Friday, March 06, 2009
The search for perch
Late winter is the prime time to target this underappreciated freshwater panfish.
Tom Maynard of Giles County usually focuses his fishing on bass and walleyes, but he's more than happy to catch perch when the bite is on.
The reward for three hours of battling wind while fishing Lake Claytor in late February? A cooler full of fat yellow perch, a panfish prized for its quality on the table.
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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DRAPER -- It's a relatively warm day for February in Southwest Virginia, with temperatures creeping toward 50 degrees.
It's the kind of day that gets someone thinking about fishing. Except for one problem.
The wind is howling, and it's only going to get worse.
"You sure you're up for this?" I ask Tom Maynard, who is organizing gear in his 50-year-old -- yes, 50-year-old -- aluminum runabout.
"We came this far already," he says.
I'm OK with it. The surface of Claytor Lake is choppy, but there aren't any whitecaps yet. And, old as it may be, the boat and its deep V hull will be more than able to handle the slop.
We have three hours until the high wind warning issued by the National Weather Service goes into effect.
And there are yellow perch to be caught.
A few days earlier Maynard had been on the lake hunting for walleyes when he stumbled into a school of the colorful panfish.
Even using walleye-sized lures and baits, he and a buddy boated some nice perch, including a few that just missed meeting the qualification standards for Virginia's Angler Recognition program.
The opportunity to catch big, pre-spawn perch is fleeting.
Not only are the fish packed in schools and feeding actively in preparation for spawning in late February and March (when water temperatures are in the 45-50 degree range), but they're at their heaviest so it's a good time to notch a personal record.
Another reward for a good perch fishing trip comes at dinner time as they are considered among the tastiest freshwater fish.
Where to find them
Claytor Lake isn't known as a yellow perch hot spot, but that's probably more a factor of species such as bass, stripers, walleyes and catfish getting most of the fishing attention.
The lake typically produces about a dozen registered yellow perch per year that meet the state's citation minimums of 12 inches or 1 pound, 4 ounces.
At Claytor, and many other waters in Western Virginia, yellow perch tend to be incidental catches.
"A lot of people are surprised when they catch a yellow perch," said Bill Kittrell, a state fisheries biologist out of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' office in Marion.
But there are a few serious yellow perch aficionados out there, and sometimes they like to spread the love -- literally.
Take Gatewood Reservoir.
Sampling in 2002 turned up no yellow perch in the lake, a relatively small water supply reservoir outside Pulaski that has a reputation as a great fishery for bluegills and redear sunfish.
By 2005, the lake was full of yellow perch as a result of illegal stocking.
The past couple of years perch density has declined, which doesn't bother biologists who urge anglers to remove the fish to keep them from competing with sunfish.
Douthat Lake is another body of water where anglers have illegally introduced perch. The fish are a relatively recent addition and it remains to be seen how well they will do in Douthat, said fisheries biologist Paul Bugas.
It's probably not a stretch to assume that Douthat's seed perch originated not far away, at Lake Moomaw.
Cool and deep, Moomaw has become known as Virginia's best fishery for trophy yellow perch.
Each year, Moomaw produces the state's most citation-sized fish. It has also produced the two most recent state records, including the 2 pound, 7 ounce whopper that sets the current standard.
Bugas said Moomaw is a good perch lake because it's so fertile, with lots of forage fish on which mature perch can gorge.
The lake has lost a little of its trophy perch punch in recent years, however.
In 2008, Moomaw produced 44 citation perch. The total was 78 in 2007, 116 in 2006, and 172 in 2005.
Bugas said he's not sure what's accounting for the drop.
The perch population remains strong, and big fish are still available, he said. But it's possible that the fishery's popularity could be somewhat responsible.
"There is intensive effort on catching and keeping yellow perch," Bugas said.
It's also possible that some decline could be attributed to citation saturation, with some diehard perch anglers no longer feeling the need to apply for citations, the application for which carries a $4 fee.
Smith Mountain Lake has a good population of yellow perch, which are also found in Carvins Cove reservoir.
Tactics
Yellow perch are opportunistic feeders, so the most difficult part of catching them tends to be finding them.
On our recent Claytor Lake trip, we had the advantage of Maynard's recent success.
We were happy to find that the perch were still in the area, holding close to the bottom at depths ranging from 20 to 30 feet.
As water temperatures increase, schools of perch may move up to depths of 15 feet or so.
We targeted the fish by hopping feather jigs tipped with small minnows along the bottom, an offering we hoped might also appeal to a wandering walleye.
"Minnows are deadly," Bugas said of his favorite yellow perch bait.
And, while the perch action was hardly blistering, we scored about a dozen good-sized fish in two hours of fishing before the wind finally blew us off the water.
Other good perch baits include pieces of worms, small jigging spoons and spinners. Some die-hard perch nuts use small, pennant-shaped pieces of cut perch belly, while others swear by the tactic of tipping the hook of a jigging spoon with the eye of the day's first catch.
Whatever the tactics and techniques, once an angler finds the fish, his is well on his way to some fun action and good eating.
