LAKE GEORGE BS THREAD

[Fontona19]

Not to mention the perch were much bigger when there was no limit at all. I think there's holes in your theory.

[adkRoy]

Not to mention the perch were much bigger when there was no limit at all. I think there's holes in your theory.

There were also a lot let less ice fishermen back then too. 

[ship of fools]

Tough on the lake trout today. Lots of chasers and very few takers. Got to try out the smitty with the fresh snow. I would have died without it! They should be chomping tomorrow!

How much snow?

[Fontona19]

There were also a lot let less ice fishermen back then too. 

I don't know that that is the case, but sure

[Garufi518]

Over population will stunt growth see the same thing with the  cookie cutter 24” laker 

[Crappie Killr]

I tend to believe the lake is over-populated with perch. There have been years in which the lake never froze or was froze and ice fishable for a very small window and I always expect the following year to produce bigger fish, thinking they had an extra year to grow. But the following year comes and the fish are the same size, if not smaller. With all the smelt and Cisco’s in the lake, perch are not as close to the bottom of the food chain as they might be in a lake such as Saratoga or Sacandaga and therefore have the ability to thrive and over-populate. IMO

[perchslappinmy]

I'm on Lake George a lot both on the ice and in my boat. The schools of perch we see on the fish finder are ridiculous. I often say there aren't millions of perch in that lake...there are billions. They were definitely bigger perch before the 50 fish limit.

[tjk3rd]

Caught this mystery fish...not sure what it is.

Looks like a laker to me

[Fontona19]

How much snow?

2 or 3" of fresh snow. Made the pull in pretty crappy

[Big Tupper]

Crappie Killer is dead on, I think the big ole pig perch do not have to work very hard to feed therefore they lay back and get fat on natural forage. We as perch fishermen get the pick of the runt litter, that explains while pulling f13 for Lakers on lead-core we cant keep the darn big perch off.

[fullThrottle]

Yeah I think they need a better limit. I’ve seen guys post pictures of piles of dink’s that i wouldn’t even think about keeping.

[IcefisherSteve]

lets say on average there are 50 perch ice fisherman a day on Lake George. If each fisherman keeps his limit of 50 fish, that is 2,500 fish a day. Now lets say that the lake is ice fishable for 60 days. 2,500 x 60 = 150,000 fish!!!!!   That's not counting what is caught during open water  or the poachers who take more than their fair share.   I personally feel that they should reduce the limit to 25 fish per day.

I agree. 50 is too high for a daily limit. With limits that high I feel it makes it easier for people to over fish a resource. I bet there are even some guys that don't even end up fileting them all either. I know most guys do but I bet some don't. Pull limit to say caught limit and catch limit just because it's the limit. Also poachers pulling more. I know LG has good perch population but still think 50 is pretty high limit personally

[Mentiply]

This conversation reminds me so much of the whole Antler Restriction (Trophy) debate. Since this is a LG discussion I might as well drop my 2 cents in the bucket regarding my thoughts with Perch on LG.

1) I don't think its a lack of numbers problem, I think its a over abundance of numbers. From experience I've found that where I fish if the there wasn't any ice the previous year then there are more Perch, but they are generally smaller in size. I've also discovered that I catch larger perch on tip-ups. Throw a jig down and catch 6 drop a minnow and get 1 or 2 but larger.

2) We need to worry about what's in our own bucket more and whats in the other guys less  . As long as they obeying the limits and not poaching, be happy we have people out here enjoying the sport. That person who brings home a bucket of dinks might be doing so to help feed his or her family, might only be able to get out once or twice a season,( or they might just be a jerk  ). The thing is a lot of the time we simply don't know the circumstances around their choice to keep their catch and to punish the person who fishes for food or goes out once or twice a year with reduced daily limits because of a few jerks doesn't make sense to me.


Now back to waiting until this coming weekend so I can finally get out on the ice.

[B-P Fish Club]

Both sides of this debate hold validity and its truly hard to put a finger on what is going on with the perch population in Lake George, but based on what I have seen over the past decade, is the number of fish that I have caught has gone up each season, but the quality has gone down. In other words, I am catching more perch, but their size is noticbly smaller.
Is possible that the natural management of the perch population in Lake George has shifted? Have the predatory fish like bass, pike, and lake trout moved away from feeding on perch and are now targeting the growing populations of ciscos and smelt? If so, then the perch are less inclined to be managed by natural selection and are therefore able to increase their own populations. This would ultimately lead to more fish surviving including the “dink’s”.
This is just an opinion from a guy who has seen the change in the perch population over the years.
With that said, overall populations are cyclic and with Lake George being an incredibly healthy fishery it could mean we will see a population shift again in the coming years. Either way, the king has been very good to me and I do my best to preserve the quality fish it produces.

[TimK]

Perhaps lowering the perch limit from 50 on smaller bodies of water would be of benefit, but specifically as it relates to lake george it truly is an over abundance problem, lowering the daily limit will make it worse.  We need more people out there knocking down those 7 and 8" perch schools on LG.  People seriously underestimate the perch population in the lake.  Theres a million in harris bay alone.

