Last Sunday, my neighbor borrowed my ice fishing gear to take four youngsters to Fish Lake. He sent me some photos during their day up there, and I could tell they were having fun. They filled a bag with enough perch to have a nice feed that evening. My brother in law Tom Verschuren had never been ice fishing, so I took him on Tuesday. Walking out on the lake was treacherous. It was very slippery, as the ice that had melted under the sun the day before had frozen. I found a likely spot and with my handy power drill ice auger had three holes through the ice in no time. The ice was at least eight inches thick. Fishing was very slow. Kenny Skammerhorn and his friend were fishing nearby and offered us some perch eyes to use for bait. Since they were leaving they suggested we take over their holes which had produced a nice mess of perch for them. We rebaited with the perch eyes, dropped our baits to the bottom and had immediate success. The fish we caught were mostly cookie cutter 9-inchers. Just right for the pan. I want to get back up there before the ice on the lake gets too thin.
Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee is producing catches of 9-inch perch for ice fishermen.