Pend Oreille Perch???

[teamtigerstripe]

Has anyone been catching JUMBOS    It should start getting good soon I would think.  Any theories to why they haven't moved in yet?

[DakotaElkSlayer]

  How much ice is on there?


Jim

[Idahogator]

The ice varies for a number of reasons this year ~ fluctuating temperatures, winds from all points of the compass and massive rain storms that have equated to very large volumes of run-off with varying currents. The main channel, from the Clark Fork River to the Pend Oreille river has had a large (almost 10 d.) temperature swing, according to F&G monitors and this has occurred several times.  

Ice is 5" to 9" measured with my skimmer with one inch marks.

Some of those I have contacted about "What's happened to the lake and the fish" have said they haven't seen anything like this ever, old timers, good fishermen, the guys that have walked out their door anytime for over 60 years and catch dinner or a bucket full of perch, the guys that feel it's not worth going out if they don't try 30 or more holes and the bucket brigade. ALL HAVE BEEN SKUNKED. These are all what I would call expert fishermen and let me correct myself, one of these didn't get skunked one time out, alas he caught a 4" perch.

I have called F&G several times and talked with the regional biologist and the response has been "None of you  have found the perch yet". That happens to be a fact, so far, but seems to hold less water than my skimmer.

The imagination begins to run wild as to why. Could it be a result of 3 years of weed control? Is it connected to red-wing black birds falling dead on a city back east? Or maybe the 25 room-sized comets that went into the sun in December? Is it because the lake level is a few feet higher this year, giving the perch more territory? Did I mention the Mayan Calender running to the end? Maybe it's Al Gore's fault.

We are still looking for perch and a few other things and will post here if and when they move in under the ice.


          Tom        

[DakotaElkSlayer]

Hmmmm....wonder how the walleyes are doing?

Jim

[Gypodog Jr]

I don't buy "none of you have found the perch yet" either.  You can dry that one out and fertilize the lawn.  My dad fished pend oreille, my grandpa fished it, and catches are consistently down.. I've been skunked 3 for 3 this year.  I'm far from the expert category, but I don't suck THAT bad.  And I've seen alot of pretty hard core guys out there this year with the same story. 

Did he happen to mention any supporting evidence for that opinion?  Different migration patterns around the lake? Do they have the ability to calculate perch populations?       

[Duck-Slayer]

just find a gravel or mud flat in 20-35 ft. of water and you'll find perch if they are there.... not too terribly difficult too figure out, use small jig, put a small piece of maggot, meal worm, crawler, or minnow, not too terribly difficult, you will catch them if they are there, if you caught them last spring this summer or this fall they are there just being finicky or they have moved too a different part of the lake..... good luck too all, I hope this helps you guys find some fish....
Matt

[Idahogator]

The biologist with F&G didn't qualify his statement on finding perch ~ thru the grape vine comes the word that they don't care a flying leap about perch at all, as there are billions and billions of them in LPO.

At this time, most of us have put away the boats and kayaks, electing to be on the ice, which is only on the shallow bays in Lake Pend Oreille. You'd be hard pressed to be on ice and find a depth over 6 feet. True, there are perch at depths of 25-35 FOW and maybe even to 50 or 60 ' but for the last 60 years they have always been in the bays year round. It just isn't happening this year and who/what is the reason has yet to be discovered. Al Gore is still suspect as is the Three Gorges reservoir in China ~ did it really change magnetic north by 3 degrees?

With cameras and sonar none are to be found. But we're still lookin'.

                       For what its worth, good luck,
                                                             Tom

[Woodland]

HAHA, nice post idahogator. I had to look up the ramifications of the dam, I never heard that before.
http://globalrumblings.blogspot.com/2011/01/filling-three-gorges-reservoir-in-china.html
I wonder if it freezes...

[teamtigerstripe]

I don't know why, but if there is any ice out a considerable distance on Bottle you would think you could find them there.  Can't say i have ever done that good there, but if they are in deep water that would be the only place I can think of that might have ice.  I agree, the perch have ALWAYS been roaming in the shallows and they just aren't this year (yet).  Good luck to all.

