If You Catch a Perch, It Could Be a Record

There’s a world-record fish at Crowley Lake begging to be caught. It’s not a trout but a Sacramento perch, and Scott Slamal of Mammoth Lakes might have caught it. And thrown it back.

“Like an idiot,” he said this week.

Perch are a favorite of Eastern Sierra residents, who catch them by the bucketful. But they are virtually unknown to visitors, who come for the trout. They are so prolific there is no limit, and operators of the Crowley Lake Fish Camp have run a perch derby the last couple of years to capitalize on the phenomenon.

Oddly, the world record listed by the International Game Fish Assn. is 2 pounds 12 ounces, by Arnold Darrell in Sonoma County in 1991, but the state record recognized by the Department of Fish and Game is 3 pounds 10 ounces, caught by Jack Johnson of Crowley Lake in 1979. Apparently, Johnson didn’t submit his catch for world-record recognition.

But the betting is that the record will come from Crowley, perhaps soon.

“The Sacramento perch have moved into the shallows to spawn and are taking anything thrown their way,” said Fred Rowe, an Eastern Sierra fly-fishing guide.

Don McPherson at the lake’s tackle store said: “I’ve been out fishing for trout and I can’t get past the perch.”

Slamal wasn’t fishing for perch, either. He was in a float tube around the Green Banks area near the mouth of the Owens River, throwing Hornberg streamers for trout when the perch bit.

“The thing didn’t fight too well,” Slamal said. “I thought it was a snag.”

But after he dragged it in, the fish measured 18 inches by the scale on his tube.

“It had a mouth like a bass,” Slamal said. “It looked like a bass.”

He didn’t weigh it or photograph it, but Rowe said, “(At 18 inches), I’d say it had to go at least four pounds.”

Nobody else was around, and Slamal let it go. Later, a friend, Mike Erickson, stopped by to see how he was doing, and Slamal said he’d caught an 18-inch perch.

Erickson got excited--until Slamal told him he’d released it.

“What?” Erickson said. “That might have been a world record.”

Rowe thinks many Sacramento perch world records have been thrown back--or eaten--at Crowley, simply out of ignorance.

“Nobody seems to be aware that the (California) record is only 3-10,” Rowe said. “There are probably three or four records caught (at Crowley) every year. If somebody is interested in (claiming) a state-record fish, now would be the time to do it.”

*

Persistence and a hunch paid off with the first big yellowtail strike of the year within one-day range of local boats.

Steve Tanaka’s Fortune out of Skipper’s 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro was the only boat around when its 17 anglers took 93 yellowtail near San Clemente Island last Sunday, a day after getting skunked there.

“Saturday, we didn’t have the conditions . . . didn’t have good current, but it looked fishy,” Tanaka said. “It was just a hunch.”

He collected squid on the backside of Santa Catalina both days before continuing the long trip. The yellowtail ranged from 8 to 19 pounds, averaging about 15.

Briefly

MEXICAN FISHING--CABO SAN LUCAS: Angler loads are light, but after a slow month, striped marlin 110 to 150 pounds made a comeback as close as a mile from the harbor. Gaviota fleet reported 46 catches (34 released) and Pisces fleet claimed 17 (13 released). Limits of yellowfin tuna have been common. Most 10-15 pounds, some up to 65. EAST CAPE: The Let’s Talk Hook Up group at Palmas de Cortez took six striped marlin in four days, topped by 145-pound catch by Dave Auger, Van Nuys, and 140-pounder by pro bass fisherman John Ed Wilder. LORETO: Yellowtail have been erratic, cabrilla excellent. MAZATLAN: Sailfish action has been excellent, running 88-118 pounds.

FISHING, ETC.--Volunteers are needed for the 13th annual Junior Disabled Learn-to-Fish program at the Santa Ana River Lakes in Anaheim on Friday. The Lakes will host about 450 children from Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Berkley, Daiwa, and Grieder and Sons will provide tackle and bait. Volunteers must be available from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Details: (714) 632-7851 or (714) 635-2047. . . . Saltwater fly guide James Wood of Newport Beach will speak at the monthly meeting of the Fly Fishers Club of Orange County on May 26 at 6:30 p.m., at the Revere House in Tustin. Cost: $15. . . . Trout Unlimited’s South Coast and Los Angeles chapters will have a fund-raising barbecue on June 11 at 5:30 p.m. at the Oasis Center in Corona Del Mar. Tickets: $15; reservations: (714) 497-2495.

HUNTING--Quail Unlimited’s sixth annual Celebrity Fun Shoot fund-raiser is June 11 at Raahauge’s Shooting Sports Center in Norco. Entry fee: $100 ($75 for spouse); details: (909) 597-0423 or (818) 351-0381.