[Fishmon]

I dive during the summer and the schools of perch on or just off weed beds are truly amazing.  You are talking millions upon millions of perch.  I am not a fishery biologist, but I think the problem is over population.  However, there are some really big ones mixed in with the hordes.  The smaller ones are more aggressive which might explain why you can fill buckets with 8-9 inchers.  Not sure imposing limits would make a  big difference.  My personal limit is now 25 after filleting 50 last week.  Just don't have the patience anymore.

[sjord89]

 My buddys best fish of the day

[SSmokinn SS]

I fished huddle today. It was actually my first ice trip out this year. Between me and my buddy, we caught well over 300 perch...  but that’s from 6:15am until 5:15pm. I only kept 40. My minimum is 9”.

That’s being said, out of 300+ fish, we maybe got 12 jumbos between us both.

Also, we were pretty far out. 4” of ice where we were. I have also never seen huddle bay so busy. No lakers caught by us today, but a young boy and his father got a nice 25” laker on a tip up and the boy was ecstatic. Loved seeing his excitement.

[Fishmarket]

The lake isn't over fished....its over populated.  There's are hundreds of perch grounds on the lake that you can catch hundreds of perch on....That's a fact. 

[Icelife4]

Hit a pinpoint on Harris I had from last year where I hit a bunch of dinner plate gills . It produced again and we hit probably 20 pan sized gills . Bunch of bass and dink  perch with a few keepers .

Yes we are definitely seeing a trend in smaller fish over the last few years, we definitely like to keep the bigger ones but at the same time we like to return the big females, maybe its because I stink at filleting the smaller fish but they do make awesome finger foods if done right. Huddle used to be our go to before we got a place on the lake. I did try spoons and minnow or gulp heads to try to get bigger fish but it really didn't work that well, bright ugly tungsten 5mm worked best. They only thing I noticed is the higher you got the fish to come the bigger they were. We caught some pie plate sunnies today that was fun.

[daytondedrick]

Here is another thought. I am becoming more and more aware of the increasing salinity levels in the lake due to salting the rodas. There is an arguement being made that the ice thickness has been decreasing since the 40s due to the salt introduction. Perhaps an arguement could be made that there is some contributing factor stunting the growth of the fish. Just a thought?? There are defnetly more dinks where we used to catch great perch.

[Ryanconstantino]

I fished huddle today. It was actually my first ice trip out this year. Between me and my buddy, we caught well over 300 perch...  but that’s from 6:15am until 5:15pm. I only kept 40. My minimum is 9”.

That’s being said, out of 300+ fish, we maybe got 12 jumbos between us both.

Also, we were pretty far out. 4” of ice where we were. I have also never seen huddle bay so busy. No lakers caught by us today, but a young boy and his father got a nice 25” laker on a tip up and the boy was ecstatic. Loved seeing his excitement.

Yeah I saw that too. I was way out deeper with a few 25+ inchers

[Cowboys#1]

There were also a lot let less ice fishermen back then too. 

233 square mile lake over fished?  Hahahaha... Ok

[Hardwaternubie53]

From my limited experience, I get very few slobs. I get a fair number of dinks. I believe three things are effecting my catch: 1) The dinks are more aggressive, as someone else on here has already said, and (2) I'm not able to get down to the bottom of the water column, where the slobs are, quick enough, even using tungston lures. 3) The slobs are not stupid. They didn't get big being stupid. Just MTC's!

[lowaccord66]

Looks like a laker to me

Was sarcasm.  Lucky ridges didnt eat my arse alive this weekend.

Another mystery fish...larger this time.  I cant keep these things off my jig. 

[Jake1]

From my limited experience, I get very few slobs. I get a fair number of dinks. I believe three things are effecting my catch: 1) The dinks are more aggressive, as someone else on here has already said, and (2) I'm not able to get down to the bottom of the water column, where the slobs are, quick enough, even using tungston lures. 3) The slobs are not stupid. They didn't get big being stupid. Just MTC's!
[/quote

I went from tear drops which caught dinks, up to a Hali which was hit and miss but more decent fish then throw aways. Moved up to a large hali which really gets down fast and seems to improve the size. Used the longer chain and clipped a second hook which has worked. I would call them decent but agree no way slobs.]

[reggie1610]

I think the smaller Adirondack lakes can definitely be very impacted and could see a lower limit. I know one that freezes early and the fishing seemed to go downhill quite a bit just over the month as the word got out about ice / was one of the only semi decent sized lakes frozen. Lake George doesn't seem to have a shortage of perch based off of the amount people catch - they are just smaller. Also, in the areas that don't have public access it gets much less pressure - really only a small % of the lake is getting fished.

I have fished perch in other lakes where I catch 1/15th the amount of perch I catch in Lake George, but almost every perch is bigger then the perch I would catch in Lake George. Also, tried a smaller Adirondack lake early ice this year which I kind of highly doubt gets much pressure and there was a ton of perch. I didn't catch one bigger then 4 inches over a few hours.

[bird21s]

The lake is overpopulated with dink perch. We discuss this every season saying “ the perch should be bigger since there was no ice last year” how many times have we said this. The jumbos exist but locating that school is usually tougher then expected.

[TJM781]

Some of it can probably be attributed to weed eradication and decline in forage habitat to some extent.

[tjk3rd]

Was sarcasm.  Lucky ridges didnt eat my arse alive this weekend.

Another mystery fish...larger this time.  I cant keep these things off my jig. 

So was my reply.  I think this is the same fish next to a shorter rod!  Catch em up!