We had a great trip out to the Watertown area of South Dakota last week. The guides, Isaac and Jacob, worked hard and gave us a great trip. We stayed at Pepper Slough Lodge in Henry, SD. I’d recommend both the guides and the lodge.
South Dakota’s Elite Guide ServicePepper Slough Lodge
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Wow, nice load of perch. What was the average length?
Wow thats a haul right there. Some of the best eating you can get.
Nice mess of perch.
Nice fish. Great average. What is the longest. 4 fishermen??? We are heading to ID and have done as well but Watertown is closer to us in western CO and haven’t fished up there. I am going to give guides a call thanks for the post. Are there eyes in the back??
That’s one day for 5 guys. 53 perch, 8 walleyes. The first day was much slower. They were all jumbo perch. Most were probably 12-13″ The largest was 14.25″, 10″ girth. I believe it was 1 lb 10 oz. Obviously it wasn’t mine or I’d remember exactly. Oops the photo file is too large so the nose and tail don’t show, but the largest is the perch on the front left. And now I have two photos. I give up. I guess it shows the whole picture if you click on it.
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I see all of the photo. Dang! Nice!
Were you guys fishing on one of the big lakes (Bitter, Waubay, Poinsett etc etc) or did they have you on some smaller bodies of water??
Were you guys fishing on one of the big lakes (Bitter, Waubay, Poinsett etc etc) or did they have you on some smaller bodies of water??
Knowing the Geigers I highly doubt it. Send every out of stater to these big bodies of water chasing old reports. I will stick to the small name lakes and sloughs every one of them drives past
Knowing the Geigers I highly doubt it. Send every out of stater to these big bodies of water chasing old reports. I will stick to the small name lakes and sloughs every one of them drives past
It’s amazing anybody can even keep their slough bites a secret for more than 3-4 days before the facebook fishing pages blast the info out there of a “hot” bite and the herd comes a thunderin…
Were you guys fishing on one of the big lakes (Bitter, Waubay, Poinsett etc etc) or did they have you on some smaller bodies of water??
The first day we were on two spots, but I don’t know the names, other than they weren’t big name lakes. The first one was not exactly a secret, because there were quite a few trucks and houses on it when we got there. The guides were not happy about that and we went as far away from everyone as possible. They’d had a good day there on the day before and apparently the word got out in a hurry. The second spot was a smaller slough, but even there we went past everyone else and hid in a back bay. The second day was a slough out in the middle of nowhere. They told us not to tell anyone where it was, which is easy for me because I have no idea where we were.
The Geigers worked hard to put us on fish.
Man I would of been marking those spots on my Navionics App for sure.
If I were those guys I would make the clients agree not to return or tell as a condition to taking them when it comes to their new hot spots. Honorable men could be trusted. A handful would violate the trust.
When you paying $250 a man/per day or whatever they charge those spots are free game in my humble opinion.
Nice catch guys. Wonderful eating right there. 
If I were those guys I would make the clients agree not to return or tell as a condition to taking them when it comes to their new hot spots. Honorable men could be trusted. A handful would violate the trust.
A friend of mine showed me a great fall smallmouth spot in Green Bay. 3 guys probably 100 fish day with several 4.5 to 5 pounds.
I take no one there or show any fisherman where it is on a map.
I can remember when perch had a daily bag limit of 100 and were generally considered junk fish. Then the bag limit went to 50, then 25, then 20, etc. Now a few jumbos are like liquid gold in the fry pan and catching them is like trying to find big foot.
The baby boomer generation tells stories of going out and filling buckets with perch, then going back to the cabin and cleaning them and putting them in the freezer then going back out and filling more buckets later that day. I have heard the same stories from numerous people in that area. Now you can’t find a perch if you try some days and if you do, don’t dare tell anyone because you will be trampled by the herd of ‘keep em all’ fishermen. The limit needs to be 5 or so and there needs to be a max length of 12” to protect these fisheries from the thundering herds.
Absolutely, no one needs more than 10 of any species in a bag limit. Unfortunately, the Fish and Game agencies approach issues reactively rather than proactively. Fishermen need to take it upon themselves to practice restraint, which as Dash proved, is easier said than done.
I think the limit should very much depend on where your talking.
