Bringing Home the Bacon "Literally"

Fishing Time: 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Weather: High 20's, clear skies, slight breeze
Moon Phase: 27% moon
Location: Yuba Reservoir
Bait: Glow ice flies tipped with wax worms or perch eyes
Ice Conditions: 8" of cloudy but firm ice with 4" of snow on top
Who Went: Cody, Me
It's been almost exactly 1 year since I last went fishing for perch. I guess that makes it time for another round. One of the engineers at my office wanted to see what all the hoopla was about with these supposed monster perch being caught down at Yuba Reservoir. We decided to go check it out and see for ourselves what the fuss was all about! We arrived at the Painted Rocks side of the lake around 8:30 a.m. We walked out by the island and set up shop, that's when I realized I forgot my back pack with all my gear in it. I ran back to the truck and picked it up and by the time I made it back, Cody had already decided to move! We walked out across the lake to the opposite shoreline of the ramp. We were in 18 feet of water and this is where we stayed the rest of the day.
Cody turned out to be quite the perch slayer and caught the fattest perch I have ever seen.

He also caught a carp that he didn't really want to have his picture taken with, but I made him anyways!
I tried fishing for Northern Pike while we were there. I took my mack fishing pole and put a big gamagatzu hook on with a full anchovy, but no pike were biting today. The regulations at Yuba are a little strange, the perch limit for each fisherman is 10 and they have it set up so you have to keep the first 10 perch you catch. Once you catch your 10 perch you are done fishing. There is no catch and release. By noon we had 20 perch and one carp so we made the trip home so Cody could teach me how to fillet these pesky things.

I wish I could say that the filleting process was as successful as our fishing, but I had a hard time with it. Cody was decent and I was horrible. Between the two of us we made a very mediocre team. With all 20 perch we were able to get about enough fillets to feed Cari, myself, and her parents. Oh, and a couple small ones that Duke inhaled within seconds! I have never eaten perch so I have been wanting to try it. I hear it's one of the best eating fish we have in Utah. I will just have to let you all know on my next post.