Chicken Coop 1/2/11

[Jedi Lure Tricks]

Spent new year's at toledo with some mixed results. we took off from the camp at 7 on saturday mornin and rolled to where we have been catching and it just wasn't happening. after fishing all morning and with only 2 perch in the cooler, we decided to call it and go get warm at the camp and watch some football.
this morning we decided to run over to the texas side and try the chicken coop. we got there at 8 and fished until 11. we caught all our fish on shiners and a depth of 25'-28' seemed to be most productive for white perch. seemed like if we got deeper than 30', all we would catch was yellow and white bass and catfish. we ended up with 49 nice white perch, averaging about 13" and close to a pound. they're fat lil suckers with bulging bellies. we found several shad in the cooler that had been upchucked by the perch. wish i had the whole week off, cause it's on at the coop!
i'm attatching a pic of a little perch i caught that had some interesting markings, looked like someone took a sharpie to his head.. thought i'd share...

[Micah]

That's some weird markings, good catch man. Yall ought to be eating good for a while.

[Jedi Lure Tricks]

thanks man. yeah those markings are weird.. i'm not sure what causes that. i've caught 3 just like that in the past 2 trips. they have it on the underside too, from the bottom of the mouth down to the pectoral fins.

[cabwiz2]

Originally Posted by Jedi Lure Tricks

thanks man. yeah those markings are weird.. i'm not sure what causes that. i've caught 3 just like that in the past 2 trips. they have it on the underside too, from the bottom of the mouth down to the pectoral fins.

Those are my fish. I marked them last time I was there. Next time you catch one please let it go. lol That is what I was told by a guide that was fishihing by me one day.I catch them all the time there and always wondered about it. The guide couldn't tell me why they had them either.

[Jedi Lure Tricks]

Originally Posted by cabwiz2

Those are my fish. I marked them last time I was there. Next time you catch one please let it go. lol That is what I was told by a guide that was fishihing by me one day.I catch them all the time there and always wondered about it. The guide couldn't tell me why they had them either.

LOL! that's funny. i knew there had to be other people catchin them too.
i wonder if its a local strain of perch specific to a certain area of the lake. i think this may be the case because i've noticed this defference in african cichlids. i keep cynotilapia afras from the chimate north region of lake malawi. they look so similar to their cousins, sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. here's an example..
the first fish is a cynotilapia afra from the Jalo reef region of lake malawi. the second pic is also of a cynotilapia afra but from the Mara Point north region of lake malawi. the only difference is a thin, horizontal black strip on the dorsal fin. they live in the same lake, they're the same species, yet they are classified differently because of a small black stripe.

[Jordan]

nice job !!!! weird fish...

[longcast]

Nice job Ob. When we going.

[Montauk17]

Dats nice....I need to get over there soon,love me some sacalait. Shiners or jigs?

[Jedi Lure Tricks]

Originally Posted by Jordan

nice job !!!! weird fish...

thanks man! I know, right?!

Originally Posted by longcast

Nice job Ob. When we going.

thanks man. anytime buddy, but u know i aint leavin town for a while now, so its gonna hafta be big lake or sabine i'll call when we's fryin up some of them tasty fillets!

Originally Posted by Montauk17

Dats nice....I need to get over there soon,love me some sacalait. Shiners or jigs?

thanks bro and soon is right.. that bite will die soon.. it's usually over by the first week in feb.
they were all caught on shiners... i ain't tryin to trick 'em, i'm tryin to eat 'em!!

[jpeff31787]

Sounds like fun. I love when they have those cool markings like that. We used to catch them like that in henderson and big alabama alot. I wonder if that marking has any purpose

[Gottogo49]

Good job Jedi.
Maybe they are tilapia hybrids, Nah, I don't think so.
Looks like them cichlids in the aquarium got teeth.

[Jedi Lure Tricks]

Originally Posted by jpeff31787

Sounds like fun. I love when they have those cool markings like that. We used to catch them like that in henderson and big alabama alot. I wonder if that marking has any purpose

me too, it's interesting to me.. they mean something in the cichlid world, maybe it does here too?

Originally Posted by Gottogo49

Good job Jedi.
Maybe they are tilapia hybrids, Nah, I don't think so.
Looks like them cichlids in the aquarium got teeth.

thank you sir. nice observation, these extremely agressive cichlids do have sharp teeth. they are commonly referred to as the 'dogtooth cichlid'. they're a great fish to keep, as long as you don't put 2 males in one aquarium.. they'll fight to the death over breeding rights to the females.