a couple weekends ago my sister, her boyfriend and i fished a local ice derby here in ma. it was open to any public water in all of the central mass watershed, so we decided rather than target bass or pickerel like most people would be doing, we'd go to a pond where we knew there were some good size perch.

from 7am-3pm i'd say we caught over 50 perch, 1 pickerel and 1 pout. we kept the 2 biggest perch, and the bigger one (caught by my sister) ended up placing 6th on the board. she weighed in at 5th but got bumped down a spot in the last few minutes of weigh-ins. the other one we kept was a few ounces smaller than my sister's and it didn't even make the board. she ended up getting $25 for 6th, but 5th would have been $50.

winnings aside it was an awesome day out on the ice. here's some pics.

my sister with her big winner...

didn't measure the girth but it nosed out at 13.5" and weighed 1lb 4 oz.

my sister's is the top one, her boyfriends is the bottom one

those are some good looking fish...looks like fun to me

Very cool! I'd love to see more ice fishing posts here.

nice perch! 8-)

Nice looking fish!

great fish.  

d**n I hate winter....  

Beautiful perch, congrats!

i wish i had gotten a picture of the first place perch. it probably wasn't much longer than my sister's, but it looked like it had swallowed a baseball whole. it's belly was the size of my fist.

there were some nice bass, too. first place was close to 7lbs down to 10th which was about 5.5lbs, and first place pike was over 18lbs.

WOW!

That's pretty cool. We don't have that species of perch down here...well, we don't have ice either.

8-)

Great perch!

RW,

Their colors are really beautiful in person. They are good eats too. They come from the same family as walleye/sauger.

nice perch I have caught many and none have been even close to that

Great perch!

RW,

Their colors are really beautiful in person. They are good eats too. They come from the same family as walleye/sauger.

Yeah, I have seen them at Lake Michigan and eaten 'em, too! I consider the perch among the best there is, certainly right up there with walley and crappie. However, I have never fished for that perch species.

8-)

looks like bass in perch clothing

thanks for the comments guys. i'll never live down that my sister "outfished" me that day. it was nice to see the smile she had when she landed that one though, so i'll take the ribbin from my dad and fishing buddies for now.

You should fish with your sister more often...

Nice perch. Those are some big ones.

You should fish with your sister more often...

why, so i can post more pics of her, or because she catches all the fish? haha.

You should fish with your sister more often...

why, so i can post more pics of her, or because she catches all the fish? haha.

No comment.  

You should fish with your sister more often...

why, so i can post more pics of her, or because she catches all the fish? haha.

Speaking on Burley's behalf, so you can post more pictures of her!  A girl that likes to fish is one thing, a girl that likes to ice fish...hold on for dear life.

Well, not knowing MHM, I don't want to paint myself as an ODB... :-/

Well, not knowing MHM, I don't want to paint myself as an ODB... :-/

little late for that, don't ya think?  ;D

we actually fish together a lot. her boyfriend and i go out in his canoe a lot during the summer and most of the time she'll tag along, usually catching more and bigger fish than i do.

Well, I try not to make it TOO obvious that I'm a dirty old man.  

coming from a dirty young man, you've got nothing to worry about, haha.  ;D

Other than a few perch that T-rig has posted on here, those are probably the most brightly colored perch I have ever seen.  Those things are beautiful!!