is there big perch?

[beerbellybob106]

i fish a local lake that has tons of dink perch in it. it also has a bunch of decent sized crappie and bass. ive never caught any perch over 5inches out of this lake winter or summer. it is about 10-15fow in most areas with some weeds and rock piles but i always catch the dinks on these structures and just about everywhere i try to fish. so my question is ... is there big perch in this lake or do the conditions limit the size of the perch?

[HardWaterMachine31]

the only lakes i ever see large perch in are the larger lakes with multiple species in them. all of the bass lakes i fish in the summer seem to have tiny perch in them. I think not enough area and not enough predators plus good reproduction makes all the perch stunted. take a couple small ones you catch next time and squeeze them. If spawn pops out you got stunted fish and you may want to not even waste your time fishing for them.

[fishermanna82]

i catch some large perch in little lakes you just have to get through the pile of little ones.

[Jigmup]

most times they school according to size. That doesn't mean that there is Jumbos in the lake but you should move away from the small fish schools to try and locate bigger fish.

[5watchman5]

Yesterday's a prime example.  I went to a lake with my dad and jigged up prob. 50-60 dink Perch.  Only a couple of 'em were keepers.  Now mind you, I was doing C and R so I didn't care.  Yes, it was fun catching a lot of fish, but if I want to catch big Perch, I'm going to head to the places that produce consistently.  Just like deer hunting- if you want to shoot big bucks, you have to hunt where big bucks live.  Prob. overpopulated like one of the other guys said. 

[Hando]

i fish a local lake that has tons of dink perch in it. it also has a bunch of decent sized crappie and bass. ive never caught any perch over 5inches out of this lake winter or summer. it is about 10-15fow in most areas with some weeds and rock piles but i always catch the dinks on these structures and just about everywhere i try to fish. so my question is ... is there big perch in this lake or do the conditions limit the size of the perch?

Sounds like a problem I had on Meacham Lake up by you.  I will say that the perch up in the Adirondack ponds run small.  I am not biologist but my guess is the limited food supply.  I say target the bigger lakes for schooling fish like perch and that should provide more forage and an increase in the size of your catch.  Lake Champlain and Lake George could be options.

[LilWeezy]

i dont know if its so much the size of the lake or pond. i have fished 10 acre ponds with big perch it has more to do with preditory fish and survival rate for perch