A Special Thanks for Sundancefisher

[DarkAisling]

Just wanted to publicly that Sun for the workshop last night :) Great guy, loads of awesome info, entertaining, patient . . . I could go on but I don't want to inflate his head :lol:

He is certainly the best perch fisher ever . . . and that comes completely unsolicited :lol:

Myself, I only caught 4. I lost more than that when I was reeling the little suckers in, as I wasn't reeling them in fast enough. I'm surprised that Sun doesn't have carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of perch fishing.

Came home with a little cooler full of perch and it took us forever to clean them, until we got a little assembly line going: one person took the eyes out (to use in the future as bait), one took the head off, and the other cleaned the guts out. The teenager found it all particularly distasteful, but he was informed that if he was going to eat them he was going to clean them.

If the opportunity presents itself . . . don't hesitate to go catch perch with Sun. Well worth the trip.

BTW: "Aisling" is Gaelic (for "dream") and pronounced "Ash-ling" (not "hatchling"), and it isn't a stupid handle :tongue2:

EDIT: When we were cleaning them, we only found one that had recently eaten something significant: a leach.

[romel]

I would definitly agree with ais .. it was a great day ... very useful tips for perch fishing .. now even though I got a very very heavy rod I can catch some perch:lol: at the end of the day I got 6, one of them was very good size, prob around 8-9 inch :), i would love to go back anytime, and all the thanks to the great perch fisherman sun :wave:

[baitfisher83]

i wish i lived out there so i could get a couple people out quite often, but no i gotta live in Marlborough park!!lol

[Sundancefisher]

Thanks DA... It is just my lack of pronunciation skill that made it easier to say DarkHatchling :D

You have a nice rod there and are well on your way to catching them perchies... You should get some of the yellow and green glow Lindy jigs... The white genz worm seemed to work but I have never compared catch rates since the other works well enough.

You should have plenty of eyes for the next trip out. Get an anchor and the heavier Genz and Fat Boys and take the kids out for a little jigging action. Pick up some Frabill Pan Fish Popper ice fishing rigs. They work in the summer below the boat and winter through the ice.

Baitfisher...I have received 4 PM's in the last 5 months of people moving to Sundance for the fishing. I believe these communities are great. However we must all realize these perch are far from a good thing. The difficulty controlling them is huge. The expectation is it may not work without more serious netting. My personal catch rates have not dropped at all since we removed 32000 perch netting. Imagine if you could go fishing here and catch 20 to 50 trout in a day spin fishing or fly fishing and have them all be 24 to 30 inches long. Without perch here...I am sure that is what we would have here for a fishery. Unfortunately without rotenone...that is a pipe dream. We now pray the trout we stock can find enough food competing with the million perch to maintain their size and not starve to death.

I am contemplating putting out some gill nets to see what we can catch. In a couple weeks we will give it a try with the net we have. While potentially useful it is also way more labour intensive. It needs one to two people dawn to dusk to make it effective. Day in and day out.

In the meanwhile...our problem is others benefit in free perch and some fun fishing. I lost a perch the other day that probably went 16-17 inches. Absolutely massive. Broke me off by the dock. That tells me perch could grow big and there is a record perch in our lake but 1 in 35,000 does not impress me. If we can impact the population I dream that the catch rates will fall but impressive sizes of perch may be the result. That would not occur for 3-6 years and with yearly intensive efforts controlling perch.

Cheers

Sun

P.S. You need to develop a car pooling network up there. Then watch for Badback, Goldscud, Beazer, myself and others are a few that live here and may invite people fishing for perch from time to time. Especially ice fishing. :evilgrin::evilgrin:

[WayneChristie]

just curious. do you have that much invested in trout that you couldnt just sacrifice them and start all over? it would be one way to get rid of the perch. Poison the whole lake and hope some dumbazz doesnt have a bucketfull of eggs in their basement to start the perch all over again. GUess that would be a big gamble tho. bring them all down here I know a couple lakes that could use a tranfusion of perch :D

[baitfisher83]

well if anyone is willing to take me with them i'll go.....well, when i can anyways...if its a night trip after work i'll even buy them dinner, well not 50 dollar plate dinner..lol

[Sundancefisher]

just curious. do you have that much invested in trout that you couldnt just sacrifice them and start all over? it would be one way to get rid of the perch. Poison the whole lake and hope some dumbazz doesnt have a bucketfull of eggs in their basement to start the perch all over again. GUess that would be a big gamble tho. bring them all down here I know a couple lakes that could use a tranfusion of perch :D

That is the simplest way to deal with it. Not stock for one whole year...have a total kill/unlimited bag limit on trout and perch... Gill net in July and August and into Sept. Rotenone in Mid Sept to late Sept after the Swimmers stop coming. Then let the lake freeze over and restock in the Spring. I recon the cost would be $20,000 over current budget.

Problem is there are politics to that even though weed control is used. If we can make a difference and accomplish perch management with yearly netting then we could potentially have a quality trout fishery and trophy perch fishery. The manpower expenditure is huge however and I can not push this yearly. I see this becoming a lake cost with staff time needed to manage perch like Midnapore did for years successfully. Unfortunately for Midnapore Lake the new lake managers are letting the perch take over.

