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I know a lot of you Utah guys have all been looking for safe ice and a place to catch some perch...
Over the past 2-3 years I had heard rumors that there were perch in The Woodruff Narrows (A reservoir near Evanston, WY).... Well I talked to a friend the other day and it is someone I trust, he says they are in there and he's been catching some nice ones.
If you make it up send me a PM and let me know how you do! I have not been out there this year and won't get a chance to try it there for a few weeks. Not sure how the ice is, please use caution. (He said he was out there recently for some reason I forgot what he said about the ice... my mind was on the perch).
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If you are wondering why I'd share that with another state... it is because I'm not greedy or anti-Utah. [  ]
Besides that, our game and fish department is netting and removing Walleye from Sulphur Creek Reservoir (also outside Evanston). On the Western side of WY they have a "trout - and only trout!" mentality and I'm afraid they'll do something to remove the perch at the Narrows...but if enough people get out there and it becomes a popular perch fishery maybe they will leave it be.
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I always thought the lake was barren of life.
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Years ago it used to have either pike or tiger muskies in there, I'm not sure which. It has since been poisoned and drained a couple times from what I was told.
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[quote remo_5_0]I always thought the lake was barren of life.[/quote]
Here is what I know: The lake has the ability to produce some very nice fish. When I was a kid I remember catching some 6-10lb rainbows out of there and I think it was common.
The outflow used to be good for big browns and bows too. And in the early 90's they stocked tiger muskies. I don't remember if they put them in the lake and the outflow... or if they put them in the lake and they ended up in the outflow. Either way some pretty nice tiger muskies were caught but they are long gone.
In the past decade or so I think the fishing has declined because of drought years the water users pull the lake down pretty low. I think the game and fish quits stocking it for a few years until it fills again. But there are trout in the Bear River that can of course make their way into the Narrows... Hardly anybody fishes it though because the ratio of trout to trash fish is not good at all.
Last few years I had heard rumors that perch showed up and that the Game and Fish knew they were in there. (I have not found any public statement admitting that). Bucket biologists - love hate relationship with them but someone put perch in there apparently. I have a reliable source.
Last bit of information: The game and fish stocked 9,000 tiger trout in the Narrows this Spring. They were 3" long. I do not think there are very many predators in this lake to eat them... but there are gobs of suckers. There should be some very nice tiger trout in 4-5 years.
With the bucket biologist perch and the tiger trout from the G/F I think this lake will definitely be worth fishing... I'm glad because it was not a good place to fish for a long time now.
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Thanks! Always looking for interesting options.
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[quote lavaman]Years ago it used to have either pike or tiger muskies in there, I'm not sure which. It has since been poisoned and drained a couple times from what I was told.[/quote]
In drought years the lake gets pretty low. To my knowledge the lake has never been poisoned though.
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I have fished the river below the res. a few times, I know there are still some big trout in there although few and far between, a family member of my wife's owns land around the mountain from the res. and has a lot of the Bear on his land, fished it last year and nada...to much cattle use I guess.
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I can tell you that when I moved up here, in 1985, it about killed me to wait until I could become a resident one year later. I remember people were going out on the dam and floating roe sacks, below the dam. They were catching some hogs. Some years later I knew some people that would troll out there and did great. When the tigers were put in there, there was rumor that they also planted catfish. I know nothing about catfish, but for some reason "blue catfish" seems to come to mind. I have never heard of anyone catching a catfish, but I did hear of a couple tigers caught. I guess people just started getting skunked, because I haven't heard of anyone fishing for a long time, until recently.
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[quote remo_5_0]I have fished the river below the res. a few times, I know there are still some big trout in there although few and far between, a family member of my wife's owns land around the mountain from the res. and has a lot of the Bear on his land, fished it last year and nada...to much cattle use I guess.[/quote]
I have heard the same thing. There are still some nice fish in there but it really depends on the year if the water is not there I think they move downstream from the dam and that section. I know there are some HUGE carp in there too if you are into that...
Evanston spent a bunch of money to reshape the river through town and there are some nice fish to be caught in that section of the river now. Big deep pockets were built.
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[quote perchpile2]I can tell you that when I moved up here, in 1985, it about killed me to wait until I could become a resident one year later. I remember people were going out on the dam and floating roe sacks, below the dam. They were catching some hogs. Some years later I knew some people that would troll out there and did great. When the tigers were put in there, there was rumor that they also planted catfish. I know nothing about catfish, but for some reason "blue catfish" seems to come to mind. I have never heard of anyone catching a catfish, but I did hear of a couple tigers caught. I guess people just started getting skunked, because I haven't heard of anyone fishing for a long time, until recently.[/quote]
Never heard of catfish being found or caught out there. Blue cats would not survive at that elevation and climate.
It was a great lake to fish for years and then it went downhill for years. Like I said, I am really glad to hear that there are some nice perch in there.[ ]
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About 2 months ago someone posted a very vague report about 'northeastern Utah perch'.
I wonder if this reservoir is what the dude was talking about?
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I think they were talking about Mantua because the Woodruff Narrows are in Wyo if I'm not mistaken.
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I used to fish it up until a few years ago. Never saw a perch back then(circa 1995-2002), but it got too low and the game and fish department stopped stocking for a while. The trash fish did fine and you can still see them rippling the surface. There are still some beast Browns swimming in there and below the reservoir, but I haven't fished it for a few years. The trout used to get big and it was a pretty good fishing hole. I never saw or caught a musky. It wouldn't surprise me if there were perch in there now. I'm sure there probably always were a few and with a vacuum of predators they could definitely taken hold and flourished.
Maybe I'll have to get my Wyoming license and sneak over there and try for myself.
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I fished it last year on the ice for about 8 hours or so. Drilled holes near the dam, from point to point. Nada! That place is barren! It would be interesting if people actually DO catch anything outta there...
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The funny thing about the perch report a few months ago is that it was really vague(which I dont blame the poster) but the pictures had steep sloping shore lines. Out of respect I did not ask directly for a location.
As a perch guy I tried to figure it out but never did.
Now I wonder if this is the lake he caught them out of?
If I was a smarter computer guy I would dig up the old post.
Edit.... Anyone else remember that post?
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That post caught my eye, too. I assumed it was Starvation at the time, but nobody is catching jumbos out of there, at least that they're talking about. They obviously, were secret for a reason. I guess it is possible that it was Echo. It has steep banks, and I did hear of someone else catching a jumbo out of it this year. I just figured that with it being drained down so far, so they could fix the dam, that it would be a few years before it picked up for any kind of fish.
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[quote perchpile2]That post caught my eye, too. I assumed it was Starvation at the time, but nobody is catching jumbos out of there, at least that they're talking about. They obviously, were secret for a reason. I guess it is possible that it was Echo. It has steep banks, and I did hear of someone else catching a jumbo out of it this year. I just figured that with it being drained down so far, so they could fix the dam, that it would be a few years before it picked up for any kind of fish.[/quote]
I remember that post as well and it could have been Echo without a doubt. Even with the lake getting low over the years there are still some nice perch in there.
I think there is the possibility they were at the Narrows though.
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Go punch some holes and test it out, then if it is good shoot me a PM and then post how bad it was on the open forum [laugh][laugh][laugh]
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I live on the on the east side of WY now and don't make it over there very often but if I get out I'll give it a try.
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