Have you seen this Perch? New Idaho record set by a Wisconsinite.

Holy egg sack! Why don’t we have those around here?

https://idfg.idaho.gov/press/lake-cascade-produces-another-state-record-perch#:~:text=After%20being%20weighed%20locally%20on,ice%20fishing%20on%20Tuesday%2C%20March.

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Looks like a Peacock Bass!!

Because they are all kept before they get that big.
Surprised that thing can swim.

How does it even swim?

I seen that yesterday. My goodness. 15s just shy as being round as it is long.

Every couple years that lake pumps out a new state record. Wonder why the perch get so big there? Cascade is the bucket trip for perch just like the Columbia river is for walleye

What is in the water there that makes them so big?

Rodwork wrote:

What is in the water there that makes them so big?

Apparently lots of food that is easy to catch!!!

That perch looks deformed!

eyeguy507 wrote:

Every couple years that lake pumps out a new state record. Wonder why the perch get so big there?

My understanding is that the perch in Cascade have had almost no competition from other warm water species and that is why they grow crazy big. Recently walleye were found there too, which may drastically change the fishery as their population increases.

Just like the Mille Lacs perch and Red Lake crappie boom. Take away the main predators and another takes its place.

munchy wrote:

Just like the Mille Lacs perch and Red Lake crappie boom. Take away the main predators and another takes its place.

I was just thinking the same thing! Let’s have the tribes net all the eyes out of ML and make it the Cascade of MN…..I’m in

eyeguy507 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>munchy wrote:</div>
Just like the Mille Lacs perch and Red Lake crappie boom. Take away the main predators and another takes its place.

I was just thinking the same thing! Let’s have the tribes net all the eyes out of ML and make it the Cascade of MN…..I’m in

Yes – I love this idea!

Give me a legitimate shot at a 2.5#+ perch over a 2.5# 21″ walleye any day of the week

Yes, Perch are in ways the top predator in the lake after the Pikeminnow were removed. They have lots of fertile deep water. They also get very fatty trout fry to feast on.

Funny thing is- there is nothing special about that lake- at least not if you take the whole of it’s history into account. When my kids were small, we went there and caught stunted perch on a bare hook- they were everywhere- most people have fished a lake like that. Then, early ’90’s population crashed- F&G had to re- stock the lake. They also removed some predators, but the lack of perch to feed those predators probably did more. The perch reintroduced had no competition, and more food than their population could eat. They grew fast, and by the early 2000’s we were getting some nice fish. I asked the biologist at the time what they did, and he said if there were a way to do it on purpose, he could get rich doing it everywhere. Those big perch became the dominant predator in the lake, and made it tough for small perch to make it through their first year. That lake is drawn down 14 feet 1n the late summer, so any weeds that grew in the shallow and sheltered the fingerlings are high and dry by fall and winter.
Since about 2015, catches of the big 13 inch+ fish have decreased, and the smaller age class fish are filling in. You now catch more fish under 10 inches than over, which was not the case. There are still giants swimming, and every March there is a chance someone will snag one of them. Over time we should expect the population and size to cycle about a reasonable average, like it did in the past, but until then, I feel lucky to have experienced an extraordinary fishery.