A couple stupid Questions???

[NoLimitSoldier]

 Greetings. I'm going to start off by letting you all know that although I am an avid angler and outdoorsman, modern technology such as fishfinders, underwater cameras and fancy downriggers are not a part of my arsenal for both financial reasons,laziness and my own sporting morals.( Don't take this wrong, I could care less what others do, I just like to keep myself and the fish on a level playing field.) I state this so that you remember that while some of the questions I may ask might seem stupid or uneducated at the time but I assure you, there legit for me and others.
 Anyways, I live real close to Last Mountain and have fished it for over 20 years yet really know nothing about it as a whole. I have excellent success for big Pike in the summer ( my prize is a 29lb. monster in 2002 ), and catch Walleye here and there if I try hard, but the Perch have VANISHED! As a kid we used to limit out at Grandview whenever we fished there. It got progressively slower over the years but would rebound every 3-4 years it seemed, until about 4 years ago. Now, I've caught 2 perch in the last 4 years on Last Mountain. I know the pressure on this lake is heavy but the lake is huge and has lots of creeks running in and out. You'd think this lake would be a haven for Perch but it's quite the contrary. Any one have a clue as to why or where the perch are if there still there?
 Also, I was wondering if anyone has fished the Qu'appelle River from Craven to Lumsden or Craven to the #6 highway? How deep is it on average? Have you caught fish and if so what kind? What is the status of the Channel Cats in the Qu'apelle? I love river fishing and am intrigued by the Qu'appelle as it is the gate between Last Mountain and the Fort lakes, so it must be a consistant fish highway. It's murkiness does lead me to assume fishing for Pike is useless but Walleye should love it? Any insights would be much appreciated and I hope I can contribute to this forum in a positive way in the future. Thanks.

[Water Wolf]

Greetings NoLimitSoldier and welcome to the Sask. portion of iceshanty.
Not to worry, we all ask questions, it's all part of learing about the world around us. Feel free to ask away.

I am not really familiar with the fish movement in Last Mountain Lake but I have heard that they tend to concentrate near the middle of the lake and migrate North, South to spawn, as for the perch I do know that perch populations tend to run in cycles kind of like rabbits. Last Mountain Lake my be experiencing a low in the cycle or the fish may have some dieseas that is effecting there numbers or the lake is becoming too, akaline and may effect there eggs hatching. I know walleye can be effected if the pH get to high so perch may react the same way.


I have never fished the Qu'appele river and have always wondered what it would be like and how deep it is.
Does anyone know?

WW

[TGF]

Thats no stupid question there lad.
Stupid question would be like "OK I'm done putting line on the reel, but which end do I tie my lure?"

[MeadowPikeman]

i know ther are alot of buffalo inthe quapelle river used to catch em when we were pike fishing

[fishnut]

Just my opinion...But I believe perch numbers are low in all the lakes in Saskatchewan is simply because they are being overfished!  4,5 maybe 6 years ago I'd hear about it all the time, where 3 or 4 guys would go out and catch 75-100 perch and keep em all.  It's stuff like this that I believe keeps fish numbers down.  Why can't they just have one Lake in Saskatchewan that is strictly "catch and release"?  Doesn't make sence to me.

[Mike.]

Greetings NoLimitSoldier and welcome to the Sask. portion of iceshanty.
Not to worry, we all ask questions, it's all part of learing about the world around us. Feel free to ask away.

I am not really familiar with the fish movement in Last Mountain Lake but I have heard that they tend to concentrate near the middle of the lake and migrate North, South to spawn, as for the perch I do know that perch populations tend to run in cycles kind of like rabbits. Last Mountain Lake my be experiencing a low in the cycle or the fish may have some dieseas that is effecting there numbers or the lake is becoming too, akaline and may effect there eggs hatching. I know walleye can be effected if the pH get to high so perch may react the same way.


I have never fished the Qu'appele river and have always wondered what it would be like and how deep it is.
Does anyone know?

