White Perch!

[troutcrazy]

Seriously, these things are delicious!  I caught a mess of em on St Albans Bay the other day.  My first time fishing there, and my first white perch.  If I'd known how big they were, I would have thrown back the first few fish.  After I took the photo I kept on pulling em in, and I quit after around 20 fish because I didn't want to clean any more.  There were plenty of 12" +  fish.

This has been my first year ice fishing.  I've been fishing almost exclusively for trout for the last 25 years or so.  With trout I always have this feeling of wanting to go easy on the fish, not wanting to take too many out of a particular brook.  It was a completely different experience harvesting an invasive species, like a guy could take all the fish out of the lake and be doing a good deed.   

Man these guys are slimy, though.  I never really filleted fish before, but by the time I was done with them I was getting pretty good at it.  I'd better get some more practice!

I'm going back out today, hopefully to put a few pounds of fillets in my freezer!

Delicious fishes!

[anglure]

Nice Bunch of Whities !!

[wmhunts]

Nice job, I fished up there once with shivering joe. Great fun fishing for them, I wish I was closer I would fish for them all winter

[Mainedog]

It is virtually impossible to over fish a white perch fishery, and as you said, they are good eating.

You might want to harvest more of the smaller ones.  That way, there will be fewer whose growth is
stunted due to overpopulation.

If you are really trying to rid the water of white perch, then use chemicals or dynamite, but then
you'll wind up killing the fish you don't want to, and there's usually a legal issue when fishing that way.
 

[flagfishon]

How deep were you?  I've been getting them down at Georgia shore, but only a few here and there.  I'm sure that you had fun cleaning them. Those tough skins and big bones wreak havoc on my filet knives.  Nice Job!

[ice fiend]

guess i know where to go wednesday lol

[troutcrazy]

How deep were you?  I've been getting them down at Georgia shore, but only a few here and there.  I'm sure that you had fun cleaning them. Those tough skins and big bones wreak havoc on my filet knives.  Nice Job!

Oh, man!  I was up all night cleaning those things!  I thought I would peel em like yellows, but the skin doesn't come of easily.  I did clean a few like that, using pliers to pull the skin off.  It seemed easier to fillet them even though I don't have a real "fillet knife"-- I have "boning knives"-- and I definitely stopped to sharpen a couple times.   

Eating them, I think I liked them better peeled like a Yellow.  I wished that I'd done a better job cutting out the red muscle.  It's got me shopping for  a filet knife.

How do you guys like to eat em?  Clean em?

Went yesterday and it was wicked windy from the cold northl.  No bite except tiny yellows.

I was in about 20' of water. 

[flagfishon]

I clean them the same way that I clean yellows and then batter and fry them.  I grew up on yellows, but I honestly couldn't say which I like more. 

This is the way I clean perch.  It actually takes about 30 sec each with practice and a sharp knife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehlG6ODAdGY

[waltman]

nice white perch

[Crayfish2]

I do all my pan fish with an electric fillet knife (whites, yellows, sunnies, etc).  Fillet one side from behind gill to tail, but leave skin attached.  Flip fillet over, meat side up, and continue filleting between meat and skin.  You end up with a fillet with belly bones attached, all in basically one motion.  Flip fish over and repeat.  Go back through and cut out belly bones for boneless fillets.  If I have a small batch of smaller yellows, I will just skin them.  I've never seen the method from that Youtube video, though.  Might have to give that a try, although it looks like the dorsal fin bones will be left in the meat since the dorsal is cut off rather than pulled out.

[thebigwiggle]

I clean them the same way that I clean yellows and then batter and fry them.  I grew up on yellows, but I honestly couldn't say which I like more. 

This is the way I clean perch.  It actually takes about 30 sec each with practice and a sharp knife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehlG6ODAdGY

Thats a pretty neat way to clean those perch but are the rib cage bones in the fish still??? just wondering

[flagfishon]

The bones are left in, but after frying them, if you pull down from the back with a fork you should be able to pull all the meat off and leave an empty skeleton.  No meat lost and super fast.  I got the idea from this video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTlFwQb7D0

[troutcrazy]

I've been using the "10 second" method for yellows, too.  But with the whites, the skin doesn't come off easily-- I couldn't really work my fingers under the skin the same way.

Crayfish2, if I ever get my hands on an electric knife I'll have to try that method-- sounds easy.

[TRT]

White perch still being hammered in St A Bay? My wife wants to get out
with nice weather approaching this weekend. How far from shore is
the walk?

[Crayfish2]

I've been using the "10 second" method for yellows, too.  But with the whites, the skin doesn't come off easily-- I couldn't really work my fingers under the skin the same way.

Crayfish2, if I ever get my hands on an electric knife I'll have to try that method-- sounds easy.

It is .. you can get quite a rhythm going with the elec knife.  It also goes much faster if you have someone cutting out the belly bones as you go.  Usually the guy with the electric knife will be pushing the "belly deboning guy" the whole time.  It is that fast.

[shiveringjoe]

Nice work!  It was hard work finding the fish on Sunday.  We spent a good 4 hours checking from Kill Kare to Burton Island.  Caught a few marginal keeper yellows out by Button.  Did find a school of whites eventually but they were mostly pretty small at 7-8".  I got one 13" and a few 11-12" out of a total of 60 fish.  Got a nice sunburn too.  Access at the North end of the bay is getting pretty sketchy.

[ice fiend]

caught 92 pounds of whites filled 7 gallon 2 3/4 times awesome day

[troutcrazy]

Yeah!  I've never measured my catch in pounds before, until today.  They're not as big as the ones I caught last Friday, but I'm thrilled.  I've been dreaming of them ever since.

I'm gonna get to work filleting and fill my freezer.

I must have seen you out there today ice fiend.

Shiveringjoe, I couldn't find any fish on Sunday.  Brutal!  Access is pretty rough from the Georgia side, too.

[ice fiend]

i might have talked to you i was the guy with the camo pants and blk carhart heavy jacket with the jet sled im going back wed goal is 140 pounds

[perchhauler]

did you guys get into the whites again this weekend? hows the ice holding up in that area?

[ice fiend]

going out wednesday hopefully i can get on

[troutcrazy]

I went back out on Sunday.  Lots of fishermen out there, hammering the white perch.  I got the feeling that almost everyone else was catching them to sell.  Am I the only guy who likes to eat them?

I'm starting to get over my enthusiasm for them, though.  I thought that I'd develop an efficient method for cleaning them if I just kept at it.  Sure I'm getting faster at it, but they are still tough.

Also the fish on Sunday were much smaller than I'd been catching on my last two trips, so the fillets were kind of dinky.   I might have eaten my fill for a little while. 

[ice fiend]

lol i had a blast hauling em up taking a kid wednesday prices per lb are dropping due to flooded market iwant my last day to be a good one

[troutcrazy]

Ice fiend, what is the price per lb, anyway?

[mudchuck]

.25 smalls, .55 over 8-1/2"