Yellow perch

[EricM]

Any reports (or private messages) about the yellow perch spawn on the Chick or particularly Parksville? I'd love to catch a bucketful for a great fish fry. Any help will be appreciated!! Thanks.

 

[porthos33]

We always caught tons of them every year near the camp cherokee campground where the walkway leads out to the swimming area.(parksville)

 

[EricM]

Thanks!

 

[jaygivens70]

If "Cherokee Campground" is the one way up in Sylco inlet, It may not be open to the public and is also extremely hard to get to, by road. My plan for perch is to launch in the lake and use the depth finder to look for signals on the bottom. I wish I could be more specific. I believe that there are two ramps open, at King's Slough and on the north side of the main lake. The river above the lake might have perch - does anyone catch them up there, around the kayak take-out facility ?

 

[jimwarden]

On Parksville we caught some nice yellow perch in late January/early February up to 1.5lb on float n fly, but have pretty much been on Chickamauga since. I would suspect they are spawning at this time with the warming water.

 

[jaygivens70]

To Jimwarden - If you can find the perch, you can usually catch them. So, in what general area of Parksville do you fish for them, and in what depth of water ?

 

[Labman]

Hey Eric, we used to catch a lot up in Canada while fishing for walleyes. Usually just tossed them. Now they keep them. I think they eat jus as good as walleye. Call me if you need any help carrying the "bucket.

emoPoke Regards, Norman

 

[jimwarden]

To Labman: We catch them randomly all over the lake. The big perch seem always near the baitfish which is where the spots are also. We have also caught some nice crappie to two pounds this year following these bait schools. There is no specific location that I could point to to target the perch. They seem to stay out in deep weeds during and after the spawn. Their eggs attach to weeds so they seek out those locations.

 

[porthos33]

I was talking to my buddy yesterday that loves perch and he always went up to that lake above the ocoee number three and they always put in a little canoe. Man he would literally catch those things all day. He says it is the best place he has ever been to catch yellow perch.

 

[Blue76]

How do you get to that area? I like to fish from a kayak some. That sounds interesting.

 

[jaygivens70]

To Porthos - I have encountered the perch on Ocoee #3. Those perch need to be caught - there are too many of 'em ! And mostly small and stunted. Any recent reports on the road going back in there ? It was pretty bad 3 years ago, and I doubt that any improvements have been made on it, since then. The road does not have any steep inclines, but many big potholes, and washouts between the campground and lake. A vehicle with low ground clearance will scrape bottom - mine did.

 

[bullshot]

Blue76 - 2/25/2018 1:02 PM

How do you get to that area? I like to fish from a kayak some. That sounds interesting.

Tumbling Creek, road ends at "ramp"

 

[hookset]

A pretty long distance to back from the "wide spot" in the road to jackknife down the "ramp" in the lake. Last time I was there a fellow with a chainsaw was going to cut a stump close to the rock pile. Never very crowded at all. A really great lake to take some kids fishing.

 

[jaygivens70]

If nobody can give a report on the current condition of the road, I guess I'll have to go, myself, and check it out.

 

[porthos33]

Yeah man I have no idea! He hasn't been there in forever and I used to always see it when I would go mountain biking at brush creek. It looks awesome and definitely worth the drive to check out the road. I might go check it today and get the truck muddied up since I finally took a day off fishing.