Perch galore!

When I was growing up in the 1960s there were no yellow perch here in TN. Now most every TWRA lake has some, but they're mostly small, around 4" to 7". Guess the biggest I've caught here was right under a pound. Great eating and one of the easiest fishes to fillet, very little waste. One of my friend's late father came within 3 oz of catching the state record. It's difficult to get into more than one or two over 8" to 10" in a day's fishing and usually they're caught by accident crappie fishing, white bass fishing or bluegill fishing....But the small ones around 4" make fine bait for smallmouth, walleye, or about any larger gamefish.

wow nice treasure in that chest!most perch i catch around here aren't that big and average around 4"-7" or so.i did once catch one that had to be a pound when i was fishing for bass throwin a 3" tube bait LOL.was surprised to see a big ol perch when i brought it in :D in nj there isn't any size limit on perch.only once have i ate perch and it tasted better than bluegills we had caught!it was a small perch we happend to catch and we wanted to see how it tasted.wish there was some way to pinpoint the bigger perch..

Just got back from an outing on Big Muskego. We caught 40 perch between 4 guys smallest 8 inches and largest being 13 inches. most of em about 11 inches. Got to be at least 8in on this lake for keeping. Caught most of them on purple plastics in 3.4 ft water. Just kept hole hoping while tipups did there thing. Caught 4 keeper northerns all about 29-32 inches. Good day out Rich

Tip. After ice out I hit the lakes for perch with a flyrod and a size 16 scud. Perch along with N/ike spawn under the ice. I row shorelines and throw against the bank. Its surprising how many jumbo perch are against the banks (sandy or gravel) areas from spawning. Some spots one only and other spots two or three. Its important to keep working the bank rowing a few feet at a time only. This is also prime N/Pike time with a heavier fly rod in the shallows. Biggest to date: 17 lbs on a fly, 8 wgt rod.

I put this on the Md Board....http://www.crappie.com/crappie/fishi...tart-year.html

But here are some perch pics on the 1st and 2nd of Jan - Our min size is 9" but we didn't keep anything under 11. Caught 92 on Sat(2 anglers) and 167 on Sun(3 anglers). Kept 18 each day.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3...chjan12011.jpg
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7938/downsize30.jpg

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Originally Posted by chaunc

Thought this would add a little flavor to the post. Here's some lake erie perch from a couple months ago.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...n/IMG_0341.jpg

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Wish I could get after some of those around my area. I have caught them north of here on trips to the great lakes, and they are some of the best eating fish you fry up.