Jumbo Perch

[Selmer]

The first picture is the real thing. We have one on the wall from a lake in eastern SD, winter of 1996/97 - 15 1/2", 2 lb. 9 oz. It would have been the state record nine days earlier...

Selmer

[shnelson]

That perch looks oddly familiar =]

[bloc004]

sounds like a good story Selmer, what happened?

[jigging-matt]

nice fish, hope to catch something like that next week in SD.

[hawkeye43]

perchking,you know as well as I whats there. My son Matt got a 23# 43" northern and want to mount it and a big perch in front of its open mouth. We will be on a mission coming up soon.

[Flakeoutdoorsguy]

Its funny how the people who have caught jumbo(myself included) agree that it is real. The people who say its fake are just people who havent caught one before probably. type in state record perch in google images and theres fish that look very similar. But they must be fake too!

[andrew chadwick]

looks like the jumbos I have caught. their head changes shape when thy get big, just like bull gills

[dougger222]

I don't know according to a DNR netting of a South Metro Lake a few years a 16 inch perch was found in the net. Didn't mention the weight but thats gotta be close to state record size.

[dougger222]

My brother caught a 14.5 inch perch on Mille Lacs a few years ago and that was the biggest Perch I've seen in person, 2 lbs.

[Big Buck Buster]

I was fortunate enough to get some jumbo perch out of a small lake in Sibley County about 13 years ago. Of the largest that I caught: 15", 14-1/2", and 13-3/4", and they all looked like the one pictured above. Some of you might know the lake, and it also produced large northerns(12#,10#, and 9-1/2#)the three that I caught myself. Now there isn't much talk about the lake, but I do fish it once and a while to see if there are anymore being produced. So far no such luck.

[Chris Haley]

RONWBASSER

You're good!! Had I not seen the original photo I would have only questioned how that kid could hold that perch from the outside of the gill plate and have it stick straight out like that and the fact that the tail doesn't quite seem to match the size of the fish. Since I have seen the original I can see where you took out some of the tail to remove the original holders finger thus the vertical lines do not go all the way down anymore.

Now this is VERY impressive photoshop!!! Are you in the printing industry?

[7outof10]

wow .....

[MN Shutterbug]

Heck of a perch. You know, I've seen some people with heads that looked too large for the rest of their body. These are real people. I worked as a correctional officer at one time, and I remember strip searching one big dude that had body parts that definitely weren't proportionate to the rest of his body, if you get my drift.

C'mon guys, don't be so jealous.

[Selmer]

I'll get pics of the perch I mentioned next time I'm back home in SD. Dad caught it out of Lake Preston, west of Brookings, during the horrible winter of 1996/97. Preston was a very large, but very shallow lake. It bottomed out at about 8 feet, and you had to work to find that. Thousands of large perch were taken out of there, it was a one year wonder, because we got so much snow that winter that the oxygen levels depleted enough to kill the entire lake. To my knowledge, nothing but perch were taken from the lake that winter, no northerns - low predator:prey ratio. You basically sat and waited for the schools of perch to come through and hit your set lines with minnows. When the schools arrived, say you're fishing with 3 other guys - all 16 lines could go in less than two minutes. It was a totally different sort of perch fishing that I've never seen since. I also don't remember catching any perch under 1 lb. Lots were caught in the 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 lb. range. I almost cried when I went down after spring thaw. There were literally drifts of huge dead perch on the shores that spring. It has never recovered from that winter kill and is now a shallow slough because of the falling water levels the last 7 years. I wish I would have listened when dad said the perch fishing we had during my high school and college years was the best I'll ever see in my life, because I'm afraid he was right. But boy, did we catch perch!

Selmer

[Shack]

Good story Selmer!

I guess I have to look like Humpty Hump from Digital Under Ground to catch huge jumbo's. I am going to the store right now.

[Selmer]

shackbash,

Do you fish Mille Lacs much? I'm only in Minnesota until next August and I'd love trying to ice fish Mille Lacs. I see you're only 37 minutes from there. Any tips on how to go about it? I'm a couple hours south of there in Owatonna. [email protected]

[RylFlsh85]

Not everyone has a pro camera team to take a picture, i have seen fish pics taken on a cell phone that people say the same thing and i was the one that took the picture! That fish is as real as ever and is one heck of a fish!