Perch demise

Went with my buddy, Harry, to pester the perch at Murray today. We thought about going to Wateree after Remus said he put 140 in the boat last week, but the threat of high winds and rain made us decide to stay closer to home. Clouds Creek area is pretty sheltered from the wind, even though it can still blow there too.
We started marking fish time we launched so we dropped minnows and started catching fish right away. We steadily picked up 1 or 2 fish every few minutes until about 10 when it slacked off. Harry had marked a spot on this DF where he had caught some last week so he handed me the remote for the IPilot and said see if you can find it while I answer the phone. I slowly worked my way out into the middle of the cove and just as the GPS showed that I was on top of his mark I said "We are here" and 4 rods went down at once I had 2 on one rod and one on the other while Harry did the same up front. Before I could get the fish off, my 3rd rod went down with 2 fish on it. It was bedlam for about 5 minutes and then it quit just as suddenly as it started. We were anchored (with the IPilot) on the spot so I know we did not drift off the fish so where did they go?? I can only guess we intercepted a school that was headed elsewhere, but it was fun for a few minutes. I sent Harry home with around 40 nice size perch and we probably threw back about 15 or 20 (sorry Tim).
Here is a cooler shot which is all I had time to take. That is a 90 qt. cooler just for reference.

Attachment 178398

The water temp was steady at 62* so it has not cooled down enough to push the big schools in as yet.

Great catch and pic. but please keep all you catch, for these fish are what got rid of all our white bass and a lot of our bream.

Way to go SeaRay!! Glad y'all found them and had a good time. Did y'all get out there early and how late did y'all fish? I'm on vacation next week and plan on going a couple of times in between the deer hunting. I'm going to have to say deer hunting comes first though lol! Sorry but I got to go. SeaRay thanks for sharing and posting the pic.

Mark, we put in around 7:30 and quit at 11. Did you ever find the landing at Clouds Creek? By the way, I bought a 1/2 lb. of tuffies from Dooley's and we darn near went through all of them.

No sir my buddy couldn't go so I stayed home. I could have gone by myself but didn't want to go in the blind by myself. So Dooley's is still selling bait, good I'll get bait there next week. In 2 1/2 hours y'all went through a 1/2 lb!! My Gosh!! That's a lot of minnows! How much were they at Dooley's?

Sorry that was 3 1/2 hours my fault. lol!! Still a lot of minnows in that length of time. lol!!

Job well done Ray! That's putting the whoopin' on them. I plan to join in the perch hunt in December. Got a few crappie trips planned between now and then, but I've already started re-spooling the bumping spoon poles.

Enjoyed reading your report Ray, sounds like a good time pulling in the fish. What water depth were y'all looking for the perch to be in?

Ray sounds like you had a great time. Did you get any 3 pounders???

Thanks for the report Ray! Good to see yall got into them. My coworker Stanley is a perch jerker extraordinaire. Stanley and his brother will flat load the boat this time of year. Usually plenty to be had on Clarks Hill on the sides of the Savannah River between Hwy 378 bridge and say as far north as mouth of Fishing Creek. No real secret, the SC side usually better. Probably one of those trips it would be great to introduce a kid to fishing. Schools of small stripers come up with the perch too. The times I've gone with him he starts with minnows, catches a few, then cut strips of the white belly meat for bait. The belly meat matches the small bait the perch are spitting up to a Tee! Stays on very well, very tough. I think it fishes just as well as the minnows, but you don't have to rebait nearly as often. Small Berry spoons work good too if no minnows to just get started. Any one on Murray fish with the belly meat?

Mark, a 1/2 lb. of tuffies at Dooley's is $12, don't ask me how many minnows that is, but it is a bunch. When we got into the last batch of WP I dropped a Flexit spoon amongst them and caught 3 or 4 but they were all small. We were in 14 to 15 FOW the whole morning. I've never tried belly meat as bait, but I will put a live small one on a striper/catfish slip sinker rig in a minute. Caught a 28lb Blue Cat in this same area a couple of years ago doing that.

By the way the question about a 3# WP, no I did not, but that would be a state record if I did. There is a tie for the record since there was only a couple of ounces difference. Lake Murray in 1986 1lb13.5oz and Allison Creek on Wylie 1lb.15.2oz in 2007.
Now how many of you have eaten or thrown back a bigger one?

Sea Ray must be you let the Wylie state record go last time we were fishing together:Rofl

No, that big splash you heard was Uncle Remus when he self released into the lake.

