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Perch comeback!

Mike Dumas

By Mike Dumas
in Mille Lacs Lake Fishing Reports

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Mike Dumas Experienced

Mike Dumas

Posted
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Just sharing what I saw this past weekend on mille lacs. Anyone else's findings would be nice to know too if its just in wahkon bay or the whole lake. I went out this past weekend at walleye Dundees and all day you could see hundreds of tiny (1-3") perch all over every time we dropped a hook. This seems to be some pretty good news since the major kill from the past few years. I'm not sure if its just the south end or if anyone else is experiencing the high small perch numbers. But if they are its great news for years from now for the status of the fishery!

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Mike Dumas Experienced

Mike Dumas

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Hey them are bigger then the biggest i saw down there! Heh that is the nice thing i LOVE about mille lacs is the water clarity, being able to pick off them SMALLer ones to get the biggest smaller ones -.- lol I guess its good news then! a good 3-4 years and the perch fishing will be back. Too bad the regs on eyes this year SUCK... 18-20 inches and one over 28 is all you can keep. 1-18 and 20-28.

Walleye: Release immediately all walleye less than 18" or greater than 20.0", except one over 28.0" may be harvested. Possession limit is 2, with only one over 28.0".

I guess its a good thing they are having hard regs this year for us.

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Stick in Mud Grand Master

Stick in Mud

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Yeah, it's nice to see some forage in the lake for a change. Hopefully the big 'eyes eat the perch and not the little 'eyes. And it's nice to see some walleyes on the Pond that have some real girth to them....Some of the fish I caught last fall were slobs.

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Mike Dumas Experienced

Mike Dumas

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I missed one mid-day walleye and that was all the whole weekend. But I was fishing in about 7-8 FOW in weeds and with this major cold snap im thinkin all the eyes were out deep. BUT from what I have heard from people that have caught them they are pretty fat and mostly 24-26 inchers. Not many slot fish smirk

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Sifty Mentor

Sifty

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Yeah, it's nice to see some forage in the lake for a change. Hopefully the big 'eyes eat the perch and not the little 'eyes. And it's nice to see some walleyes on the Pond that have some real girth to them....Some of the fish I caught last fall were slobs.

I was up a couple weeks back and saw a ton of them on the camera. It was good to see but each time we had a walleye come in you could tell about 30 seconds before hand as the perch would take off.

We caught a few walleyes 4 in the 11 inch range (which was also nice to see) and 1 26.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
monstermoose78 Grand Master

monstermoose78

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
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It is great to see some little fish in the lake. I miss catching lots of perch up there. I remember catching lots of perch with my grandpa, but last 6 years have been pretty slow for perch fishing. I would really like to figure out what size perch we need to toss back to keep the population up. I know it is one fish I tend to keep the bigger ones. I normally toss all perch under 9 inches and under back, but maybe those are the fish I need to keep.

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Gordie Grand Master

Gordie

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15-16 years ago I saw nothing but red on the vex and when we slid the camera down it was thousands of those tiny little perch. The walleye bite was really bad that year and the following year or two, and low and behold a few years after that the perch bite was really good along with the walleyes like 20-30 fish a day and not little spankies either.

I think I see a nature pattern here ,but you can't say cause most think its other things that decimate the lake wink

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willyfahey Enthusiast

willyfahey

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I remember seeing the same thing in Wahkon bay in 2008. The flasher was solid red in 17 fow. I thought my locator was broken. I got my face in the hole and it was solid baby perch as far as I could see all around. I thought it meant there would be good perch years to follow but it doesn't necessarily seem to work that way.

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gregg52 Veteran

gregg52

Posted
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I think I see a nature pattern here ,but you can't say cause most think its other things that decimate the lake wink

NATURE!!!!!

It would make sense that the bite is slow if the lake is loaded with small perch

but that doesn't stop the net bite in a couple of months that's the same bite every year

yet the hook and line guy is decimating the walleyes with all their modern equipment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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rough_rider Enthusiast

rough_rider

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In other words: going to be a slow year for walleye fishing then eh? With all those perch to pick from.

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ZachD Mentor

ZachD

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I missed one mid-day walleye and that was all the whole weekend. But I was fishing in about 7-8 FOW in weeds and with this major cold snap im thinkin all the eyes were out deep. BUT from what I have heard from people that have caught them they are pretty fat and mostly 24-26 inchers. Not many slot fish smirk
the past 3 years going there I have only caught one keeper other than that they have been all around 25 inches.. not that thats a bad thing but every once and awhile a guy would like to fry one up in the house
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TRZ II Experienced

TRZ II

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The bays always have insane amounts of perch, even last few years. Isle,Cove & Wahkon are always full of little perch. The main lake is the indicator of population. From the sounds of things the main lake is got alot too which is good. If they are not all eaten my the big eyes (like the last big hatch in 07' I think) we will have great perch fishing in 2016. The only silver lining in this whole mess is that if the walleyes really crash, the perch WILL fill the void.

FYI- that chart is for crappie.....

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