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Author Topic: Central Mt perch Derby  (Read 5023 times)

Offline Central mt Ice

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Central Mt perch Derby
« on: Dec 03, 2018, 06:36 PM »
The Annual Central MT Perch Derby held at East fork Res. will be Jan 19th and 20th
For application and contest rules go the the Crooked Creek Chapter of Walleyes Unlimited Facebook Page.
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Offline Yellowstoner3

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #1 on: Dec 11, 2018, 03:48 PM »
looking forward to it

Offline mountana

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #2 on: Dec 16, 2018, 09:06 AM »
I've never done a fishing tournament but was curious as I thought this might be something fun to do with my 11 year old. But then I read all the rules. I got the impression that this tournament must be pretty serious and was wondering who the average participant is?

Offline gramps2321

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #3 on: Dec 16, 2018, 09:53 AM »
I fished it for the first time last year and had a blast.  As in any tourney there are the die hard serious fisherman but there was also young and old fishing too for fun.  There usually isn't any problem catching LOTS of Perch.  You and your youngin would have a great time.

Offline donovan.luce

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #4 on: Dec 17, 2018, 12:37 AM »
I guess I have never heard of the reservoir? Where is it located near Lewistown? Can’t seem to find it online either? Help would be awesome thanks!

Offline lspower

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #5 on: Dec 17, 2018, 11:12 AM »
If you enjoy catching 4" perch nonstop for hours on end this is the place!!!
Catch and release into bacon grease

Offline Central mt Ice

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #6 on: Dec 17, 2018, 12:08 PM »
Thanks everyone for looking at this post.  The tournament has a good set of rules to insure that it is a honest and fair event.  For those who come it is a good time with lots of fish, good pay outs for a lot of different things ( Top adult/child awards, Mixed couples, and least amount of weight for 100 perch and random drawings)  The res. is approx. 14 miles south of Lewistown
central mt ice

Online missoulafish

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #7 on: Dec 17, 2018, 12:20 PM »
***COPIED FROM THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE***

https://goo.gl/maps/ozCnin7UURJ2

2019 Central Montana Perch Derby
Eastfork Res.
January 19th & 20st , 2019
Tournament rules
TEAMS
A: Will consist of Two anglers. (At least one member must be 18 or over.) and no more than 2 rods per angler.
B: (PLEASE do not arrange to fish with friends, family members, etc. during this event. Don’t hang around non-tournament anglers while fishing the event. Don’t invite people to “meet me on the ice” during the event. This is meant to be fun but, is still a COMPETITION and as such, these rules will be enforced aggressively.) 
C: Teams may not fish any closer than 5 paces from another team.
D: Team members may pre-fish until 3:00pm Friday night before the event.
E:  TEAMS MAY ONLY USE ATV’S, UTV’S, SNOWMOBILES ETC. NO PASSENGER CARS, TRUCKS, SUV’S ETC. TOURNAMENT STAFF DECISION WILL BE FINAL. ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST MAKE THEIR OWN DECISION AS TO ICE SAFETY. If using motorized equipment, a speed limit of 15MPH while on the ice will be in effect…If you are operating unsafely, (too fast, too close to others, etc.) you will receive a warning, or DQed.     The SAFETY of all participants is #1.

F: Every team must check in and pass thru inspection. ALL equipment brought onto the ice will be inspected  (NO LIVE MINNOWS OR ALOCHOL ALLOWED AND IS GROUNDS FOR DISQUALIFICATION). Please have trailers, ice houses, coolers, buckets etc. open and ready as you pass thru inspection. NO PRESETUP ON ICE!!!
G: After inspection, teams will be directed to a “pre-start” area and will wait for the Directors final instructions and let team go out on the ice to setup at that time.   Fishing will start at the sound of the horn.
H: Teams may not assist any other teams (except in emergency/life or death situations.) NO towing another teams equipment, on, off or around the ice via snowmobiles, quads, UTV’s etc. EACH team is expected to get on, off and around on the ice under their own power, motorized or not. NO sharing of bait, lures, equipment, etc. once the tournament has begun. No inter team cell phone/two way radio use during the tournament.
I: At least one team member must maintain personal control over their tournament fish at all times, and when exiting the ice that person/persons MUST report directly to an official and proceed directly to the weigh in area. At NO TIME may any team’s tournament fish be within 5 paces of another team’s fish until those teams are in the official weigh in line. You must be in line with your team’s fish by the announced time or you will not be allowed to weigh in.
J:  START TIMES:  Inspection at 6:00AM, with tournament rules meeting starting at 7:30 , and tournament starting at 8:00AM, weigh in 2PM
K: Each team will be allowed to weigh up to 100 perch at the end of each day.. If a team chooses to weigh their catch prior to the official end of the tournament, then they are done fishing for the day. The total weight of the perch will be the team’s official score. In case of a tie the winner will be determined by the team with the largest fish.
L: Fish must be kept CLEAN in a bucket or other container prior to weigh in. NO ICE/SLUSH ON FISH or frozen fish will be accepted. It is your choice what fish you will weigh, but you may not turn in more than 100 fish in your container and have no more than 120 perch in your possession at any given time . If you hand in 101 Perch or more you will lose 1lb for every fish over and your largest perch.    Count them as many times as you must to be certain! Your weight will be recorded and a receipt given. In the event of a discrepancy, you MUST have this receipt.
M: All contestants must abide by all MONTANA FWP rules and all applicable local, state and federal laws. Anyone cited by law enforcement for any reason will immediately be disqualified from the tournament.
N: During tournament hours, you may only leave and re-enter the lake by the official entry area. (Bathroom breaks are excluded but you may not carry anything off the ice with you, nor bring anything back. Violation will be grounds for immediate disqualification)

