Carey lake

[idahoron]

After the last post about carey lake I wanted to give it a try this spring for cats. After looking at the weather forecast for Friday carey looked the best for wind. Also Carey is nothing but a canal system so I figured that the waves could not get too bad.
I took my new ride for this trip the Sprotsmans 9
( outcast FC9) I decided to just do some looking around first. I took a few different trails through the swamp. I found where some guys had been dragging their pontoons through the reeds to another part of the lake to the south. I didn't go there since I know this side dries up from time to time. I saw a good sized Large mouth bass on a nest but didn't bother it. I went on to the west side and it becomes VERY shallow. the moss and weeds were very tough to get through. I ended up in a dead end and had to turn back. I saw a lot of dead perch minnows in this area of the lake. So I headed back for the launch site and was thinking about leaving when I saw a couple of fish jump. So I took off through the center of the swamp. The water was deeper due to a dredge effort several years ago. After looking things over I could tell where the dredge made the "lake" deeper so I started to fish.
The water temp was 58 degrees. I went to dragging a piece of trout cut bait, and a worm on a slip bobber. I switched the cutbait to a bobber quick since the bottom was so weedy. I got one hit on the cutbait but the worm was bringing in the perch. They were 8 to 10 inches on the average. I switched to a red and white tub jig and the "jig" was up, pun intended. I lost count of the number of perch I caught maybe over 75 to 100 perch. I took home enough for a meal for the family.
Thoughts.
First it is my opinion that this "lake" is a poor choice for planting catfish. With that thought I think that most of the cats that have been planted there are MIA. With the number of dead perch minnows in the west end I am assuming that cats either don't go there or there are likely few if any cats left. Next, perch seem to be doing very well there. I would go back in a heart beat but I don't think I would go after the weather warms enough for the skeeters to be out in force. In all I was glad to see the "lake" first hand so I can have more input to the F&G on cat planting there. I know that the F&G planted the cats there to help thin out the small bluegills and perch.
Lastly, In the magic valley region we have a very limited number of catfish for planting. About 3000 are planted every year. I am very sure that planting cats here is a total waste of fish and dollars. While this will probably be my new favorite perch spot, I can't support planting catfish there. It was still a fun day and I enjoyed it. I do think that is the F&G need to plant a predator fish to help thin the gills and perch I am thinking that they should look at wipers or maybe tiger musky. I don't think that catfish are a good choice in this "lake" Ron
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[mudsucker]

I read they had been stocked and tried to find one several years ago. No luck. I do think they would live there, we fish several holes that are 10-15' deep. And there are are enough small fish for them to eat.

You are pretty much limited when you can fish the lake. In summer the moss grows and chokes it. We use a 10' rowboat for the family. One year we were there early and in the big open part we almost played Titanic with the remaining ice floes. We've had great days in Oct and Nov if the sun is warm. The moss has died back and the electric motor takes us everywhere. It's fun trolling for the little bass or twitching topwaters. When my boy was about 5 he caught an 11.875" bass but no matter how much we pulled and stretched, we couldn't make it legal. That's still the biggest we've seen, although I heard some nice ones were taken out several years ago.

It's also fun to stop by there in the dead of winter and walk down to the hot spring inlet and catch bluegill and some perch.

Carey is the closest place for us to go to catch anything besides trout trout trout.
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