WW

I know in the summer when we fish on Last Mountain we have been catching small walleyes which is good. We use to always catch lots of perch off regina beach point just casting with a bobber and a minnow on the end, haven't done that in a long time so cant' really say if you still catch perch there

[adipose]

I would venture a guess and say that mr.pike might be the reason you are not catching any perch.i would guess that perch is the no.1 diet of pike in a river/res. setting that you discribe.im no expert...just my two cents worth.is the pike and eyes population up or down in the last few yrs around there?

[NoLimitSoldier]

I would venture a guess and say that mr.pike might be the reason you are not catching any perch.i would guess that perch is the no.1 diet of pike in a river/res. setting that you discribe.im no expert...just my two cents worth.is the pike and eyes population up or down in the last few yrs around there?

The lake has always had a pretty healthy Pike population but to my knowledge, Cisco( Tullibee) are the main food source for the Pike. The lake is full of them as well. The Carp population has gone from non-existant to insane in the last 6 years, don't know if Carp eat Perch eggs?

[grumpymoe]

food for thought...and for pike.....Sandy Lake where we have the shack set up, was a great perch fishery until about 4-5 years ago.....a proliferation of pike of modest size, has pretty much taken over the lake....Mountainmama caught 2 successive perch last weekend that were about 6 inches in length.....abnomally?....no......numerous gut checks of kept northerns over the last summer and this winter season, shows the predominant forage to be perch.......why is it not rebounding?......pike...plain and simple.......there is a balance that needs to be achieved either naturally or by catch and keep......this lake is annually stocked with fry walleye.......3 nice keepers this season gives me hope that at some point in time, the balance that everyone wants to see, will happen.......but the bottom line is this....we fish for fun.......(at least I think I do).....never mind the specie........over time things will eventually balance out, and everyone will be happy........(including the fishery).....Grump

[Water Wolf]

Good point guys, Last Mountain Lake also has a fair population of burbot, so they may be another predator for the perch, hopefully it will work it's self out.

WW

[WalleyeSpoon]

Maybe it is time to dent the stock of predators.  Where and how would you suggest hitting pike on Last Mountain?  That may be fun.

[teatot]

No such thing as a stupid question,but you may get a stupid answer my dad always said so no worries NoLimitSoldier.You are absouletly right the perch are non-exsistent it seems and we are all wondering why.Me and my fishing partners have fished long lake for years and years faithfully and until probably 3-4 years ago always did well with the perch fishing.We could fish from Penzance landing all the way down to Regina Beach and catch just about anywhere inbetween the two but now it's nicknamed by many the dead sea.We have a camera and it still in places shows oodles of perch but they could care less about your offering,they'll bump it,look at it and even wack it with their tales but will not bite-Very frustrating.The good news is that they are there,just not biting.So the next time you think theres no fish there it could be that they just aren't biting,noew in the same breath we fish alot of old spots to that show absouletly nothing on the camera-so who knows.Just hopefully it will turn around soon and we can all enjoy it again like we used to.Later-Teapot

[NoLimitSoldier]

Maybe it is time to dent the stock of predators.  Where and how would you suggest hitting pike on Last Mountain?  That may be fun.

( This is summer fun. ) I still have the best success with your classic spoons. My favourites are the Blue/Silver, Gold, Black/Yellow Five'o' Diamonds, and Chartreuse of the Len Thompsons and the Half-Wave and Gold/Silver hammered finish Lucky Strikes.
 Also,I found out by accident the Pike love Pumpkinseed Berkly Power Worms reeled in SLOW with short hops and twitches. This is fun and they hit hard but I lose a lot more this way than with spoons.
 On warm, calm mornings you can have a lot of fun with the Pike back in Little Arm Bay until about mid-July when the weeds are to thick to fish.  Most fish between 3-6lbs. but I've seen some pretty scary ones come out of there. ( I caught my biggest Pike ever ( just shy of 30lbs.) out in the channel where the river/bay meets the lake. ( By the old wood piles ). I was basically horsing around with a Chartreuse Vibrax spinner and not even paying attention, reeling in slow and joking with a friend when the beast engulfed my spinner. I wanted to let the big girl go to keep reproducing that gene pool but she swallowed the spinner bad and believe me, I set the hook many times with authority and in doing so ripped it's insides out. Too bad but my friend's grandma is old school, she gladly cut the Pike up into big steaks and she said it was really good. I personally wouldn't keep a Pike bigger than 7-8lbs. I find 3-5lbs. taste best!