P: Rules violations will be evaluated by a tournament board following basic criteria.
TOURNAMENT DIRECTORS RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE ENTRY TO ANY PERSONS/TEAMS FOR ANY REASON AT ANY TIME.
To avoid compromising this tournament, the following statement must be made clear:
Cheating will not be tolerated. Outright Cheating: Modifying fish, entering fish not caught that day, illegal bait, etc.
Penalties may include a weight reduction, a DQ for that event.     Any suspension or DQ will require a full review by tournament organizers before either member is allowed entry to any future tournaments.
If you are caught in a violation that could have a direct impact on your weight, therefore impacting the tournament results, then you have willfully violated the rules and are attempting to steal. If you attempt to steal from this tournament, you are stealing from every person entered. Anyone caught in any willful violation of these rules will be dealt with harshly and publicly. We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law!!!
(Simple mistakes will be judged on their intentionality and the potential impact on the results)
ALL DECISIONS ARE FINAL!!!

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY
The Central Montana Perch Derby  is a competitive ice fishing event.  Participants understand that as such, certain dangers may exist. No ice should ever be considered safe and contestants must make their own decision on ice safety. TOURNAMENT DIRECTORS, OFFICIALS, SPONSORS OR ANY OTHER PERSONS OR ENTITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS EVENT ACCEPTS NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY CONTESTANTS SAFETY, INJURY OR DAMAGE TO PERSONAL PROPERTY WHILE COMPETING IN THIS EVENT. Acknowledgement of this statement by your signature means you accept these conditions without exception, and that you agree to abide by all tournament rules, and understand that in the event of any discrepancy the decision of the directors is final. You also authorize the use or release of any photos taken in conjunction with tournament events for promotional purposes.
Any Questions please contact Kennie Williams at 406-670-0885
Both Team Members Must Sign acknowledging the above statement & for entry to be valid.
______________________ ____________ ______________________ _____________
$80.00 per Team
Big Fish Pot $10/day for a total of $20.00 
Make payable to the Crooked Creek Chapter of Walleyes Unlimited (Eastfork Perch Derby)
Team Member #1 (Please Print)              (Sign)
______________________ ___              ______________________ __________
Phone #
______________________ ___              Address_______________ ____________________
 
Team Member #2 (Please Print)                  (Sign)
______________________ _____                ______________________ __________
Phone #
______________________ ___              Address_______________ ____________________

Mail Entry to:
Kennie Williams
321 Hawthorne Av
Lewistown, MT 59457

Mailed Applications must be in before Jan 14th.  After that date please bring application with you or register the morning of the event. Also if you register at one of the local sporting goods store you agree to the rules and releases. If you feel it won’t get there in time call the director to insure you get your name in.

Offline Arrow

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #8 on: Dec 17, 2018, 07:32 PM »
The guys that one it last year had it dialed in, put several big perch on the ice for sure.
Go Find Yours

Offline lspower

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #9 on: Dec 18, 2018, 08:52 AM »
I heard two garbage cans full of tiny perch were hauled off after the derby and people were leaving dead perch all over the ice.
Catch and release into bacon grease

Offline Central mt Ice

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #10 on: Dec 18, 2018, 09:39 AM »
This tournament is set up for a couple reasons.  The main purpose is to have fun, get people to come to Lewistown, to reduce the number of perch in Eastfork as they get stunted.  In the past after several years of having the derby the overall size of the fish increased.   They drained the Res. after 2012 to repair the gate and the derby went away for a few years but after the repair it didn't take long for the fish to rebound and over populated it.  This is why FWP has allowed us to do 100 this year.  All perch where clean up after the event. Also FWP collected over a thousand perch from the event to take to the schools around the state for biology classes.
central mt ice

