todays fish lake perch tournament

[tomertim]

How did everyone do today?

This was my first time going and it ended up being 3 of us. About 35 fish total with 24 being perch. The first two hours were red hot then it started slowing down.

Since this was my first time fishing Fish Lake i wasnt sure if this was good or not. One of the guys we were fishing with had fished it last year and caught 70 perch solo, so by that measurement it was slow.

Hope everyone had a great time!

[Rspeters]

I was there, aside from the wind I had a good time. I caught 87 fish total, 20 trout (mostly rainbows, a few splake) and 67 perch.

[ifishinxs]

I was actually suppose to help out with the DNR but couldn't find a place to even park at 6:40 am other than Joe Bush. The lake was covered in shelters already..Looked like a Zoo and parking Kaos..So I drove to Otter creek and fished. It was nice and quite.

I have fished at fish lake the last few weeks...The perch catching has slowed down a lot compared to last year..So the tournaments have been a success.

[muskyon46]

Found these results for those interested

The second annual Fish Lake Perch Tournament was another big success on Saturday. The weather forecast kept a few folks away, but we still had over 1,800 brave souls show up and catch an estimated 35,000 perch.

Amazingly, only 10 of those fish were tagged. Also, we couldn't raffle off all of the prizes before the storm rolled in. That means there are still 34 prizes - including an ice sled, auger, fishing poles, and knives - waiting for lucky anglers to catch more tagged perch. All you have to do is check in at the Lakeside General Store before you go fishing. Then, when you catch a tagged perch, go back to the store to claim your prize. This contest will go as long as the prizes last. A big thanks to Fish Lake Resorts for helping give away the rest of these great prizes.

We appreciate all those who participated and made this a fun and educational event. We are especially grateful for your patience as we figure out through trial and error how to make this the best fishing contest in Utah.

One of the benefits of using tagged fish was that we were able to generate our first ever estimate of the number of perch in Fish Lake: about 4.5 million! (Keep in mind this is a very rough estimate - we could be off by a million or two.)

Remember to come back to Fish Lake often and take home as many tasty perch as you can. We are hopeful that intense harvest, coupled with efforts to reduce milfoil, will eventually reduce the perch density and lessen their impact on other fish species.

We hope to see you again at next year's Fish Lake Perch Tournament.

Mike Hadley
Utah Div of Wildlife
Southern Region Fish Biologist

[tomertim]

I agree, couldn't believe how packed it was.  We got there about 6:45 and had just enough time to get checked in and find a parking spot.  10 minutes later we would have been out of luck.

Now maybe the tournament at Deer Creek in two weeks....