Do Fished Out Perch Lakes Ever Recover?

[elkhunter11]

A friend was asking if I knew of a good lake to take his daughter to to catch some perch. We got to talking about some lakes that used to be good, but that were fished out and he asked ,me how long it takes for a fished out perch lake to recover. My response was that I honestly am not away of any of the lakes that we discussed ever becoming great perch lakes again. So do those once great perch lakes ever recover, or are they permanently ruined once they are fished out?

[Sundancefisher]

A friend was asking if I knew of a good lake to take his daughter to to catch some perch. We got to talking about some lakes that used to be good, but that were fished out and he asked ,me how long it takes for a fished out perch lake to recover. My response was that I honestly am not away of any of the lakes that we discussed ever becoming great perch lakes again. So do those once great perch lakes ever recover, or are they permanently ruined once they are fished out?

I take it you are referring to regular mixed species lakes with large perch.

The perch could be under pressure from people or other predators.

Depending upon the reason and the fishing pressure it could take some time to build back populations.

If the lake is not in balance for predators and prey, it may never get back.

Such lakes really need more lake specific management plans.

[ghostguy6]

I think if people could leave those lakes alone they would recover. Of course there are variables like predation that come into play. I don't think the human fishing factor will truly kill off all the fish in a lake, there will always be some breeding fish in the lake. If the fish population is low and the lake suffers a winter kill then it might never recover. I know of two lakes that are making a comeback because quite frankly people no longer talk about them. In a few years I would expect them to produce some 14" perch. I will not mention what lakes these are. Another factor is when a lake gets "killed off" it tends to get stocked with trout or walleye. This is detrimental to the remaining perch and pike populations.

I think as anglers one of the worst things we can do is publicly discuss good fish locations, especially perch locations. Too many times you can see a direct correlation between forums (this one included) and the amount of fishing pressure. One thing to remember is for every active member there are 100's if not 1000's of people just phishing for information. The closer to urban populations the worse it gets.

Looks at Hasse for example, once a great trout fishery with a decent perch population. Once people started posting about keeper sized perch the lake became packed. Certain ethnic groups flocked to the lake until there were no fish of keep-able size left. Granted the algae blooms from run off fertilizer didn't help.No the lake is a ghost town

[elkhunter11]

I purposely didn't mention names, and I don't expect any names to be posted, this is just a general question, because of several once great perch lakes that I can think of, none have recovered to become great perch lakes again.

[AlbertanGP]

I don't see why they couldn't come back...if the conditions that existed when they were solid producers returned. The problem is we live in a different time now, with significantly higher fishing pressure and management of our water bodies with different priorities. Given those factors, I'd suspect only a few hidden gems to mount any sort of return to their former glory. And even that will likely be short lived until someone decides to go back and check them and word gets out in the age of Internet.

[Smoky buck]

I take it you are referring to regular mixed species lakes with large perch.

The perch could be under pressure from people or other predators.

Depending upon the reason and the fishing pressure it could take some time to build back populations.

If the lake is not in balance for predators and prey, it may never get back.

Such lakes really need more lake specific management plans.

This ^^^

And other factors like winter kill or changes in water levels also play a roll. Another to consider has there been a change in available forage

Simply yes they can recover if the conditions are in the favor of the perch. Often fishing is not the only factor in a decline

[3blade]

Generally speaking, no. If it was actually fished out, there is enough continued pressure to keep them down. Keeper size goes from 12 to 8 to anything. People keep talking, fish keep getting removed.

Most of our lakes suffer from overabundant walleye, interrupted drainages lowering water tables, and nutrient loading from agriculture. These problems are ignored by our bios because they would require politically unpopular resolutions.

I’d bet I could name at least 1/2 the lakes you were talking about. Sad state of affairs. I just drive to Saskatchewan to fish now.

[CardiacCowboy]

I don't think it is an automatic recovery if you leave them alone. We have seen many water bodies closed for recovery and they never come back or slower then expected. Look at Maritime Cod fishery, north alberta parabelem. Some times something happened long time ago that allowed these fish to get a biomass that could allow it to overcome predation and become unbalanced in there favor. Unless these conditions occur again no guarantee of recovery and it might have taken them 100s of years to achieve this.

[Drewski Canuck]

Alot of the dead perch lakes became dead when the water levels dropped 8- 10 feet from successive years of drought.

Missawawii dried out, and the perch factory may never come back.

Cache dried out, and is still down severely and may never come back.

Upper and Lower Mann Lakes the cabin owners gained an extra 100 yards of slough front property with the water drop.

Sandy Lake by Morinville became cow pasture.

Hastings Lake is another cow pasture.

Need I go on? The loss of the fishing opportunity concentrated fishing pressure on the remaining lakes, but the ones listed all were viable perch lakes at one time.

It was not fishing pressure that killed off the perch fishing for most lakes, and the recovery will require increased viable water depth and then re stocking.

For the fished out lakes, they always come back if there is enough time and water. Most perch lakes are shallow and create incredible food production for perch. there usually are enough pike to keep things in balance or they soon are in balance after the pike get fat.