[Water Wolf]

Holly molly, what a great catch NoLimitSoldier, that's a mega pike.
If she was just shy of 30lbs in July imagine what she must have been in February or March. It's to bad that since you had to keep her she did not get mounted.
You are right the little guys are way better tasting anyways.

WW

[NoLimitSoldier]

Holly molly, what a great catch NoLimitSoldier, that's a mega pike.
If she was just shy of 30lbs in July imagine what she must have been in February or March. It's to bad that since you had to keep her she did not get mounted.
You are right the little guys are way better tasting anyways.

WW

I'd rather let them go than mount them anyways. I don't care about bragging rights, I know I caught it, I got to fight it, who cares if others don't believe me. Besides, if I had a spare $300 to get a fish mounted, I'd be spending it on more important things than stuffing a dead fish or animal as some sort of ego projection. I'm all for hunting and fishing for food or catch and release fishing for fun if done with respect, but I am against "Trophy" hunting or fishing. That's my opinion, I won't publicly knock anyone else for ot either, it just doesn't make sense to me. I really have no more right to life than the deer I shoot or the fish I catch, so I always try and maintain a level of respect and dignity for the nature from which I harvest. That said I am at war with the mice on the farm, they wreck everything and I kill them with no regard. Maybe I'm destined to exist as a rodent next time around?

[buzzbomb]

  , don't know if Carp eat Perch eggs?

Only a few as collateral intake, they tend to hoover things off the soft bottom and out of the mud (crayfish, clams, worms, etc.).  Rocky bottoms that spawning perch and walleye prefer to spawn on aren't really productive places for carp to feed.  We saw a #10 walleye taken at Valeport 2 years ago that must of been spawning, but I think it's very unusual.  The buffalo fish that used to be in the system are now in sufficiently low numbers that they're being protected.  A fisheries biologist told me last year that the reason they aren't allowing carp to be netted in Last Mountain is so they don't inadvertantly wipe out the last of the native buffalo fish.  It was tried last year in the fishing lakes (Pasqua, I believe) using traps and Innu guys from up north who've been trpping fish forever, and they came up with one carp for all their trouble and investment.  I think they may have underestimated their quarry!

[MeadowPikeman]

low buffalo numbers?? tons of those buggers in the quapelle river coming out of buffalo pound caught a half dozen on opening day a few years ago. all over 15lbs too!! just walk slow long the bank in july or august in the stretch a mile or so below the d**n, some real big buffalo around still, i've seen ones that could of gone 40lbs easy.

[rumblefish_1]

Hi guys!!! As a new member making my 1st post I will just offer my 2cents on the perch issue on last mountain.Being as that is my home lake I have fished it for 30 years and have never had such a poor perch season as this winter.Just my opinion but I believe the perch populations are down due to many factors which you have all pretty much mentioned.The burbots are famous for eating spawn off the sand (or so i have heard) but also no one is mentioning the walleye as well.This is a monster fish factory with many huge pike and walleye over 8-10 lbs.Perch will get eaten (just not by me).But the biggest factor i believe to be true is poaching.I am sick and tired of people telling me "i used to come here every day and take home 2 pails of perch".  Well holy crap...you take 50 perch a day even 10 times a year thats 500 mature fish disappearing before spawning time.500 fish x god knows how many eggs = alot of fish missing from the system!!!! and thats just based on ONE fisherman. Anyway...just my thoughts ...but its easy to see why we must all do our part if we want to keep our fisheries thriving!!!   JUST DO THE MATH.   