[Bearsfan]

My bet would be bottle also. I have not ventured out there yet this year, lack of time, but last year when i was getting skunked at sunnyside and the condos, we could easily fiil a bucket fast out there. (Faster I should say). the veiw from schweitzer tells me the ice is still good there. Anyway i'm going to blame Al Gore.
john

[Duck-Slayer]

I did not know the whole lake does not freeze, my bad, but, fish are unpredictable too a certain extent, sometimes Sh!t happens and they don't show up, most likely because of food, find the food and you find the perch.....
Matt

[Bearsfan]

I pondered upon this problem awhile and came up with an answer. I will notify F&G in the morning. We have a problem that many other big lakes have in the world including Payette here in Idaho. First of all the Kokanee disappeared and now the Perch, and that leads me to believe that we have a monster living in the deeps of Pend Oreille. What next?.. the Coots? 

[DakotaElkSlayer]

I pondered upon this problem awhile and came up with an answer. I will notify F&G in the morning. We have a problem that many other big lakes have in the world including Payette here in Idaho. First of all the Kokanee disappeared and now the Perch, and that leads me to believe that we have a monster living in the deeps of Pend Oreille. What next?.. the Coots? 

NOT THE COOTS!!!!

  Interesting...  Back home, we always fished perch in around 30' of water in the winter.  If the fish are still there, which I am sure they are, I am wondering if they may be keying in on a different food source?

Jim

[fishslayerX]

I think the walleyes are eating them all. They do a number on small fish like kokanee and perch. I kind of wish they had never made it into LPO.

[Duck-Slayer]

I think the walleyes are eating them all. They do a number on small fish like kokanee and perch. I kind of wish they had never made it into LPO.

that's blasfamy, no way, walleye's are the number 1 best eating fishing in the country.... next too perch of coarse, and no they are not eating them all, walleye's are not like pike and musky, and yes I grew up in Eastern montana and I do know what i'm talking about, for example look at Devils Lake, North Dakota, healthy population of Pike and Walleye, and its the best perch fishery in the Midwest.....
Matt

[fishslayerX]

Sorry man just saying they are a predator and if they have a pop exsplosion in a lake were they never were before it will change the food chain and am shure they would love a meal of bluebacks w/a side o 3" perch I know because that is what my walleye luers look like.

[Idahogator]

re: P O perch, available food sources, where they aren't this year, why, etc.

 I've had the camera down several times and always see copepods and bottom dwellers in the mud flats where the perch have been for years. The depth this year is 20" to 58". No perch and only one bite this year and it was a small one that stripped a threaded worm from a #12 treble.

You may recall the dead birds raining down on a town back east and various fish kills around the country. Well, there now comes a little earth science to shed light on (maybe) why things are a bit different this ice fishing season. To be brief, magnetic north usually moves about 5 miles per year. Now it's moving 8 times as fast at 40 miles per year. This is drastic enough to cause the airport in Tampa, FL to shut down runways to renumber them to the correct compass reading. It can cause birds to fly straight into the ground. Is there a chance perch are disoriented and not where they've been for the last 60 years? It's just another guess, but, well, to read more, here is a link to what Cliff Harris with the CdA press has to say.

    http://www.cdapress.com/columns/cliff_harris/article_15bbf109-652a-5d87-8623-819c25b0a766.html

   Tom

[chipmunksniper]

Maybe its a natural cycle of the lake. Has the perch population been declining the past few years? or is it just that this season is bad all of a sudden. I remember learning in school about the sardine fishery off the coast in california that boomed for a few decades during the 20's-40's and then the fishery started deminishing to nothing and the canneries and fishermen were out of work. I think scientists figured out that every few hundred years (possibly more) the sardines would go through a population boom that would last a few decades. Not saying the LPO perch are going extinct but maybe there's some sort of similar cycle going on and this could just be an "off" period of time. maybe next year the population will come back with 16" fish everywhere! 

[Idahogator]

Ya, looking forward to 16" perch ~ that would put another 1/2" onto the state record and become a wall hanger.

It was stated earlier (maybe in another post) about the fellow that moved to one of the larger bays on LPO, at the age of one and is now over 70, and has always been able to go out the door and catch supper all his life but, this year totally skunked.
There are more than a few wild things that have cycles of abundance to be followed by a great scarcity and include the snowshoe hare/lynx cycle that are tied together and then, as a separate matter the grouse cycle, being about eleven years to come full circle, which coincides with the solar cycle. Being 4 years into a solar minimum activity of solar flares from which comes a bit of global temperature rise, we are actually cooling a bit. Odd, for sure. Nothing we can do about it, but I'm not ready to put away my perch gear until some cosmic force allows them to resume their donation of fillets.  It's all Al Gores fault.
But, on the other hand, what if there is something to this polar shift thing?