and pockets that could hold fish. It was rare to find either perch or bass in water less than 30 to 40 feet deep. That meant that if we did find fish, it was spooning or vertical jigging, and the fish would all have a distended air bladder. Kinda tough on any fish you want to release. You can "fizz' them, but even then the odds of their survival are reduced. Not good to fish for them when they are so deep unless you plan to keep all you catch. That's why they have the "first ten fish you catch" restriction on Deer Creek during the winter months.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There were not many fishermen...boaters or bankers. In talking to some guys fishing by the PWC ramp they said they were having so so luck on bottle baits. But NOPE...no bass.[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[Hellsangler69]

I would be surprised if you had a perch actually have air bladder problems there . Only time I seen it last ice was when I was pulling them up from 65' of water or deeper . They seem to be a tough fish in Jordanelle . You couldn't do that at Rockport even in 20' of water . I did hit Lake X a couple of times last month but most of what I hooked was the smaller bows . Way to go on the cutt and brown . That is what I was trying for the last time I went . Wonder where all the bigger bows are now . That is all I could find in the summertime except for a few perch and one smallie .Did you launch at the PWC ramp ? I was wondering if they still have some docks out for launching .
[signature]

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Truth to tell, I have never fished for deep perch in Lake X. I quit when they get too deep to play with on light stuff. I know you got quite a few last winter under the ice, while nobody else was hip to your "top secret" spot. Also saw quite a few come from under the ice at Rock Cliffs, but no bigguns.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The perch from Deer Creek, in the early 80's were both plentiful and some pretty big ones. Those taken from the deep water under the ice all had protruding air bladders. We did a "quick and dirty" fizz on them, by poking directly into the end of the air bladder either with a needle or the point of a sharp knife. When dropped into the ice hole they rocketed down. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We fin clipped or otherwise marked those we thus released and we caught many of them again...proving (at least to us) that there is some survival rate. Virtually all blown up perch released without fizzing simply died under the ice. We walked around and saw some multi angler areas with layers of dead perch visible under the ice, with distended bladders. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Also saw a lot of places where people left piles of dead perch on the ice. Those were still the days before a lot of people knew enough about perch to keep them for the table. To many early troutaholics, perch was trash fish.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]To tell the truth, today was my first real trip on Jordanelle this year. Shameful, huh? Part of the reason is that the reports on perch and larger smallmouth were kinda sparse and there are too many other places to go. I do stay in contact with a couple of "regulars" that typically do pretty well on both perch and trout. Same story. Fewer amd smaller rainbows. However, there have been some great browns taken this year.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The three species of trout day was kinda neat. I commented to Kent on the way home that maybe we could swing by Fish Lake for some splake and macks to round out the day. He was not amused.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We gotta hook up on the hard deck this year.[/#0000ff]
[signature]

[Kent]

[blue]"Did you launch at the PWC ramp ?"[/blue]
[blue][/blue]
[blue]Yes[/blue]
[blue][/blue]
[blue] "I was wondering if they still have some docks out for launching."[/blue]
[blue][/blue]
[blue]Yes, they have a dock right in the middle of the ramp. I sure don't understand why they couldn't leave those two docks that are on railroad tracks at The Strawberry Marina in a little longer. They have been out of the water for at least two weeks.[/blue]
[signature]