white or yellow? do perch really taste good?

[Mainehazmt]

Leave ya be for a bit Scott and ....

[hockeynut12]

White perch are very tasty. Have never had good luck with yellows...

[fishlessman]

yellows are clean in some lakes but in others the gills on them get really loaded up with those grub worms, i cant get past that. the whites and the crappies in those same waters are clean and delicious, ill eat all three if they are clean, they all go in the freezer bag

[VTMatt]

To me, whites and yellows taste very similar. Texture is a little different.  Yellows for me are way easier to filet. Whites here in VT get pretty big and the rib bones are tougher than yellows. They also have a layer of dark meat between the scaled and the filet that I avoid when separating the meat from the skin. I enjoy fishing whites much more than yellows simply because they're usually in giant schools. Since they rely on pure numbers rather than camoflauge, we catch them by the bucket fulls. Matter of fact, my last day on the ice I filled about 9 buckets worth in 8 hours.  Some grumps over here call them trash fish and refuse to target them. 

[Mainehazmt]

ok all you perchjerkers i got a question for ya...we have all seen how our western brothers love the perch and i have always heard about one being better tasting than the other . my question is. have you eaten perch and do you prefer yellow or white?

they have to be tenderized by an auger   wanna see?

[Raquettedacker]

they have to be tenderized by an auger   wanna see?

   Dare ya trouble maker...          
Just kidding. Save it for December when everyone is going nuts....   

[Chris338378]

I never ate white perch but I can tell you yellow perch taste great.

[Spider1]

yep, I feel for you guys up in Maine. I've heard the perch up there are loaded with bugs. Down here in PA the perch are a prime fish. Every once in a while I'll find a worm or 2 in a stringer of perch but for the most part they are very clean here and at the top of the list right there next to crappie. We don't have many places that have white perch, a few but none that I fish regularly. I'm gonna just have to put white perch on the list of target fish for this season 

[Mainehazmt]

Now is the time to do it.   Ans post that fine video. 
Get the ban out of the way early....   I'd just have to find the password to my other secret identity on here....

[fishon--fishoff]

I agree 100% with Scotts post. White perch Is definitely more pallet friendly and more versatile by far for recipes. Yellows are wormy.. 

[brittlab]

I've never tried the white perch but yellow perch are great to eat!

[Seamonkey84]

Here in Maine it really depends on the body of water that the fish come out from. There are some lakes that every perch is noticeably infested with yellow grubs and the sunfish are filled with the black specks, if I can see it in the gill and mouth area I won't keep them.  While on others it's only the occasional fish that is noticeably infested if at all.
To a lot of Mainers perch are just junk, but I don't mind catching them for fun, and I think they fry up just fine if they come from the right lake. While everyones setting traps for bass and trout, cursing at the perch for stealing bait, I have a blast with a jig rod.

[jacksmelt71]

they are fun on the ultralight. at my shack on long last winter the smelts would bite from 3 to 6am. then they would leave and the flasher would turn black w/ y. perch! by 11 i would get about 200. small ones went on the ice and i would keep a doz. 11 to 13in. to eat with a few even bigger. they don't have many worms in the winter. those big ones would even peel drag!

[springfish57]

White Perch are fresh water haddock,  but I wouldn't eat a yellow perch.

[jacksmelt71]

try them in winter springfish. if they're grub free they are as good if not better tasting than the whites. i too still prefer the whites tho. over yellows just because  they fight a lot harder and more fun to catch. 

[northernnyice]

White Perch are fresh water haddock,  but I wouldn't eat a yellow perch.

yellow perch are nothing short of delicious.. there are a couple restaraunts here that even serve it. I know for a fact that I could bread crumb/deep fry a small mess of pike, walleye, and yellow perch and VERY few people would be able to tell me the difference.

You Maine boys will hate this too, but northern pike is my favorite fish to eat. Its TASTY.

[JiggerDan]

yellow perch are nothing short of delicious.. there are a couple restaraunts here that even serve it. I know for a fact that I could bread crumb/deep fry a small mess of pike, walleye, and yellow perch and VERY few people would be able to tell me the difference.

You Maine boys will hate this too, but northern pike is my favorite fish to eat. Its TASTY.

Amen to that bro, those are ALL tasty fish!

[Lavman]

I have been eating yellow perch my whole life (44 now). We only target them in the winter, some say they taste sweeter when caught in winter versus summer (I don't know about that).

