Perch Spawn

Saw some pretty cool stuff yesterday I wanted to share with the board. Results of some of the yellow perch spawning going on. Took these pictures at a big near by lake. Came across clusters of what I've since found are yellow perch eggs referred to as "ribbons" as I was fishing. Initially thought they were maybe frog eggs until I saw the massive amounts in the area I was fishing. Not only were there loads of eggs already released, look at the attached video of the number of perch in the area. Mostly males but also fair number of what appeared to be spawned out females or females in waiting. From what I've read, females will drop their eggs in the early morning hours so maybe they were waiting for this morning to drop theirs. The video is a little blurred but look at the amount of perch that came to my jig, a few hundred at minimum. The quality of the video unfortunately doesn't do justice showing the number of perch there but it was insane. Other than a few isolated cases, they didn't hit the jig but they came to it almost like they saw it as something trying to eat the eggs already dropped and were fending it off. I ended up taking the video off a small dock so as not to hurt the eggs laid or disrupt the spawning process, wasn't trying to catch the fish just wanted to attract them to show on the video. Hopefully you can make it out, nature is truly amazing. Once you click on the link, hit the play arrow in the upper right hand corner to initiate the video.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wUQ3BcCk8i1W3h1L7

Couple still pictures of the "ribbons" for you to see. They were all over the place. Crazy part is I was fishing maybe a football field away and catching non spawned out females and males which were probably still staging awaiting the call of nature to spawn. Those fish were hitting the bobber jig presentation, the fish in the video as mentioned around the ribbons were not. Natures way I'm guessing of guarding the eggs against predators.

Very cool to see, hope you enjoy and can view the video.

A few more pictures. You can see in some of the still shots if you enlarge them in the background perch that cruised over in a few feet of water when I was taking the pictures. Again assume it's to defend the eggs. Also excuse the last picture of handling the eggs. Posted it because I thought it was a great image. Again if you can enlarge the picture, you can actually see the embryos inside the outer egg sac. That was the first ribbon I came across and wasn't sure what it was, if I knew they were perch eggs would never have handled them. Was only out of the water for a few seconds so don't think there was any harm done, at least I hope there wasn't. Couldn't believe the amount of eggs and perch in this area, was a great sight to see of nature at work.

[Jigman13]

That's some cool shit right there. Nice post.

[IrishAngler]

That is awesome - great share!

[AndyS]

Cool, like being a scientist !!

Originally Posted by AndyS

Cool, like being a scientist !!

Haha! Think maybe you've been following another thread on the salt water forum. Pretty cool thing to witness though. Would love to have had an underwater camera to record what was going on. The actual spawn must be an incredible sight to see. Just seeing what I witnessed gives me a greater appreciation for nature and respect for fisheries.

[Hookmanski]

This is so cool! I once was fishing with my kayak at a reservoir and paddled to a shallow area only to find thousands of tiny perch schooling below. The bass were going crazy, gorging themselves on perch. They were so thick in some spots you couldn’t see bottom! Thanks for the awesome post!

[NJSquatch]

Good stuff Dakota! the hoards of males were outbound last evening

[jmurr711]

cranford caviar!

Originally Posted by NJSquatch

Good stuff Dakota! the hoards of males were outbound last evening

As I would expect. Bring on the herring spawn, nigh time walleyes and hybrids! With today and tomorrow's temps, the spawn is coming to and end. Could see earlier this week the females which haven't yet spawned were very swollen in the anal cavity which means they're close to dropping. Eggs hatch between 5-8 days from what I've read so with good weather and no water issues, all should go well. Since these eggs were in such shallow water, a severe change in temps or flooding I would think could effect survival rates but all looks good weather wise. Again very cool to see nature in action, pretty remarkable cycle seeing part of what fisheries go through for natural reproduction to occur.