Jumbo Perch Through Ice Breaks ID State Record

A Wisconsin angler is the latest to reap the benefits of yellow perch restoration at Idaho's Lake Cascade.

Cascade, which was overhauled in the early 2000's to restore the population at the legendary perch lake, has produced three catch-and-release and two certified-weight state records since 2016. And all were between 15 and 17 inches long.

The most recent was the 3.22-pound yellow perch caught through the ice on March 9 by Adam Mann of Mosinee, Wis., breaking the previous record of 2.96 pounds.

• READ MORE: More stories about record fish

"It was incredible, I've never seen anything like that," Mann said of seeing the big-bellied fish come through the ice.

According to a report from Idaho Fish & Game, Mann and several friends travelled to Idaho for trip to find trophy perch. They succeed. Mann, an avid ice angler in his home state, caught the jumbo on a nightcrawler-tipped tungsten jig.

The run of jumbo-perch catches at Cascade is the result of Lake Cascade’s restoration. The yellow perch population had crashed in the 1990’s, so the state removed "literally tons" of predator fish and transplanted around 850,000 adult perch to rejuvenate the lake.

---