Jordan Report

The Cork Masters stepped outside of their comfort zone and pulled the little Ranger out of mothballs for some tight lining Monday. We started near the dam fishing structure in 20' and found that the perch were out in large numbers. We also boated what appeared to be a hybrid bass. After an hour of fighting the wind and not finding crappie we changed game plans. Fishing cuts and coves of the main channel we discovered the fish were on brush in 12 to 15 feet of water. The problem with that was we don't know where there is much brush in Jordan. Finally stumbled up on a cove that someone had put several piles at the right depth. We caught fish but the keepers were few and far between. Main baits for me were southern pros, sliders. If it had a little pink and you crammed it in the pile you would get bit. Made a short trip out of it. Just couldn't find any quality fish. Caught very few on just a plain minnow. Didn't mark very much bait in the creeks so we didn't try them. Got a feeling we just picked the wrong end of the lake.

i thought you sold that ranger?, and those perch are getting out of hand. what did your bird say the water temp was ?

Man I didn't pay any attention on the temp Captain K. Had the fisherman sold to a walleye guy 1000 miles away. The little oil tank on the optimax was a half inch low for the first 20 hours of operation and the previous owner thought the alarm was the all is well with the computer chime...go figure. Can't believe the dealer let it go like that. I brought it home and loosened the cap and bled the air off. Two minute fix but the alarm stays in the system. That scares folks that don't understand the system. Hear of anyone needing a good boat with motor warranty let me know. Will trade for the right smaller rig. Yep the perch are becoming a problem, but they are everywhere. Until they start bothering the largemouth crowd there will never be anything done.

I keep every single perch I can catch. After a few hours I usually come home with a couple dozen. Try to get a little nugget of meat off some and then fertilize the garden. They are multiplying like crazy and the crappie will pay for it. They are very aggressive which makes them fun to catch.

I hate to butt in on this, but I’m glad someone brought this up. I don’t know what type of perch you are specifically talking about, but I ran into a yellow perch last week.
I originally come from Minnesota, where the perch are insane, and sometimes really big (which is good when they are), but they really have become a nuisance up there. I remember days of catching 20+ yellow perch for every one or two walleye or crappie. I am glad to say that I had not even seen one since I moved here! That is until last week. I was down on Jordan, fishing towards one of the fish attractor areas, when my bobber started motoring around, then when under. I couldn’t believe they finally found me! After 5 years of fishing here, that was a first for me. Are they not common here? I did throw it back, but I doubt it faired very well, considering he mostly swallowed the jig head… :/ not my fault…

Look familiar? This was from Jordan this winter. I caught probably 2 dozen over the winter.
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Originally Posted by MNKK

I hate to butt in on this, but I’m glad someone brought this up. I don’t know what type of perch you are specifically talking about, but I ran into a yellow perch last week.
I originally come from Minnesota, where the perch are insane, and sometimes really big (which is good when they are), but they really have become a nuisance up there. I remember days of catching 20+ yellow perch for every one or two walleye or crappie. I am glad to say that I had not even seen one since I moved here! That is until last week. I was down on Jordan, fishing towards one of the fish attractor areas, when my bobber started motoring around, then when under. I couldn’t believe they finally found me! After 5 years of fishing here, that was a first for me. Are they not common here? I did throw it back, but I doubt it faired very well, considering he mostly swallowed the jig head… :/ not my fault…

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Wow, I am surprised you guys are bad mouthing the perch, they taste very good, very close to a Walleye...guess it is a Northern thing, although NMKK does not seem to care for them unless they are big. Me, I just like catching fish and don't care what species it is as long as it pulls the cork and bends the pole...it's all fun.

Catchin' perch is fun and they do taste good but they will decimate the crappie population if they are not controlled. Those little boogers multiply so fast and there's only so much food to go round.

Thanks for the report.

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Originally Posted by Luv2Fsh

Wow, I am surprised you guys are bad mouthing the perch, they taste very good, very close to a Walleye...guess it is a Northern thing, although NMKK does not seem to care for them unless they are big. Me, I just like catching fish and don't care what species it is as long as it pulls the cork and bends the pole...it's all fun.

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I did not say they don't taste good, I just got tired of having to pick the tiny ones off the line so many times, they became a nuisance.
As for it being a "Northern Thing"... I agree.

The coastal rivers especially the NE ones, grow some pretty fair ones. I caught several in Dec/Jan/Feb that were over 1.5lbs.

Huh? There are not enough Yellow Perch to be a problem here in these lakes. Its the white perch that are the problem.

Fished Norman for almost 50 years and yellow perch have never been a problem. Sure you'd catch one from time to time, but never remotely close to the white perch problem we have today. Also note that largemouth have just about disappeared with the introduction of spotted bass
TW

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Originally Posted by REDBOAT

Huh? There are not enough Yellow Perch to be a problem here in these lakes. Its the white perch that are the problem.

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Yeah, I'm reading this thread and thinking that the whole time. I think there was a mix up somewhere along the line. Everyone I know love the yellows, it's the white perch (Morone americana) that are so rampant.