Small Perch In Lake Washington

Warmwater fishing fans
Forum rules
Forum Post Guidelines: This Forum is rated “Family Friendly”. Civil discussions are encouraged and welcomed. Name calling, negative, harassing, or threatening comments will be removed and may result in suspension or IP Ban without notice. Please refer to the Terms of Service and Forum Guidelines post for more information. Thank you
Post Reply
User avatar
FishingFool
Commodore
Posts: 903
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:17 pm
Location: Kent

Small Perch In Lake Washington

Post by FishingFool » Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:32 am

I went to one of my childhood docks today on Lake Washington. I caught about 15-20 perch, but they were all small. Size ranging from 4-7" with the majority of them on the smaller end of the scale.

What's the deal? I remember we use to be able to catch 10"+ perch there all the time. I C&R all the perch except for 2 when a couple guys asked for them. I looked in their bucket and they had nothing bigger than 5" in there. A few in the 3" range.


Image

Ghost tail 8-[
Image

Surprised I only caught 1 sculpin.[blink]
Image
Last edited by FishingFool on Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
G-Man
Admiral
Posts: 2685
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:01 am
Location: Bellevue, WA

RE:Small Perch In Lake Washington

Post by G-Man » Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:26 pm

[quote="FishingFool"]I C&R all the perch except for 2 when a couple guys asked for them. quote]


There in lies part of the problem. C&R is great, but when you have too many fish and not enough food to go around, you end up with a bunch of small fish. I keep them all and use the smaller fish for crab bait/chum. Also, the lake is way behind in terms of its annual cycle so you'll probably need to try other locations and depths to find the big guys.

User avatar
coretron22
Warrant Officer
Posts: 191
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2010 3:29 pm
Location: Seattle

RE:Small Perch In Lake Washington

Post by coretron22 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:32 pm

What G said...the lake is way behind schedule. Let's hope for a summer extension!

User avatar
Anglinarcher
Admiral
Posts: 1831
Joined: Thu May 03, 2007 1:28 pm
Location: Eastern Washington

RE:Small Perch In Lake Washington

Post by Anglinarcher » Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:02 pm

The total ability of a body to carry fish is called it's biomass. In fish terms, it means you can have a few really big fish, a lot of really small fish, or a mix of the two. You can't have a lot of really big fish, at least not for long.

C&R is great for trout, bass, even walleye, but it is counterproductive for perch, bluegill, sunfish in general. In the south, even crappie benefit from selective harvest.

Still, all of our bodies of water are a month behind, as is my garden.
Too much water, so many fish, too little time.

User avatar
racfish
Rear Admiral Two Stars
Posts: 4716
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:11 pm
Location: Seward Park area

RE:Small Perch In Lake Washington

Post by racfish » Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:02 pm

Over the years of fishing Lk Wa Ive noticed that the Perch and trout (other then Cutthroat) have been getting smaller. Im in close to Andrews Bay. Seldom do I catch perch over the 6" size. Now when I fish the North side of the lake and going into Lk Union the perch get considerbly bigger. I have certain spots I get perch in the 8" to 10" size.These are caught north of the 520 bridge in deeper water and from shore.Why its so different from one part of the lake to the other Im not sure. In Lk union down by the olds Naval Reserve and Lk union Air the perch are quite large. The problem with fish out of Lk Union is the water quality.
When youre up to your rear end in alligators,its hard to remember that the initial plan was to drain the swamp.

User avatar
kzoo
Commodore
Posts: 1319
Joined: Thu May 31, 2007 7:01 am
Location: Bellevue

RE:Small Perch In Lake Washington

Post by kzoo » Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:37 pm

racfish wrote:Over the years of fishing Lk Wa Ive noticed that the Perch and trout (other then Cutthroat) have been getting smaller. Im in close to Andrews Bay. Seldom do I catch perch over the 6" size. Now when I fish the North side of the lake and going into Lk Union the perch get considerbly bigger. I have certain spots I get perch in the 8" to 10" size.These are caught north of the 520 bridge in deeper water and from shore.Why its so different from one part of the lake to the other Im not sure. In Lk union down by the olds Naval Reserve and Lk union Air the perch are quite large. The problem with fish out of Lk Union is the water quality.
I've got a couple spots south of 90 bridge and they're still producing. I do notice bass fishing there's less larger ones. Sammamish has the bigger perch lately.

Post Reply