I took my family to our cabin in Saskatchewan for some ice fishing between Christmas and New Years. We ended up fishing for 3 days and caught over 200 perch total, keeping 80 for the freezer. I got a 6 man Eskimo popup tent on Boxing Day, so we could all fish inside one tent with a heater. Kids had a great time. This picture is of one afternoon's "keepers".



Peace and quiet on a frozen lake with your family around you, catching fish, telling stories, and keeping warm. What more could a guy ask for?

SS

That is sweet!

One of the things I miss from when I lived in Manitoba was icefishing perch -- and eating them within an hour of catching them!

John

Great fishing! I like perch.

What was bait?

Nice haul. The pic should be titled "And the work begins"!

Bait was Northland Slug Bug and other micro jigs with glow heads tipped with a maggot.

SS

I do hope you are acquainted with an electric filet knife. . or teenagers! Awesome eats!

Lovely! I like the skin on so divide by 10 and that's what I usually keep. Hopefully next month when the eggs are best.

Very nice mess of perch. Nothing better for eating. If you ever run low on maggots or just want to try something different, try perch eyes on your hook. Sometimes they outfish maggots and they stay on your hook longer.

That looks and sounds like a great way to spend a few days having fun with family! A little work getting them ready for the fish fry, but I'm happy to do that kind of work. Enjoy!

Thanks all. All the cleaning and deboning was done by yours truly the good old manual way. Vacuum sealed and in the freezer!

SS

Get an electric filet knife and you'll never look back Sam.

I use a custom filleting knife that I inherited from my Grandfather, so it has become a source of pride to do it the manual way.

SS

I resisted until this year. perch have hard scales and rib bones, and quickly dull knives. I love sharp knives; I *HATE* sharpening them! I use the electtric - or however you spell it - to cut thru the rib bones, and then use a my favorite fillet knife to cut the rib bones out. Much faster, even when I shave meat off the removed rib bones. They make great fish chips!