Jumbo Perch

[gonecribbin]

How common is a 15-16" perch in Devils Lake? Just got home and brought home a 15.5 and a 16... Biggest perch I ever seen... Did I really luck out or is this common?

[dougger222]

They are in there but it takes a bit of luck to catch them.

Last Winter we couldn't catch a jumbo on Devils to save our life. It was perfect time end of March beginning of April too. 3.5ft of ice though.

We ended up at Irvin fishing in the same area two days as Zippy and the Perch Patrol. We ended up with a few perch in the 15 inch range. A ton of pike and eyes too.

[TylerS]

They used to be a lot more common to catch, but you hear about them less and less. I contribue it to two factors: More fishing and more water. Though I think the pressure has caused the number of big perch to drop, I also think that because of the growth of the lake, there is a lot more area for them to hide.

No matter how you slice it, those are some dandy perch. Congrats!

[riverview]

I remember in the late 70s early 80s seeing pails of them.

I have caught 1 13.5 in perch this winter. I agree that devils lake has alot of places for perch to hide. A very small percentage of devils lake gets fished in the winter.

I am hopeing that late feb and march the fish start biteing a little better

[gonecribbin]

We were fishing in West Bay just off a little island (I forget the name), we were just off the sunken road in a nice little hole (24 ft).. We managed some nice walleyes as well...

It was kinda eerie out there, we didnt see another fisherman for 6 days, alot different than the pressured lakes here in MN..

We had a blast, you guys have a great fishery!

[TylerS]

We were fishing in West Bay just off a little island (I forget the name), we were just off the sunken road in a nice little hole (24 ft).. We managed some nice walleyes as well...

It was kinda eerie out there, we didnt see another fisherman for 6 days, alot different than the pressured lakes here in MN..

We had a blast, you guys have a great fishery!

Sounds like Graham's Island and you were fishing the Golden Highway. That's a pretty popular summer spot, but not as many people travel there in the winter it seems like.

[deadstick]

I grew up near Devils Lake and have spent a ton of time ice fishing there. My largest is a 15.5" perch (6 years ago), since I cared about those things anyways. We likely had some more in that range when I was a little kid in the 80s and measured success in buckets, while fishing stick rods with my Dad

In summary, you did VERY well - those are once in a lifetime perch. As a guy that's fished that lake a lot, I regret not mounting that 15.5" perch (it was skinny, and only 1.75 pounds), as I don't know if I'll ever get another that size.

[riverview]

yes dureing the perch hay days i had 3/4 dowels with nails, some black dacron string and wine corks for bobbers.. and sucess was measured in buckets of fish. devils lake was much smaller and preditor fish must have been down. the ice nice houses were the 4x8 tarp syle. The last real good perch bite i remember was loretta 10 years ago