Yellow Perch Questions

[azmdted]

Hi,
In October I caught a few yellow perch in a creek feeding the Severn. I fished there all summer without catching any so I started researching them. I heard that they are known as one of the first fish sought in the new year because they are a winter fish. For those with more familiarity of these beautiful fish, are they here year round but only start feeding on lures late in the year? Can you catch them all winter in the streams or is there a certain time when they come into the bay and rivers?

I'm preparing for my post stripper season

Thanks,

Ted

[sparky1423]

Around this time of year they should start schooling up in deeper waters, mainly the smaller males....the females will join the party in early January to mid February when they start to spawn. In the summer they are found in the shallows of many tidal tributaries but not in great numbers, especially around the Severn. I am mostly familiar with the YP in the Susquehanna and North East River here in Harford County.

Last year I was catching them in mid December, but nothing substantial in size. The first week in January is when I start bringing the stringer. For the most part they are found in 25-45 FOW and are catching them with double mini dropshot rigs with 2" curly grubs just dead sticking. Mid February we usually hold a Meet and Greet on the Susky specifically for the Yellow Perch, it's cold but everyone catches. Then I usually move to the Northeast River in a tributary where they begin to spawn for a few weeks. You can catch them much shallower...usually in 10 FOW. Seems like the Upper Bay yields good numbers of yellow perch. Hope this helps.

This link should help:http://www.snaggedline.com/showthrea...rch+meet+greet

[azmdted]

Thanks Sparky, that helps. Thanks for the link on info on the M&G. Hopefully we'll do that this year and if so I'll be there. I appreciate the information.

[Shady]

What sparky said...but I prefer to use minnows. A friend of mine had a good catch of them yesterday but not sure where.

BTW, I didn't know stripper season closed?

[Fishinfool]

I guess I am a reluctant old timer. I grew up in the sixties on the Severn on the northern end of Round Bay and yellow perch were pretty much the most plentiful fish back then, comparable to white perch now. Fifty years of fairly rapid development with little regard for storm water management and public sewage treatment plant construction has decimated the once healthy yellow perch fishery.

I recall going to the Severn Run and observing the spawn in early March usually. The stream was black with perch! Not so now. The run-off at the headwaters has pretty much clogged up the entrance to the Severn Run, and all but killed the ability of the fish to reproduce.

Back in the day I would get up before school started and fish for about an hour off a neighbor's pier mostly with live minnows from a minnow trap under a bobber, or on a Mepps spinner.

Here's an article in Bay Journal on the Y perch in the Severn. The article points out that any y perch caught in the Severn did not spawn in the Severn Run, but are there because they wandered in from other rivers.

http://www.bayjournal.com/article/de...f_fish_habitat

[ComeOnFish]

azmdted,
Here is my fishing log years back. This video log will give you some idea regarding YP fish in Susky River. I fished for YP only once in MD. I fished for YP in VA few times.

I recommend you wear Glacier Glove Ice Bay ($24.99). So far Ice Bay is the best one for me fishing in winter. You may launch kayak from Owens Marina but I don't know the details.

At 3:31 on the video, you will see a baitfish inside of the mouth. I think my lures wasn't too big comparing with the baitfish.
You may bring multiple small soft lures, different colors/sizes. I am not a YP fisherman. Someone will help for lure selection. I used 1 OZ sinker, but you may use 1-2 OZ depending on your line thickness. I used an island for Pit Stop on the video. The water is deep, and the current is not strong at all there. I think I used 15# test braided.

I tether my self to the kayak in many occasions (strong wind and ice). When you see ice (thicker than 1/8 inch) and /or if the air temp is expected to drop after you launch, tether your self to the kayak. I attach the weed whacker cord to the seat. I have seen people died under the thin ice. I am dead serious.

[IMG][/IMG]
Good Luck!
Joe

[Mark]

Fishinfool,

That was an interesting article. Thank you for posting.

It's easy to discount the adverse effects of development because there are many shorelines in the Severn watershed that remain pristine in appearance -- like some of the places we toss our lines for pickerel. But it's hard to see the development behind those wooded shorelines and the runoff from those areas must be substantial.

For what it's worth I have never caught a yellow perch in the Severn despite many hours of fishing there during the past two years.

[Fishinfool]

Thanks Mark, glad you found the Bay Journal piece of some benefit. You can go on-line and have them mail you each monthly issue free if you like. Some of the articles are long and a bit technical, but water quality is a science after all.

It breaks my heart to see the y perch nearly extinct in the Severn, especially considering basic safeguards such as mandating public sewer in the critical area (within a thousand feet of any Md tidal water), enforcing existing stormwater management regs around new development, and ensuring the proper functioning of existing public sewage treatment plants has not been managed well at all since the sixties.

There are stormwater projects that can be followed on AA cos Water Quality FB page, but that was mandated by the 2010 agreement between the EPA , the state, along with the nine state Bay watershed reducing nitrogen flows from run-off. For the y perch, it was too little too late.

If the Severn had to be managed by AA Co alone, the River would be unfishable, and unswimmable. AA Co was content for decades to do virtually nothing in order to placate an entrenched constituency that simply had to have their property taxes kept low regardless of the irreversible environmental cost those policies have wrought.

I know this site discourages posts that are political in nature, so I will stop now.

[Skidsteer]

To my surprise, I caught one YP this fall near Mill Creek.

Also heard a report of someone netting them last spring in the same general area.

I'm hoping they come back! (the fish - not the netters)

[azmdted]

Thanks all good info and discussion.

Great info Joe, thanks. I think I will skip the ice times though, we'll see. Today was chilly enough for me out there

Ryan, I don't do catch and release so the season does end for me.

Ted