I have never eaten whites, I will target them this winter and try them for myself.

Just last year I tried Pike again (tried it a few winters ago, it was OK. I had gutted it, cut the head much like how we prepare a trout, then filled the cavity with butter, Mrs Dash, lemon slices then sliced up an apple and placed the apple slices around the outside of it, wrapped the whole thing in foil and cooked it on the grill over low heat for 40 minutes. It was more like a steamed entree. The meat flaked away from the bones and did not have a strong fish flavor (they said the apple slices would absorb the heavy fish flavor). It was OK, but last winter I tried filleting a Pike then cubing the fillet, breaded and fried it. Damn it was tasty!

Of course I also eat yellow perch roe (egg sacks) so maybe I am simply not a fussy eater 

[jiggingfoul]

both are great eating as long as the water is cold.they taste weedy from the warm water.

[jacksmelt71]

they seem to be less worms and taste better from cold deep lakes than from warmer shallow ones. theres definitely a diff. from n.maine and s. maine yellows also. the way the fishings going w/ gamefish up here,pretty soon the only thing that you'll catch up here is y. perch! that is until the muskie find there way in!

[mjgonehunting]

As a part timer in Maine and a part timer in NY ( upstate not the nasty NY) I have eaten both whites and yellows many times!
In NY we seem to catch more large yellows,and the meat is a pinkish color and generally firm and worm free. I haven't caught many in Maine big enough to keep for the pan,but the few we did get where a bit more yellowish,and some did have worms in them.

White perch on the other hand are actually in the bass family and eat somewhat different food than yellows,and I haven't ever come across worms in them.
They fight better,and the meat is firm a and flakey!
Im not sure where people are catching whites that are " oily" I haven't found that!

We actually prefer yellows over whites down in NY!
The meat is a bit sweeter tasting !
Dip either it an egg bath then into cornmeal then fry in a cast iron pan with oil,and you have a feast!

[benson]

White only ;DD

[MNPikeSlayer]

We eat yellows here in MN and they're just great

[Spider1]

I watched one of the Gruenwald videos and he was showing a perch he had just caught and mentioned how it was full to the gills with bloodworms. No big thing, it was eating them. The thing was, you could tell the fish was also full of grubs. The thing was covered in black dots that would have had me tossin every perch I caught back down the hole and looking for another lake!

[Mainehazmt]

the eagles don't seem to mind them  we toss em on the ice

[52isntbigenough]

ok all you perchjerkers i got a question for ya...we have all seen how our western brothers love the perch and i have always heard about one being better tasting than the other . my question is. have you eaten perch and do you prefer yellow or white?

Perch are awesome, no matter the color. Cooking prep, seasonings, butter/oil..it all makes a difference in taste. As does the location and size. Some waters just produce fish that are more "fishy" than others. Personally, I love them about 8-11" long. Pan fried in butter with eggwash and a light battering with flower/lowery's/pepper.

[NickM]

The yellow perch I catch are usually too small or grubby to be worth it to me.

Throwing them to the eagles seems wasteful to me, but is there something useful we can do with them besides eat them? That's a serious question by the way. If you take other species, but throw back the perch, then you're actually ensuring that there will be more perch than the species you want to keep. If the population grows too high, then they will compete with each other, and you're going to end up with stunted perch that aren't worth eating even to those who like them.

From a management point of view, shouldn't we thin them out in waters where they're overpopulated, so that they compete less with other species and their own kind? That seems like what needs to be done if you want more of the other species and more keeper sized perch. You definitely won't get rid of them all unless you poison the lake.

[jacksmelt71]

what i do is drill a hole almost thru the ice near my shack. at the end of the day i throw the little ones i chucked out the door, into the hole then cover w/ snow. this way you don't have rotting fish all around the cabin come march., and it doesn't look as bad to the people who live on the lake or other recreationers that drive by. they just sink to the bottom at ice out. worst thing you can do is put them back as theres too many in our lakes in the 1st. place. i even tried to organize a perch derby to try and thin them out. the powers that be weren't interested in helping our native fish.

[jacksmelt71]

both are great eating as long as the water is cold. they taste weedy from the warm water.

i find they're mushy too ,once water temps. get above 60f.

[jacksmelt71]

the eagles don't seem to mind them  we toss em on the ice

yeah ok john . we know you are actually a closet perch lover! beer and perch go hand in hand! whats not to like!