Thoughts on Mud Lake

[Kevin_VanDam]

Hello everyone, I was looking for lakes with perch in them and discovered that Mud Lake is one of them. I was exited because it's less than an hour away from Rexburg. I did a search on this site and began reading all of the old posts on Mud Lake. Man, I sure wish I would have fished there during the glory days of '06 before a huge winterkill got to them. Anyway, I'm curious about how the perch are doing now that three year's have gone by. Are there any size/numbers to them again or has it continued to winterkill? Also, has the fish and game done anything to address the winterkill issue or is it impossible to do anything? In one of the post's I read it mentioned something about putting aerators in like they have at Henry's. Personally, I would much rather catch 100 8" perch any day then 20 16" trout. I never thought about fishing Mud Lake or Market lake before but I'll definitely give them a try this spring/summer.[fishon]

[redleech]

Mud Lake is in a state Wildlife Management Area so the land is owned by the State of Idaho. The water is owned by an irrigation company and most of the water comes from wells that are started in the spring and not run during the winter. Due to the shallowness of the water, it would not be feasable to use aerators there.

Each year there is a winter kill at the lake, but some years are much worse than other years. Usually the lake is full of weeds and the weeds are the cover needed for the perch as cover, but when the weeds rot, they take most of the oxygen out of the water.

I have ice fished Mud Lake four times this year and have landed four perch - 3 - 3-inchers and one 10-incher. Also I cannot find any weed growth left from last year.

What happened to the perch and weeds? Were all poisoned last summer or did something natural destroy them? Will this also effect the waterfowl during the spring migration? Something happened in the last year there. Even on poor seasons, the perch fishing has been good during the early part of December.

When the ice leaves I will be observing it very closely.
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[DeeCee]

Hi Kevin,

Accoding to Fish and Game Mud Lake winter- killed but they said not all of the perch are lost.

A little biology might help you get a picture of the condition Mud Lake is probably in right now. Here goes:

Perch broadcast there eggs over plant material or other structure in floating egg masses in April. Of course like most fish fry that hatch of many species, they seek cover in dense plant material (weeds underwater is an example) for safety from predators. Red Leech mentioned the weeds are absent and so this would leave any fry hatched out spring of 2007 in an easy state to be consumed by predators. This is good and bad. Winter kill helps to act as a natural controlling factor in keeping perch numbers down so the remaining perch have more food in order to grow faster and attain a larger size. The downside is it might take awhile for the perch population to bounce back, two to four years.

Yellow perch as a species is very popular in eastern and south central Idaho and northern Utah. Because of this it is found in a number of the reservoirs in the region. The following bodies of water to my knowledge contain yellow perch to be caught: Magic reservoir, Carey Lake, Mud Lake, Ririe reservoir, Blackfoot reservoir, American Falls and Walcott reservoirs, Alexander reservoir, Oneida Narrows res., Weston reservoir, Glendale, Johnson, Lamont, Winder and Twin Lakes reservoirs.

Populations of perch within a specific body of water are cyclic, meaning the total amount of perch in a body of water rises and falls throughout the years. This can be due to winterkill, predation from predators such as the walleye species of fish or unfavorable weather or other conditions that limit the success of spawning in a given year. This in turn translates into low numbers of catchable fish of a desirable size four or five years after a particular year class is spawned. If there is a very successful spawn and all goes well, there will be larger numbers of bigger fish down the road. If you are really interested in pursuing yellow perch say in the 7 to 12 inch range and are willing to travel a ways to fish for them, keep an ear out as to where one or two particular bodies of water are producing fish of that size in good numbers.
It seems almost every year one or two lakes in the area produces well for one or two years and then they fall off and another reservoir picks up where they left off.
Let me illustrate or give real examples in the area:

Year Reservoir Size
early 50's Am Falls res. 12" common, some 14"
1974 Carey Lake 7-9" avg.
1980 Roberts Gravel Pond 7-9" avg
1989 Am Falls reservoir 8-9" some 12"
1990 Johnson reservoir 7-10"
1992 Nash reservoir 8-10" reported
1993 Stone reservoir 8" avg.
1993 Weston reservoir 8"
1994 Lamont res. a few 10-12" perch
1994 Winder res. 8-9"
1994 Weston res. 8-10", some 12"
1995 Ririe reservoir 8-10" avg.
1995 St. Johns res. 8" avg.
1995 Weston res. 8" avg.
1996 Weston res. 8-10" avg. some 12"
1996 Ririe res. 7-8 " avg.
1996 Lamont res. some 10-12"
1996 Carey Lake 7-8" avg., some 10"
1997 Weston res. 11-12" very few tho.
1998 Weston res. 8-9" avg., occassinal 12"
2003 Magic res. 8-10" perch
2004 Magic res. 8-10" perch common
2005 Magic res. 8-12" common, occasional 14" perch.
2006 Mud Lake 8-10" perch, some 12" winter killed Jan. 2007
2007 Twin Lakes res. 8-10", some 12 perch
2007 Alexander res. 7" perch common.
2008 Ririe res. 7-8 " avg., some 10-12"
2008 Aleander res. 7" avg., some bigger.

