Yellow Perch Out in the Deep Freeze

[Brandonkop]

The Alberta Yellow Perch has taken a major population hit in a lot of lakes across the province. Not only from the increased angling pressure with the decreased retention availability of other species, but also from increased predation from skyrocketing predatory Walleye numbers. A lot of lakes have complete reversal of the normal predatory pyramids we see in wild environments. Most fall walleye index netting shows that Walleye are now the most numberous fish in the lake while prey yellow perch have nearly vanished. It will not be long before this may cause a collapse of the predatory fish leading to a long road to recovery of any sort of fishery all together. While this is true there are still a few lakes where good cover exists and perch are able to escape predation and grow to large sizes. Most of these lakes hold some tight lipped customers in small pockets. Locating an area with fish is often the first part of the struggle. Once you have located them you have to somehow convice them that your lure is worth the risk.

While it was freezing cold out on the ice and fish were not moving much we did find a few. The ones we found did cooperate after a little convincing. The camera batteries don't last too long when it is this cold outside, so I hope you enjoy this short video out perch fishing with my Brother and Dad.


https://youtu.be/XsMFWKWVmMg