The Province does not stock perch, by the way.

Drewski

[SNAPFisher]

Agree with Drewski as well. Lots of those lakes, and, many more around them have dropped too much for most species. I had a cabin on Upper Mann...

[Bushrat]

Perch are a bit of an enigma. Hard to say why they prosper or fail. Where I come from there was never any size limit or bag limit until about a decade ago they put a 10 cm length limit and introduced a bag limit of 100 fish per day. The place is awash in perch, over populated and stunted, the biggest I ever caught was about 12" out of thousands and can count on both hands those over 10" In spring the weed beds become a gelatinous mass of thousands of skeins of perch eggs. There the culture is different, perch are regarded as trash fish, when caught most just fling them into the bushes and get annoyed with them. Very few people target them and even fewer eat them. I caught thousands of them as a kid and never ever ate one. On the other hand we would target white perch, basically a bit larger on average than yellows, no yellow and green barring, they're bright silver with a charcoal striped lateral line. I ate lots of those, and after moving west and being fed yellow perch found they taste the same, yummy! I can't believe all the meals of delicious yellow perch I missed out on because we didn't know any better.

[Jayhad]

If there has been no environmental changes, how long does it take for a perch to grow to catchable

[Snap Shot]

Generally speaking, no. If it was actually fished out, there is enough continued pressure to keep them down. Keeper size goes from 12 to 8 to anything. People keep talking, fish keep getting removed.

Most of our lakes suffer from overabundant walleye, interrupted drainages lowering water tables, and nutrient loading from agriculture. These problems are ignored by our bios because they would require politically unpopular resolutions.

I’d bet I could name at least 1/2 the lakes you were talking about. Sad state of affairs. I just drive to Saskatchewan to fish now.

I couldn’t agree more with every example outlined. Truly sad & our bio’s turn a blind eye

I have found from personal experience that perch lakes thst have been fished out, never truly make there way back to there former glory.

[elkhunter11]

Alot of the dead perch lakes became dead when the water levels dropped 8- 10 feet from successive years of drought.

Missawawii dried out, and the perch factory may never come back.

Cache dried out, and is still down severely and may never come back.

Upper and Lower Mann Lakes the cabin owners gained an extra 100 yards of slough front property with the water drop.

Sandy Lake by Morinville became cow pasture.

Hastings Lake is another cow pasture.

Need I go on? The loss of the fishing opportunity concentrated fishing pressure on the remaining lakes, but the ones listed all were viable perch lakes at one time.

It was not fishing pressure that killed off the perch fishing for most lakes, and the recovery will require increased viable water depth and then re stocking.

For the fished out lakes, they always come back if there is enough time and water. Most perch lakes are shallow and create incredible food production for perch. there usually are enough pike to keep things in balance or they soon are in balance after the pike get fat.

The Province does not stock perch, by the way.

Drewski

The last great perch lake that I fished was great for about ten years, when very few of us were fishing it. Then it just became too popular, sometimes 60-80 vehicles on a small lake, then the fish size and numbers dropped off dramatically, and everyone just stopped going there.

[DirtShooter]

My coworker talks about a perch lake/pond where it's oil lease access and the gate is locked so you have to hike in. Somewhere south of genesee..... big perch population there apparently.

[Fishin' Fool]

I'm curious why everyone blames the biologists and not the biologists' bosses who make the final decisions. So typically Albertan.

If you took the politicians out of the equation and let the biologists manage without interference, you would see a very different situation in this province. Unfortunately, Kenney's Klowns don't work for Albertans, they work for big money corporations.

[Drewski Canuck]

I'm curious why everyone blames the biologists and not the biologists' bosses who make the final decisions. So typically Albertan.

If you took the politicians out of the equation and let the biologists manage without interference, you would see a very different situation in this province. Unfortunately, Kenney's Klowns don't work for Albertans, they work for big money corporations.

There is a big difference between the IDEOLOGY of the Bios, and the Politicians. There were town hall meetings in St. Paul and Bonnyville organized by their local opposition MLA who invited the Department Directors to come and explain why after 20 years of walleye closures on a number of lakes in the area, that the recreational fishermen were still not allowed to keep a walleye.

It was a matter that FN's had first priority, and no regulation on net size, and curiously there never were any big walleye in the test nets of SRD????

Anyways, next year reason prevailed and the lakes were opened because of solid walleye numbers despite what the Department Ideology was.

Drewski

[I’d rather be outdoors]

There is a big difference between the IDEOLOGY of the Bios, and the Politicians. There were town hall meetings in St. Paul and Bonnyville organized by their local opposition MLA who invited the Department Directors to come and explain why after 20 years of walleye closures on a number of lakes in the area, that the recreational fishermen were still not allowed to keep a walleye.

It was a matter that FN's had first priority, and no regulation on net size, and curiously there never were any big walleye in the test nets of SRD????

Anyways, next year reason prevailed and the lakes were opened because of solid walleye numbers despite what the Department Ideology was.

Drewski

^ this. Easier to maintain status quo or shut down rather than do their jobs/upset a few apple carts. There’re certainly not working in favour of recreational fishermen.