[MeadowPikeman]

i remember a few years back (exactly when i forget) there was a big amount of sewage pumped into the lake i remeber it being quite a big  ruckus as it actually brought up the lake level a bit and the water was quite disgusting, cabin owners were not to happy to say the least. I did hear reports that year about dead fish being found in the affected area, I wonder if this maybe killed off a chunk of the smaller perch population then which might have a noticeable affect on the perch fishing now.

[buzzbomb]

low buffalo numbers?? tons of those buggers in the quapelle river coming out of buffalo pound caught a half dozen on opening day a few years ago. all over 15lbs too!! just walk slow long the bank in july or august in the stretch a mile or so below the d**n, some real big buffalo around still, i've seen ones that could of gone 40lbs easy.

It's odd they don't show up in the river south of Last Mtn then.....I've been carp fishing there 3 years now (pretty intensely too) and haven't seen a single buffalo fish (never saw any when I lived there, either).  The CPR section gang used to net walleye under the Valeport Rail bridge in the '60s and throw buffs up on the tracks and some of them covered both rails so there would of been 40+ lb fish there.  They look a lot like carp except for the mouth.



If there are buffalo fish in a trib at Buffalo Pound that's going to be a priority destination for me whan the season opens!  I'll take a look at google maps satellite pictures and see if I can find the spot.

 

 

i remember a few years back (exactly when i forget) there was a big amount of sewage pumped into the lake i remeber it being quite a big  ruckus as it actually brought up the lake level a bit and the water was quite disgusting, cabin owners were not to happy to say the least. I did hear reports that year about dead fish being found in the affected area, I wonder if this maybe killed off a chunk of the smaller perch population then which might have a noticeable affect on the perch fishing now.

That treated sewage that was released into Last Mtn. did little other than bring up the water level which was dangerously low.  The problem with that action was that the government neglected to tell everyone what they were doing and why.  The water in the south end of the lake (Valeport, Lumsden Beach) is only 4 or 5 feet deep in a good year and that was not a high-level year.  Some pike washed up at Sask. Beach and 2 guys complained. The ice gets thick enough in shallow enough water that there may be some winter kill but it isn't far to deeper water. I'm pretty sure if the fish had tested positive (that the sewage killed them) heads would of rolled and we'd all know about it.  When the ice first goes there's always a few washing up but that year there was nothing out of the ordinary only 3 miles further up the lake.. It doesn't excuse Sask. Water for failing to involve the local governments or at least notifying residents about what they're doing. 
 As for the perch, it's probably either pressure or predators.

[Reel Wet Ride]

I'm not from Saskatchewan, but from what I've read in this thread I'd be pretty safe to say that pretty much everything mentioned has something to do with the decline in perch populations. Heavy overfishing of mature fish, High numbers of predatory fishes like walleye and pike, Environmental factors such as the sewage leak, and carp/buffalo if in unusually high numbers can all take the blame. I've seen a 'herd' of carp destroy an entire flat in less than a few hours, which can really take a significat toll on reproductive rates throughout the spring.

[fishnut]

Hi guys!!! As a new member making my 1st post I will just offer my 2cents on the perch issue on last mountain.Being as that is my home lake I have fished it for 30 years and have never had such a poor perch season as this winter.Just my opinion but I believe the perch populations are down due to many factors which you have all pretty much mentioned.The burbots are famous for eating spawn off the sand (or so i have heard) but also no one is mentioning the walleye as well.This is a monster fish factory with many huge pike and walleye over 8-10 lbs.Perch will get eaten (just not by me).But the biggest factor i believe to be true is poaching.I am sick and tired of people telling me "i used to come here every day and take home 2 pails of perch".  Well holy crap...you take 50 perch a day even 10 times a year thats 500 mature fish disappearing before spawning time.500 fish x god knows how many eggs = alot of fish missing from the system!!!! and thats just based on ONE fisherman. Anyway...just my thoughts ...but its easy to see why we must all do our part if we want to keep our fisheries thriving!!!   JUST DO THE MATH.   

Hey you just gave me a good idea.  I'm normally not a fan of plajerism, but you wrote that so well, I'm gonna use that qoute on another post of mine...