Fish-Hawk.Net

I decided today would be a nice day to go Perching, I had wanted to go for Crappie but I couldn't get a drive to the spot I was told about by the owner of Manotick Bait.

So I headed to a set of locks on the Rideau. The perch fishing was great, I caught 1 tiny fall fish too, but mostly nice eating sized perch and lots of tiny perch. The biggest one was impressive, the pictures don't express how big it was in real life. It was the biggest perch I've ever caught in my life and definitely the biggest Perch caught while I was there. There were about 5-6 other fisherman in total.

I must've caught at least 50 Perch in total. I have too many pictures! Also caught 1 Crappie when it was dark, it was approximately 3/4 of a lb. not very large but still a good fight!

Are Perch spawning right now? I noticed when I would take some fish off the hook they would leak fluid onto the dock. And we all know what that fluid is....I've never seen that that before in my life. Since I have never fished this early in the season. Are they spawning?

Nice Perch

Big one! Pics dont do it justice

My leg/knees are quite large, this fish reminded me of a smallmouth bass, it spanned all the way across my leg and was very hefty

Fallfish, small

Nice perch

More Perch


Nice one

Fat one

This other was chubby!

decent one

Fat

Lookin right at ya!

Beautiful evening


Thanks for reading/looking at my report!

Take it easy everyone!

=Tom=

Congrats, looks like you had a great day out fishing.

Thanks for the report and pics.

DropShot'r

Nice work Tom....Is that the fall fish in the 4th pic??? Looks weird from that angle.

Hey Thomas
Way to go on the perch!!
Glad you got broke the skunk - great report.

O4T

What were you catching those Perch on, Tom? I've never targeted Perch this early before...are they hanging around the bottom of those locks?

nice im still yet to catch a fish this season and iv been out every day i need to catch something anything to satisfy my needs
maby its because the ottawa river isnt a very good early season fishery all the shorelines are flooded so im out of luck
great perch some pretty impresive sized fish there

Way to go Tom - GR8 Perchin'!

Great report, those are some fat perch. The crappies were showing themselves in good numbers today , man I love spring!

To answer the question about spawning, the perch have been getting ready to spawn under the ice - larger fish taken near the end of the ice fishing season are invariably females full of roe - and they will spawn in early spring after ice out, but once the water warms up a bit.

Females ready to drop their eggs are really swollen and have a protruding vent. Not sure about the males, but I never saw one spray milt after it was caught - as I have observed in steelhead, for example.

Anyways, with the spring temperatures still just barely north of freezing, I am guessing all of your perch are pre-spawn, but getting ripe.

Doug

Thanks for all your comments!

And Doug, thanks for answering my question about spawning, I appreciate it!

MikeLennox, good to hear you caught some Crappies Nothing better than hooking into some fish after a long winter!

Thanks Scott it was Gr8 Perchin:P

Walleye man, I have gotten skunked alot lately, the only spot I've caught fish is at this spot in my report, the rest of spots i try on the River are not very active, at least hasn't been for me. Soon enough you'll catch some nice fish, keep trying my friend, you'll do well! Can't wait to see your reports!:)

New Kid, I was using a medium sized jighead, but small ones work fine too! And I was using little pieces of worm maybe 1/2 an inch long, if that. All you need is a tiny little piece, just enough to thread it on tightly so the perch can't nip it off easily. All you need is that tiny piece and I was dragging it on the bottom extremely slowly, Almost 1 turn on my reel ever 3-4 seconds, I could feel it bumping off of the bottom. and I had some great results. I've been told the fish are sluggish by someone on here, so I decided I should slow down my retrieve to give them a chance to go find and go after it. It worked well, I caught a perch every cast almost.

Also "Deadsticking" worked very well, just suspending the bait 3-5 inches off of the bottom and letting fish find it on their own was also a good technique.

Out4Trout, thanks I'm happy I broke the skunk too Tight Lines

Almonte Fisher, you're totally right, the 4th picture was the fallfish, and it does look weird from that angle, the darn thing was flopping around so much I couldnt take a picture, it's mouth was too slimy and small to lip too. Weird little fish!

Drop Shot'r I had a wicked day, thanks for the comment Tight Lines!

==Tom==

Was at Long Island today...caught alot of perch and sunfish.....and Yea i'm gonna say its semen squirting from the males...had a few do that to me today....and wow are the females ever plump....everyone I caught was just about to explode!!

Nice man, good to see you had a good time there.

You're right they were all ready to explode! You probably caught some fatties lol.

I didn't catch any Sunfish but I caught 1 small/medium Crappie when it was dark, but didn't get to take a photo.

Take Care,

==Tom==