Northwest Iowa Perch

[Wally Lindner]

  Was up there today and caught 27 perch in a couple of hours.  This lake did not freeze out last year, unlike several of its neighbors.  Average size was 8" with one coming in at 13.25.  What a nice ice fishing day!

[BojiHawk]

What lake are you referring to?

[Wally Lindner]

 High Lake - Ingham Lake Area.  You can figure it out from there.  Went yesterday and caught five in a half hour, then the wind picked up, temperature dropped and she was done.

[BojiHawk]

Yup...figured that actually.  Good to know those fish are surviving.  Those are easy to freeze out.  Congrats...I'm thinking about hitting those sometime this winter.

[Wally Lindner]

  My fishing buddy thinks I should of mounted that 13.25 Perch, I have two Bluegills 3.5 lbs mounted, caught on a golf course pond.  One was in the Cabelas (Owattana) aquarium for a couple of years.  The state rcord perch is 14.75 (Morse 2.3lbs.).  So how many of you hard core fisherman out there have caught perch worth putting on the wall?

[BojiHawk]

I had my 3 lifetime best perch back to back to back in less than 10 minutes at Waubay 2 years ago.  14.25 each...carbon copies and within hundreths of a pound in weight to each other.  I played with the idea mounting them and actually froze them on boards to preserve the tails.  In the end, I coudn't justify the $ for a perch mount.  I think perch are awesome and I love fishing them...but for about $500...I think the pix are fine.  I caught some nice ones at high, ingham, and some other little lakes up there.  My best though as far as size was Big Spirit and it was the early 80's.  Some of those perch from the weeds on the south actually curled the tail up in the bottom of a 5 gal pail.

[Wally Lindner]

  Those are nice Perch, and I agree that it would have to be a state record to justify the expense.  I've heard of large ones at Devils Lake also. 

[fishiowa]

I have 2 14's mounted together on a really cool mount that has a round bottom that looks like the lake bottom (sand and gravel) about 3 inches thick, with weeds and a branch. Cost me $275.00 at Cherokee.

[bassrat]

i've got an 11 1/12" gill and a 21" crappie (4lbs 7oz) on the wall...really want to get an iowa perch to go in the middle this year...

[nick858]

i've got an 11 1/12" gill and a 21" crappie (4lbs 7oz) on the wall...really want to get an iowa perch to go in the middle this year...

Those are impressive fish.  Did PInny and I meet you at Cornelia a couple weeks ago?

[Hawken]

I have a 14 inch perch mounted on a piece of drift wood caught in the sandhills at Cameron Lake in NE. $60 bucks.

[jmvsmv]

I live 10 minutes away from high lake, but never even considered ice fishing there.  This last summer we had our cub scout campout at Wolden Park, and one of the activities there was a fishing derby for the kids.  We all fished off the dock and the landing there by the Nature Center and i was honestly surprised that the kids caught more perch than anything else, all were small, and all were caught on crawlers, as that was all they had for bait.  Any place in particular to look for on that lake,   I am going to be doing a little work at the Nature Center on Monday might have to wander over and punch a hole or two, and try to catch me a perch or two.

[Mr.Seaguar]

jmvsmv, you shoulda seen some of the perch that came out of high lake in the 90s. Like footballs. My buddy was pulling one out the first time we fishd there and it was the biggest perch we ever saw. It fell off back down the hole. I stuck my arm down the hole and trapped the fish on the bttom of the ice. I managed to get the fish back up. This was 5 minutes after we got there so my arm was cold for the rest of the day. We still call it 'pulling a High Lake' when we have to jump after a fish. What we did to cach fish as move and drill. Perch are attracted to the auger.


Dead fish arent my idea of interior decor. They look good in bars and bait shops. I would mount Blinky from the Simpsons. My wife and I used to argue about this one wall in our old house. You could see a wide expanse of it from the road. I told her I should mount a muskie and hang it there, it would look great from the road. After we moved, my wife had me drive by to look at the house. The new residents had hung a naked picture of Anna Nicole  in that very spot. If I ever laughed that hard in my whole life I dont remember it. She never had me drive by again. Turns out some college kids had rented it.

[esox_magnum]

Just shy of 16" is my best. Icehouse Point, Blackhawk Lake on a minnow on the bottom. Never gave a thought to mounting it or the possibility of a record just ate it. Same goes for the 17-19" crappies we used to catch in High School in Green county.