Small Perch In Lake Washington

[FishingFool]

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.




Ghost tail


Surprised I only caught 1 sculpin.

[G-Man]

[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.

[coretron22]

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

[Anglinarcher]

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.

[racfish]

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.

[kzoo]

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.