North Kawartha Jumbos, unexpected bycatch

Got up to the cottage today with a friend, our primary target species being whitefish or walleye. Slush was bad and we were on foot which limited our movement. We tried between 30'-65', marking the most in the ~50' range.

First fish top side was a jumbo perch, caught suspended at 20' over 65'.



Couldn't shake them for the rest of the day and ended up going 7/12, most on bottom around 50'. No whitefish or walleye to show for today but was a nice surprise to discover a healthy population of jumbos on the lake!

Very nice. Wished there was a good population of jumbos around here...there are perch but I have no idea where to find them on "my" lake Maybe one day with enough time exploring i will also stumble across a decent population of panfish.

Up until today, the largest perch I had caught on the lake was about half the size of the first jumbo I caught (12”). Goes to show there’s always more to learn about a given body of water, no matter how many rod hours you’ve put in.

Completely agree. Wish I could tag along on some of the Ministries' netting surveys....that would be very cool to see what they catch and where. I use to know people but that was a long, long time ago.

I have heard people say there is no good size perch in the Kawarthas. LOL. They are there, but elusive like the monster crappie. You found some, problem solved.