those are so small

Thanks for the report and excellent work out there. Thats a bummer to hear about the campground. I was going to use it a few times this year but looks like I'll have to do that another time.

Well Devin, I am glad you just joined to remind me of how small Perch are in Washington State. Believe me I know how small a 9-11" perch is compared to when I was young growing up on the Minnesota Ontario border lakes, we used to catch perch in the 5Lb range and we have plenty of family photographs to prove it. I do occasionally take Perch out of Lake Ozette that are in the 1.5# range, I assume your talking about how small the Perch are and not the Crappie, albeit it is most certainly a small Crappie compared to what I was used to catching back on Rainy Lake. In fact why don't you google up "Rainy Lake Crappie" and see what I am talking about. There are some Crappie in this lake that are 16" and that's about as big as they come in Washington State... Soooo, I really look forward to your big Perch and Crappie photos, oh and my stomach couldn't tell if it was a small fish, but my taste buds sure did. :) Welcome aboard, now get busy and catch some really big fish!

since the world record yellow perch is 4lb3oz i would like to see some of those big perch pict's. being from minnesota myself i'll agree that it's hard to find a quanity of big quality crappie/bluegill/perch in this state. the main reason would many be the type of food they are able to eat as there is a better minnow base for they to grow faster there than here.

I will get them out of our family album next time I am home, or I will see if my sister can scan and attach to email for me. It was not uncommon for us poor folk who filled our freezers with food to ignore any record fish, first of all we could not afford to mount any trophy and secondly the bigger the fish the faster the freezer was filled. These particular Perch actually came out of the Seine River in Southern Ontario which flows into Rainy Lake. That area even today is still remote and isolated, no roads, no electricity, saw my first, second and third timber wolf there, learned how to clean a snapping turtle out of the shell, cook beaver tail soup and well catch big fish. Since this area is boat in or fly in and is about 48 miles from the dock up the lake I bet it sees less than a couple handfulls of fisherman in any given season. Now I just told you about one of our families most treasured and guarded fishing places, so now google it up and you will see just how remote it is, if you ever get the chance to go there, mid June is prime time. Very big Muskie, Northern, and Walleye roam these waters as well as a bunch of prehistoric turtles. I know you think I am making that last comment up, but I am not, we have snagged into them too many times and they are so huge you can't hardly get one of their legs out of the water. We had a 19' Shitek wood cabin cruiser and the first one of these turtles we hooked onto was in a back eddie in front of a little creek, 4 lines from the front of the boat to the middle hooked into the arms and shell. Given my dad and my uncle two grown strong men could not but hardly lift a leg out at any time and the length of the shell was easily 6' it was not a snapping turtle, had much moss like growth on it's shell, unfortunately we did not have a camera on board but half my family was involved with this event and can tell the story to anyone interested. I will give my sis a call and see if she can't do this for me since I am in WA it might take me a while to get home again. It is my personal belief that a fair amount of world records have simply been eaten without so much as a thought about the significance of the accomplishment. Klahowya!

OK called my sister who is the mayor of Int'l Falls, MN and she is currently in WA DC schmoozing for $ for development of infrastructure. Talked to my brother in law and they will go through the family albums and scan the photos of perch catches for me. In the mean time I got to thinking about how the turtle story might make a great addition to the Monster Quest show, sooo I make contact with them and will see where that goes. Following is a copy of my email notification with them: From: [email protected]
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I have caught alot of big turtles (snappers) good eating. The biggest that I saw for a snapper was one where the shell was bigger than the big 3ft salmon net that i used to try to get it. caught alot of soft back turtles to but never bother'd to eat them as you did not see very many of them. i have an uncle who caught a crappie over 4lbs and lrgmth bass that was over 14lbs on the same day back in "58" in MN which they ate. a freind of mine caught a 31/2lb Rockbass ice fishing which would have been a MN state record which he ate. another freind caught a walleye that we estimated to be over 20lbs, (MN). which he ate. I provided our family with lots of fish which was about half of our food intake for years. and my mother had to catch fish from the millpond she lived on for beakfast, and left overs were for dinner. which after dinner they tried to catch more so they may not need to fish for breakfast. from MN also. so yea I'm sure alot of records were and still are been/being eat'n.