One unexpected side benefit for me in all this is meeting some great fellow fishermen from this board. Proves to me quality people fish... :D

[Beazer]

Anyone have a thought of introducing a species that eats perch?
I know Pike would probably be a bad idea since they would eat the trout, but maybe if we introduce a predator to perch, it may be more cost effective in the long run?

[crazyfish]

i think i've heard a similiar story, then in a couple yrs the question is how to get rid of the pike, which aren't very hookable because of the quantity of perch, and they eat trout too! best to hit the lake hard for perch and see what happens. What about an ice fishing perch derby or something, the more hooks in the water the better to get'em out!

[Sundancefisher]

i think i've heard a similiar story, then in a couple yrs the question is how to get rid of the pike, which aren't very hookable because of the quantity of perch, and they eat trout too! best to hit the lake hard for perch and see what happens. What about an ice fishing perch derby or something, the more hooks in the water the better to get'em out!

No fish are legal for such purpose. Tiger trout or brown trout.

I had many a AOF member ice fishing here last winter. Keep an eye out for posts. Please note you should only come if you like catching 100 perch or more.

[DarkAisling]

No fish are legal for such purpose. Tiger trout or brown trout.

I had many a AOF member ice fishing here last winter. Keep an eye out for posts. Please note you should only come if you like catching 100 perch or more.

:lol: That should read "Please note you should only come if you like cleaning 100 perch or more."

Next time I might "donate" my perch (all four of them ;)) to someone else. I'm sure they're very yummy. They're all cleaned up and in the freezer, but we're terrible at cleaning fish and I don't relish the thought of cleaning that many little fish anytime soon!

We might be having a fish fry tomorrow. We'll see.

BTW: Ran into Badback (great guy, very friendly :)) and his son at WSS, and he helped with picking out some good jigs. I've got some better ones for next time.

[Sandalius]

Please note you should only come if you like catching 100 perch or more.

That should read " you should only come if you have the intention to catch 100 perch or more " - trying to it is one thing, but actually doing it is another. Not all of us have the great skills and talent of Sundancefisher when it comes to catching little fish :lol::lol:

Sorry Sun, but you are the best at it - and yes I know that you catch bigger fish too.

[Sundancefisher]

That should read " you should only come if you have the intention to catch 100 perch or more " - trying to it is one thing, but actually doing it is another. Not all of us have the great skills and talent of Sundancefisher when it comes to catching little fish :lol::lol:

Sorry Sun, but you are the best at it - and yes I know that you catch bigger fish too.

It is all about practice. :innocent: There will be lots of time for it :evilgrin:. Cleaning the fish isn't really that bad once you see how to do it most efficiently;). Given fresh perch fillets can run ya $15/pound... getting a pound of meat is not that difficult :evilgrin:.

Cheers all.

Sun

[Dougie55]

Oh, to live in Calgary area just for perch fishing like that...:( I have caught 4 perch all summer. All in Buck lake.

[DarkAisling]

It is all about practice. :innocent: There will be lots of time for it :evilgrin:. Cleaning the fish isn't really that bad once you see how to do it most efficiently;). Given fresh perch fillets can run ya $15/pound... getting a pound of meat is not that difficult :evilgrin:.

Sounds like a demo may be in the works?

Ate a bunch of the little perchies last night. Yum. Not as good as trout (IMO), but tasty none-the-less. Wound up swallowing lots of little bones as I gave up trying to get them all out :lol:

[Badback]

Sounds like a demo may be in the works?

Ate a bunch of the little perchies last night. Yum. Not as good as trout (IMO), but tasty none-the-less. Wound up swallowing lots of little bones as I gave up trying to get them all out :lol:


Hey Shelly...We'll have to go perch fishing or get you out pulling the nets and show you how to fillet the perch...Since the perch netting started, I have filleted many perch, some as small as 5 inches and it doesn’t take much time….JTS1 and I caught a bunch a few weeks ago and he only wanted a few so I cleaned over 70 of them…When I was done, I had about 6 lbs of fillets with no bones….

[DarkAisling]

Hey Shelly...We'll have to go perch fishing or get you out pulling the nets and show you how to fillet the perch...Since the perch netting started, I have filleted many perch, some as small as 5 inches and it doesn’t take much time….JTS1 and I caught a bunch a few weeks ago and he only wanted a few so I cleaned over 70 of them…When I was done, I had about 6 lbs of fillets with no bones….

I have a 6' 200lb teenager who I can bring out to pull nets, too. He's too lazy, and he needs a good workout. He just went out to join the reserve forces tonight (:cry:), and he needs to get in shape!

I imagine that after filleting a bunch (after being shown how of course), that I'd get pretty good at it pretty quick.

[baitfisher83]

when are we goin to chase perch there BB???haha

[WayneChristie]

might be worth a drive in some weekend this winter, I do love catching perch, (and eating them) maybe trade you a pike trip :)