Perchmania!!!

[Big Sky]

Perchmania! I've never experienced such crazy good ice fishing for perch before. The size, quality, and number of perch bordered on the unbelievable.

Hauling them in just plain wore me out. Had to lay down on the job when it was all over.

 

[bowhuntmontana]

Wow! When is the fish fry? Beause I'm inviting myself... Awesome.

 

[TRS_Montana]

Ha! Not a big ice fisherman, but man that is tempting!
Were you north or south of the Gates? Have been hearing mixed results from both. A friend fished the perch derby on Canyon Ferry this weekend and got skunked on Saturday, but did ok on Sunday. A colleague went to Holter and nailed them, although I had been hearing it's slowing up on Holter. I keep wondering when the perch population on Holter is going to dwindle a bit, but I guess it won't be for a few years at least! Nice haul!

 

[TheSurveyor]

Wow. Way to go.

Wish I could find perch like that in Colorado. Mostly dinks

 

[NoWiser]

Wow!! Behind lake trout, perch are my favorite fish to catch ice fishing! That looks like a LOT of fun!

What's the limit in Montana? We had to lower it to 20 a day in Minnesota.

 

[noharleyyet]

Perch, crappie, Zatarain's fish fry, peanut oil, bib, and plenty of napkins ....gimme some elbow room. Nice haul.

 

[Big Sky]

TRS if I believed what I've read on the internet I would have never gone. Everyone kept saying the fishing was poor, reports said it was slow, others said all the fish were gone and there were too many fisherman. Where we were there was one guy in an ice house and a young couple with 3 children. It didn't seem too crowded to me. The photo speaks for itself as far as the fishing goes.

Nowiser, the limit is 50 each. There were four of us total. We could have easily caught 200 fish. We forced ourselves to stop far short of our limits because we didn't want to deal with anymore fish than we had. We had plenty for each of us.

I'm still a little in shock over the size of the fish. I'm used to catching a lot of dinks and getting a nice one here and there. We didn't catch any dinks, they were all good sized. All of us are very experienced fishermen and it ranked as one of the best days any of us has ever seen for big perch. I'm glad my fishing partner talked me into going because I'm not real big on ice fishing, but this was flat out epic!

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Great Catch! Take a pound of boneless Fillets and Crab Boil with a box of Zatarain's Crab Cake Mix. Boil the Fillets like you would any seafood in the Crab Boil, then follow the Box instructions (I add chopped green onions to mine) and enjoy! John

 

[300stw]

we did that once at devils lake, never got into that many big perch ever since, we had vexilars and minnows that time, first time we used the vexilars, my son and I had a tremendous time then, and damn are they good eating, you guys are living the dream,,,,

 

[Festus]

Very nice!! My favorite eats!

#roadtrip!!

 

[Flatrock]

Wow what a day! Looks like at least 100.

 

[RobG]

Cousin! We should fish together again real soon!

 

[Foxtrot1]

Great pic! Keep them coming

 

[fishing4sanity]

Wow! I almost feel sorry for the fish if you're around, they have no chance. I've never caught perch like those. Congrats!

 

[Walkathon]

I ice fish, and I have never seen that many big perch at one time. Holy smokes! You knocked the crap out of them ! Way to go !

 

[BRI]

That's awesome. I haven't gotten out this year but last year, one day, 5 of us hauled in our limits (250 total) in about 3 hours. Every one was a large female full of eggs. I'm no biologist but that was really curious to me that they were all females and I've wondered if that has to have some level of impact. Man, they are tasty!

 

[Big Slick]

Mother lode! Congrats!

 

[bobbydean]

My experience with perch was at 10. Fished a little tributary to the Pecos. Perch hit anything. But were only 3 to 4 inches. Catch and release. Still was a good fishing experience.

2 to 4 pound perch I have never seen. Cold water must make them grow!

 

[mtmiller]

2 to 4 pounds?

 

[Big Sky]

I never made that claim. The fish in my photo are a little over half a pound to a little over a pound. Maybe a couple would go a 1.5 pounds, but definitely not at the 2 lbs mark.