The Perch Are Back

Many years ago an ice fisherman could go to the Mississippi river and if he was willing to take a long walk or a dangerous ride out across the ice he could come home with a pail of jumbo perch. There was a place about two miles out from Ferryville called Brown’s lake that produced huge perch in the 12 inch range. An enterprising fellow there in Ferryville took the doors off an old car and hauled fishermen out to Brown’s for a buck a piece. Those were the days before snowmobiles.

For many years perch could be caught at a place called Shady Maple near Stoddard with great regularity. That all came to a halt when we had a flood in the 80’s that filled the spot in with sand and mud.

Until this year perch have been pretty hard to come by but this year they have come back. Many people caught nice perch and lots of them below the dams at Lynxville and Genoa this spring. Now they are getting 12 inch perch at a new spot just above Stoddard that was built by the Corps of Engineers just for fishing. It is a series of rock dams that have been dumped into a big bay north of town and those rocks have drawn in lots of bluegills, crappies and big perch.

Anyone who has ever gotten into a school of perch knows how much fun it is to fish for them and then to eat them afterward. They are delicious and when you have fish 11 and 12 inches, they make some dandy fillets. Get some minnows or big flashy jigs and give them a try.

post by: Dan Bomkamp