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Originally Posted by fishfinder8

Sea Ray must be you let the Wylie state record go last time we were fishing together:Rofl

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he ycraig !! that second awe $#!== heck was that 3 lber he let get back in :Rofl:Rofl
good job down at Murray Ray

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Originally Posted by uncle remus

he ycraig !! that second awe $#!== heck was that 3 lber he let get back in :Rofl:Rofl
good job down at Murray Ray

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You know, I forgot about releasing that state record back into Wylie. I done released a record white perch and Mr. Cromer's favorite fishing rod. Darned if I don't need a bigger net or a scuba outfit.

Ray just borrow Remus' s phone. Hang on tight and hold your breath!

Now that just aint right.nonono Funny but not right. :Rofl Good One there.:fish

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Originally Posted by fishfinder8

Ray just borrow Remus' s phone. Hang on tight and hold your breath!

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Congrats on the perch Kill'n Ray, don't be apologetic for releasing a few, you can more than make up for it next trip. Thanks for the pics and post.

Great Report. Never throw perch back.

I know White Perch are invasive but I was raised to not waste anything and never kill anything I did not plan to eat. I find it difficult to throw a bunch of small fish of any kind on the bank to rot. I hate to pour my left over minnows on the ground, but that is what we are supposed to do under the new DNR regulations. If I see other fishermen I try to give the minnows to them rather than throwing them away.
My father grew up in the depression and he appreciated any thing he had, and instilled in us to never waste or throw things away that someone else could use. Just the way I was raised, I guess. I know some find that weird, but that is just me.

Sam and I put a whoopin of the Perch Saturday night. Sam wanted some for his Uncle to Cat Fish with so he said let's keep a few. Well by the time we left the bottom of my 40Gallon bait tank was black with Perch. I don't have a number but we should had fun .
They would swarm thru and clean your bait, we'd get a Crappie now and then, then a pile of Perch then a Crappie.
Luckily both Sam an I like to catch anything so we had a fun night.

ScooperDude did you have your bait in another tank or did you use it for both? I just didn't know if they would eat your bait if together.
Hey, Ray so we are not suppose to throw our leftover minnows in the Lake? If so my buddy was right, because i was going to do that yesterday. We were the last to leave so nobody to give to and I was going to throw in lake. He said you can't do that and I thought he was kidding. So I brought them home and just checked they are alive and well in the bait tank to fight another day. I do have a question. What can you put in the tank to keep them healthy? When I bought them the water was blue. I asked if i could get an extra bucket of water for bait tank and you thought I had asked for a million dollars. All I got was a half a bucket of water with minnows in minnow bucket. lol! So what do y'all guys do that have bait tanks, do y'all put water in the night or so before? New to the bigger bait tanks. Thanks

The purpose of the law was to prevent foreign species from being introduced into a lake. If you can prove the minnows came out of the lake you can put them back in.(Good luck with that) There were a couple of changes in the laws that would had bypassed me if we had not had a game warden come to our Wildlife Club and go over the changes at one of our meeting last year.
The other one that is different now is the summer striper regulations. You can keep any size but you have to keep the first 5 you catch. No catch and release hoping for a bigger one. The purpose is to reduce mortality when the fish are brought up from deep water in the summer heat and do not survive if released. So DNR said OK, keep the first 5 of any size and you are done. I've heard of some tickets being given by the game wardens using binoculars to watch folks violate the law. I'd have to think they were probably tipped off to some yahoo catching a boatload and throwing them back, only to leave a trail of floating dead fish.

Last night I had a tub for the bait with an aerator. I'll probably change the water in the tub in the morning. I too bought too much bait and carried about half what I got home.e morning. I too bought too much bait and carried about half what I got home. I'll probably change the water in the tub in the tub.
When I get shiners I put some of the additive in the water. Bass Pro has it, I'm sure most tackle places do. I also have shad keeper for when we have shad in the tank.
I can't use the bait tank for minnows, the swim right into the filter system and die.
I have put Stripers in the bait tank with bass minnow/shad and didn't notice them being eaten, tho I didn't do a before/after count. I think they are still in shock from being pulled out of the lake.
As for dumping bait ...I thought it was only illegal if it was out of State bait

As for dumping bait ...I thought it was only illegal if it was out of State bait

No it is any bait that did not come from that body of water. Probably went a bit to far with that law, but that is what it is. :dono

Thanks for the information Ray. Oh are you and your buddy perching tomorrow?

No, he is also my golf buddy and he called and talked me into going to Orangeburg Country Club to play golf tomorrow. Rest of week looking kind of chilly so trying to get a round in. We played today at our home course and the weather was absolutely perfect. Had a free (veterans) lunch at Fatz with my bride so all in all a good day.

Thank You for your service Ray.Y'all have fun hitting that little white ball. I think I'm going to try them(perch) tomorrow, hopefully I can get my buddy to call in sick tomorrow. lol!! His brother is the boss. lol!!