As you can see a person has to look around and keep an eye and ear out for where the bigger perch are being caught as it varies widely from year to year.

A few years ago I talked to an Idaho fisheries biologist about how come yellow perch never seemed to over populate in Westion reservoir in the Malad area and Johnson reservoir in the Preston area. He said they believe it was due to periodic winter kill that kept the perch numbers down to a reasonale level.

Hope I have been helpful. Ririe seems to be a moderate producer this year and Roberts Gravel pond is teaming with 3-5" fish with some in the 6" range. Good luck fishing for perch.

DeeCee

I fish not because I like the cold, but because it is the only time I can impress my wife, by walking on water.
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[curt69]

Wow , Great Report , Thanks Curt G.
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[chrome_junky]

not trying to be offensive but since when is there perch in the blackfoot res.? ive never seen one in there and i have fished the crap out of that res.
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[gstott]

Weston was still producing some nice perch as of last fall. They made some nice tacos.
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[Kevin_VanDam]

Wow DeeCee, +1 on the thank you. That was an extremely informative and useful reply, you must fish for perch a lot. Do you keep a log book? I'm thinking about starting one so that I can remember what's going on when fishing is good. I love fishing for and eating perch. The first fish I ever caught ice fishing was a perch from Pineview Reservoir when Doug Miller had his Perch Party there. Pineview (Northern Utah near Huntsville) is where I've had the most luck for perch this year, but 17 6-10"er's in an entire day of fishing is the best I've been able to do so far. I'm out of school until April so if I get the chance I'd like to try out some of the lakes that are closer to the Utah border, maybe the ones around Preston.

[gstott]

I'd try Weston if I were you. If you're coming from the Ogden area, it would be the quickest to get too, and the average size last year was 10-12" and fat. Plus there are lots of nice rainbows and tons of small bass to add a little variety. Not sure how it's icefishing though, but I'd imagine they're still around.
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[jigs]

i have been wanting to hit weston, were do you normaly fish at and what are you using.
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[DeeCee]

[] Hi chrome junky! Richard "Dick" Scully, former regional fisheries biologist for the Id Fish and Game Dept for southeast Idaho personally told me about four or five years ago that Blackfoot reservoir now has perch in it. Some bucket biologist illegally introduced them a few years ago.

DeeCee
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[DeeCee]

[cool] Thanks for the photo gstott. I know where you caught those on Weston. I believe in the upper third of the reservoir in what I call the salad bowl of Weston res. Am I right? The grass gave it away.

DeeCee

I ice fish not because I like the cold but because it is the only time of year I can impress my wife, by walking on water. []
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[DeeCee]

[] Hi Kevin! You are welcome. I probably haven't caught as many perch as you but I do enjoy catching them when the opportunity presents itself. Yes, I do keep a log of sorts on most of the reservoirs in the area. And I do have some interesting articles and a few facts totalling several large binders about fishing the reservoirs in eastern Idaho.

I'll give you a true life story that happened to me about 16 years ago while fishing for perch. This one will give you something to dream about. It may be a once in a life time event for me but I hope not. In one of the reservoirs in eastern Idaho known for yellow perch I had a friend and his son who went float tubing one Fall for perch. I'll help by giving all the facts but not the reservoir as that is a secret and the fun is in the search for which reservoir. I'll give enough clues that perhaps someone will figure it out and earn the luck of being there. Anyway my friend and his son went float tubing in the upper end of the reservoir using tube jigs with a pinch of worm. On nearly every cast for hours they got a bite by a perch. The average perch was running a fat 8 inches with a fair amount in the 10 inch range and several were 12" long. When they got back to town they had to call me and ask if they could come over and shown me what they had caught. When they arrived at the door I invited them in expecting a nice rainbow trout or two they had caught. Instead it was a nice ice chest full of fat perch, about forty or so in number.

I had to go catch some my self! My eyes had bugged out
and I had never personally seen such a nice mess of perch that size in my life. A few days later he and I went to the same spot and float tubed that day using tube jigs with a pinch of worm. We would cast out not much more than a rod's length and let the jigs swing down towards bottom and back towards us. Bang! nearly every cast would enlist a bite. Hint- The perch were dining in channels of waters with vegetation on either side surrounded by hills and mountains high and low. Cattle guard, toilet, dam and junipers stand as sentinels while miles down the road rattlesnakes make their dens. Rock cliffs with rock slides and brush along a stream guard the way from the direction geese fly this time of year. And a canyon so dry it hurts for water is known as "Dry". Well enough hints as to which reservoir. By the end of the day my friend and I had kept approximately about 123 very nice fat yellow perch. Great fish fillets and mighty good eating. Then the cold winds blew and the fun was over for the year before the water began to stand still, cloaked in white H2O.