In SD where I’m from Perch Grow Fast and Die young. Perch generally live 3-5 years max. A 12 inch Perch is likely 4 years old and there is 0 point in throwing it back. That fish will be dead within a year or probably less.
I wouldn’t be opposed to 10 perch per day instead of 15. Especially since they got ride of the possession limit.
I don’t believe I have ever seen a raft of adult perch washing up on shore after their fifth birthday. A whole lot more of them die in the bucket than if they were left in the lake. People will still disobey the rules if you restrict the limit. It doesn’t help when people blast these reports out on public sites. I wonder why people feel the need to do that.
The baby boomer generation tells stories of going out and filling buckets with perch, then going back to the cabin and cleaning them and putting them in the freezer then going back out and filling more buckets later that day.
Haha. I’ve heard these stories from more than one person too.
Not that many years ago, people used to annually perch fish on Mille Lacs in the fall. Usually in Isle, Wahkon, or Cove bay. On a calm, sunny day in October there would be hundreds of boats sitting there targeting perch. I used to be one of them. I can remember early on there was a fair amount of jumbos. Then they became rarer and rarer and we’d have to cull through 20 dinks to get a keeper.
Nowadays people don’t even try to perch fish out there anymore. In a sense, I feel a little guilty keeping them for years on end. I definitely contributed to their demise in that lake.
Most of these hot bites are either fished to the point fish shut down, or the slough winterkills. It’s absolutely a cycle, but filling buckets is irresponsible. Back to OP, nice haul.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Adam Steffes wrote:</div>
The baby boomer generation tells stories of going out and filling buckets with perch, then going back to the cabin and cleaning them and putting them in the freezer then going back out and filling more buckets later that day.Haha. I’ve heard these stories from more than one person too.
Not that many years ago, people used to annually perch fish on Mille Lacs in the fall. Usually in Isle, Wahkon, or Cove bay. On a calm, sunny day in October there would be hundreds of boats sitting there targeting perch. I used to be one of them. I can remember early on there was a fair amount of jumbos. Then they became rarer and rarer and we’d have to cull through 20 dinks to get a keeper.
Nowadays people don’t even try to perch fish out there anymore. In a sense, I feel a little guilty keeping them for years on end. I definitely contributed to their demise in that lake.
I remember when you could go to Mille Lacs right after walleye closed and ice plenty of jumbos. We also used to fish Winnie every year for them and that faded too. Fishing pressure changes everything.
I remember when you could go to Mille Lacs right after walleye closed and ice plenty of jumbos.
Oh yes. Usually was in March. I bet its non-existent now.
A lot of comments on perch lifespan. I pulled the cuttle bone out of a 15-1/2” one we caught and showed it to a fish biologist friend in CO and he marked the years growth rings for this fish. Not sure about other fisheries. Pull a cuttle bone out of the fish in fishery.
Correction on bone name just called aqua bio buddy. “Otolith bone” for aging fish. Sorry for the wrong info at first.
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I remember when you could go to Mille Lacs right after walleye closed and ice plenty of jumbos.
After the walleye bite faded in late winter we used to move my fish house to a perch spot to finish out the season. We don’t bother anymore.
The thing I remember most about fishing perch in March was the facial sunburn you would get. 
Sun is getting strong and the reflection off the snow too.
A lot of comments on perch lifespan. I pulled the cuttle bone out of a 15-1/2” one we caught and showed it to a fish biologist friend in CO and he marked the years growth rings for this fish. Not sure about other fisheries. Pull a cuttle bone out of the fish in fishery. JME
What’s the cuttle bone?
Guess I could google it but…
Can you see the growth rings with your eye or do you have it over a light or something to read it?
Leech Lake was the same way. September/early October they hauled out big perch by the gazillions. That was prior to about 2004 or maybe even earlier.
I started there in the late 90’s and watched mostly non-residents haul out fish baskets of them. The resort cleaned them all. One trip in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. A limit was 100 if I recall, maybe 80. didn’t take long and their friends would show up and either take a load of fillets home or switch spots and the buddies would take their limit home only to show back up 2 days later and start all over again.
The wife and I had a couple decent years but never took home a limit. I liked the Eye fishing too. Got to scout a lot of areas since taking some fish home was fairly easy.
By 2005, between the rusty crawfish killing the weed beds and over fishing, it was all but done.
Sad.
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