Offline icing_perch

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #11 on: Dec 20, 2018, 07:48 PM »
I have been fishing this tournament every year that it has been held since I moved to Montana in 2008.  Always a fun time.  There are some die hard guys that normally do great each year.  With that said, with the mixed couples and adult youth categories, there is a great opportunity to win some prizes.  My dad and I weren't doing good for big perch last year the first day and decided to go for the least weight for 50 fish.  Didn't finish in the money the first day, but close.  Day 2 was a different story.  Dialed the guppies in and won the smallest weight for day 2 plus overall least weight for the 2 days.  Won the Minnow Award.  LOL

Offline Central mt Ice

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #12 on: Jan 14, 2019, 09:25 AM »
The Central Mt Perch derby held at Eastfork Res. is still on for next weekend.   There is 9 inches of Ice and should get better as the week goes.  There are some openings left.  Hope to see everyone there.  Good Luck.....
central mt ice

Offline Ketchnrelease

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #13 on: Jan 20, 2019, 08:09 PM »
Great big thank you to everyone who helped put this weekend together. Such a great time!! Thank you!!

Offline Central mt Ice

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #14 on: Jan 21, 2019, 12:39 PM »
A big THANK YOU to all the teams that showed up to make this years derby a success.  We had great sponsor's, volunteers to make it a big success.

We had good Ice conditions and a ton of fish caught.  This year the winning team of Tim Marsh and Rusty South caught a two day total of 60.51 pounds of perch for 200 fish.  Great job.   2nd place went to Aaron Penman and Derek Dygert with 52.76 pounds and 3rd to Travis Scott and Kennie Williams with 48.50 pounds.   Thanks again and see you next year
central mt ice

Offline mt.redneck

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #15 on: Jan 21, 2019, 03:35 PM »
The tournament needs to go back to 100 or so teams with an entry fee of 40-50 bucks a team. I know that they want to raise as much money as possible but having a lower entry fee and higher numbers of teams would help out a lot better
safe ice, tight lines and god bless!

Offline outdoor livin

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #16 on: Jan 21, 2019, 05:48 PM »
The tournament is ran extremely well and the entry fee  is fine where it's at. Dont be so cheap!

Offline mt.redneck

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #17 on: Jan 21, 2019, 09:45 PM »
The field is barely half full since they started the tournament up after draining the lake. Lowering the entry fee and allowing more teams would allow more perch to be taken from the lake thus benefiting the lake more, allowing more people to have fun, and raising more money. When i did the tournament before the lake was drained the entry fee was 40-50 bucks per team and there were 70 plus teams. It would be worth paying the current price if the fish quality was better but when the average perch is not even half a pound people are not going to pay high prices, on top of travel and lodging to catch tiny perch
safe ice, tight lines and god bless!

Offline PerchPounderMT

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #18 on: Jan 22, 2019, 08:32 AM »
The field is barely half full since they started the tournament up after draining the lake. Lowering the entry fee and allowing more teams would allow more perch to be taken from the lake thus benefiting the lake more, allowing more people to have fun, and raising more money. When i did the tournament before the lake was drained the entry fee was 40-50 bucks per team and there were 70 plus teams. It would be worth paying the current price if the fish quality was better but when the average perch is not even half a pound people are not going to pay high prices, on top of travel and lodging to catch tiny perch
Exactly.The winning teams fish averaged .30lb,it costs the average joes $300+ to do this tourney,for $300 I can think of a whole list of tourneys Ill do before I do this one again.
Dont ask

Offline bigsky

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #19 on: Jan 22, 2019, 10:44 AM »
Do you really think lowering the entry fee by $30 would make that much difference as far as numbers of teams go? When they were doing the derby before, Crooked Creek was high and dry. I think now that Peck is up again a lot of those locals that fished it before are just going to Crooked Creek now. I would guess most of those teams that are no longer fishing the derby are just locals that are choosing to go to Crooked Creek instead. I don't think entry fee is deterring them, they would just rather fish for pike and walleye instead of perch. I would like to see more teams, but not to the point that it's crowded.

Offline mt.redneck

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #20 on: Jan 22, 2019, 01:43 PM »
The first year i did it with 70 plus teams it was not crowded at all. The lake is barely fished by locals and if they fish it they are not keeping bucket fulls of perch every time out. The first year I did it with the lower entry fee there were lots of peooke from all over the state. It would be better to try to get people to travel to come do the tournament
safe ice, tight lines and god bless!

