Macman says perch are plentiful

If you weren’t able to get as many whitefish fillets in your freezer as you would like now you have an opportunity to finish the job with perch. I believe the perch fishery is at a tipping point where overpopulation is going to make them very susceptible to a disease. The last time this occurred it took nearly 10 years for their recovery.

Everywhere we go where there are weed beds in the lake we are finding an abundance of perch. Good perch management when these conditions exist is to eliminate as many as possible.

What you don’t keep because they are too small to fillet the seagulls will appreciate.

Perch are very cannibalistic, so their main food source is perch fry, which makes determining what to use for bait easy and inexpensive. The procedure I use is to slab my first small perch then cut it into fairly large pieces. I cut up the remains into fairly small pieces and chum with it, which seems to bring in the larger perch.

We’ve done well with a new wana-B setup, and casting with a two-hook bottom weight setup to help avoid the weeds. In most places 35 to 40 feet has been the magical depth, although we have reports of folks fishing for whitefish up in the river delta area at the north end of the lake, catching big perch on their whitefish setups in a 40-to-50-foot depth.

On Oct. 2, my friend Brad Vaughn and I caught 125 perch about 250 yards due east of the Big Arm boat launch – close enough for a float tube, kayak, canoe or row boat to easily reach. You’ll no doubt also pick up some fishable size pike minnows.

For more information, call 406-250-0241 or 406-675-0068.