No they don't taste the same, but white perch are edible especially if you remove the red meat (blood line). Yellow perch are about as good as white meat fish get. Right there with walleye, and cold water sunnies and crappies. But yellow perch don't get very big. White perch are much like their larger cousin the silver bass, perfectly edible but the yellow perch is still much better, especially winter through the ice, right along with ice sunnies and crappies.