Offline outdoor livin

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #21 on: Jan 22, 2019, 08:31 PM »
$30 is not going to change people decision to travel to do the tournament. Ur either going to do it or not

Offline mt.redneck

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #22 on: Jan 22, 2019, 10:27 PM »
If a cheaper entry fee wouldnt get more people to fish the tournament then why did there used to be more teams willing to drive across the state to fish it? Crooked creek being dry would not have made a difference as a lot of the locals hardly seem to fish it when there is no tournament going on let alone if they had to pay 40-50 bucks a person to fish it. There quality of the fish caught is not making a lot of people want to shell out a lot of money to catch 7 inch perch, yes i know there are some nice perch in the lake but when the winning team's perch averages .3 pounds the better perch are few and far between. If part of the reason for the tournament is to help reduce the perch numbers then wouldnt you want high numbers of teams, 75-100 teams, there every year instead of hardly 30 teams?
safe ice, tight lines and god bless!

Offline RuralMT

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #23 on: Jan 24, 2019, 06:22 PM »
This sounds like an experiment in the making.  I envision a team, nay, company (let's call it "Runt Removal") whose job is to do the menial task of culling sardine-sized perch from a stunted lake.  Have them stay within the regulations, donate the edible sized fish to food banks, create a side business called "Carcass Composting Company for the runts (the name is debatable, but with the acronym CCC, it has a patriotic Civilian Conservation Corps kinda ring to it...just spit-balling here), and turn the guys loose with 50-gallon drums instead of buckets during the ice season.

a) (Hypothetical aside) Could a small group of anglers improve the size of fish over time in such a manner?
b) If so (hypothetical back on) Runt Removal is happy to accept bids from the FWP and Fergus County for contracts, as well as investors for much-needed startup funds.

Offline mt.redneck

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #24 on: Jan 24, 2019, 10:05 PM »
This sounds like an experiment in the making.  I envision a team, nay, company (let's call it "Runt Removal") whose job is to do the menial task of culling sardine-sized perch from a stunted lake.  Have them stay within the regulations, donate the edible sized fish to food banks, create a side business called "Carcass Composting Company for the runts (the name is debatable, but with the acronym CCC, it has a patriotic Civilian Conservation Corps kinda ring to it...just spit-balling here), and turn the guys loose with 50-gallon drums instead of buckets during the ice season.

a) (Hypothetical aside) Could a small group of anglers improve the size of fish over time in such a manner?
b) If so (hypothetical back on) Runt Removal is happy to accept bids from the FWP and Fergus County for contracts, as well as investors for much-needed startup funds.

If you can consistently catch a lot in a day, not really hard at east fork, and had around 10 guys that could do it at least once a week or so all year long you could make a bit of a dent. The first tournament i did there there was around 9000 perch caught in 2 days of fishing. I havent fished it durring open water but the times i have fished it i rarely see more then 5 groups of people on the lake, unless the derby is going on. Its a nice little lake that could yield some really nice perch along with trout and pike but its not going to happen unless there is a reason to keep the small perch
safe ice, tight lines and god bless!

Offline RuralMT

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #25 on: Jan 24, 2019, 10:18 PM »
Quote
but its not going to happen unless there is a reason to keep the small perch

Disclaimer: dyed-in-the-wool capitalist here.  But based on my reading of history, it seems that if you can attach a profit-motive to a problem, as in provide an incentive to create a solution to a problem (i.e. prospect of monetary reward) the solution will find you.  Pay me to catch 300 baby perch in a day and do it every day of the year and I'll do it with a smile on my face; ask me to pay a $100 entry fee to do it for you...no thanks.

Offline RuralMT

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #26 on: Jan 24, 2019, 10:24 PM »
Mt.Redneck, I feel your pain.  Murphy Lake, south of Eureka about 15 miles, is a prime fishery on the cusp of greatness.  Plenty of feed for whatever swims, problem is its overrun with baby perch like your description of East Fork.  I've often wondered if, with it being roughly 100 acres, could the locals harvest enough to make it realize its potential?  Hard to convince someone to join me on the lake for the potential of big fish several years from now...

Offline PerchPounderMT

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #27 on: Jan 25, 2019, 08:35 AM »
Get a permit to freeze and sell for bait.Use proceeds for kids days.
Dont ask

Offline mt.redneck

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #28 on: Jan 25, 2019, 09:42 AM »
Get a permit to freeze and sell for bait.Use proceeds for kids days.

Perch cannot be used for bait in montana
safe ice, tight lines and god bless!

Offline Quantoson

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Re: Central Mt perch Derby
« Reply #29 on: Jan 25, 2019, 10:23 AM »
Perch cannot be used for bait in montana

That is basically correct to the extent that the non edible portions can be used as bait in some districts.
wish you many hook-ups

 



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