Now before someone accuses me of being a fish hog, you need to understand something. These perch were at the end of their 5 to 6 year life cycle and most were destined to die of old age and fertilize the lake bottom before the following spring came. Better on my dinner plate that on the lake bottom dead. And most all fishermen were busy that time of year preparing for hunting season so the perch wern't going to be caught anytime soon before they died. A particular weather event very crucial to concentrating them in a particular place on the reservoir was key to catching so many so quickly as hinted in what I just wrote. Good luck perch fishing. Maybe some year if I find the time I'll return and strike it lucky at this particulat time, place and weather event.
As an additional hint look under the" Mud Lake" post on the forum and try to narrow it down to which reservoir I'm talking about.

DeeCee []

I ice fish not because I like the cold but because it is the only time of year I can impress my wife, by walking on water.
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[gstott]

I did catch them in that area. It definitely gets weedy up in there. Good observation skills, I'm impressed.
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[gstott]

I've had good success over most of the res. For the perch I've found they're usually a little deeper in the warmer months, in about ten to fifteen feet of water off the weed beds. When the weather started cooling I actually had my best perch action right at the dam when I was getting out of my tube. I'd been flyfishing with sinking line, looking for rainbows, and when it was time to go I trolled my way back to the parking lot. Well, I reeled in my line when I got to shore, and felt a tap or two that said perch. Then I noticed them swimming by just a few feet from shore. So I went and got my ultralight spinning rod out of the car and proceeded to nail the perch until I knew I was really going to get in trouble with my wife if I didn't get home. 1/32 ounce jigs with curly tail grubs have been the most consistent lure for me there. I've also caught them on leech and minnow patterns on my fly rod, and also a few really nice ones with roboworms while dropshotting for bass. I just got some 1/64 ounce jigs and 1" grubs and a 10' ultralight rod that I really want to try up there for the perch. I have a feeling they're going to love those little morsels. As for the bass, pretty much everything works. I've had non stop action with poppers fished around the weed lines in the summer. I've also caught them on streamers and dragon fly nymphs. On my spinning rod I've done well with soft plastic jerk baits, grubs, tubes, spinner baits, and even zara spooks. They were most prevelant along the weed beds that line the shore, but I caught bigger bass fishing the bottom, drop shotting or jigging, out in the middle. The best rainbows were taken on dark leech patterns, dragonfly nymphs, and scuds. I also caught quite a few trout on tubes and grubs while after bass and perch. They're very aggressive at times. The two in the picture with the perch were injured because they inhaled the whole jig and were bleeding. I wouldn't normally keep trout out of a weedy shallow place like that in the summer. The trout seem to cruise the deep side of the weedbeds trying to ambush prey. When the weather cooled, I found the best action on the southwest corner in bit of a cove. I'll post some pics for you from that cove. I caught all three fish from the same spot in about ten minutes the week before Thanksgiving. They all took the same fly, a purple and dark grey leech I'd just made up that morning.
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[DeeCee]

[] You are right, perch are usually deeper in warmer months. That's because they are classed as a "cool" [cool]
water fish, intermediate between trout that are cold water fish and bass which are warm water fish. I've had luck trolling in y float tube for bigger perch just off bottom in deeper (and cooler) water using a jig and worm. I'd kick my legs just slow enough with enough line out to occasionally bump bottom with the jig. That way I new I was just off bottom where the perch usually were. From time to time I would feel that tell tail tap tap of a perch and then hook em.

DeeCee

I ice fish not because I love the cold, but because that is the only time I can impress my wife, by walking on water.[]
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[gstott]

Yeah, I'm excited to try out my new ten foot ultralight crappie rod for perch. It's supposed to be very sensitive for jigging, and I'm hoping it will help me hook more. Perch can be so frustrating when you keep missing them.
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[DeeCee]

Yeh, I agree. Perch can be frustrating little buggers. That's why I call them "bait robbers". They have a way of peck, peck pecking a person's bait until it's gone and they can be hard to hook at times.

One time I had perch hitting so softly that it wasn't your rod tip you had to watch, it was watching your line slowly move across your ice hole. It was then a person had to set the hook.

DeeCee

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[gstott]

Even when you don'tuse bait, they often rip the tails off of your jigs. I still love them, but they're little buggers sometimes.
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[mudsucker]

[quote DeeCee]
One time I had perch hitting so softly that it wasn't your rod tip you had to watch, it was watching your line slowly move across your ice hole. It was then a person had to set the hook.

DeeCee

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When I finally noticed that at Roberts, I caught 13 perch on one mealie in just a few minutes. Line goes sideways 1/4", you got a fish. And I never felt a bite.

The wife just watched down the hole for a bite, but my auto darkening glasses won't let me see the bottom.
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[DeeCee]

Your'e right. [laugh]

DeeCee
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