Author Topic: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?  (Read 19379 times)

Offline Out4Trout

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Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« on: Feb 07, 2004, 06:52 PM »
Where I'm from everyone I know considers Yellow Perch as junk fish and don't keep them. White perch are fine. I saw a "Pile O Perch" wallpaper in the pictures area of this site and they are all yellow perch. I guess some areas view these as good eating and some don't. Maybe I should be keeping them. Who does and who doesn't?

Offline Cook078

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #1 on: Feb 07, 2004, 07:05 PM »
Good eating???  How about poor-mans shrimp??  Yellow Perch are AWESOME..as I am sure this thread will spark alot of Perch lovers....and if you don't want em, give me directions to your lake, and I will REALLY enjoy riddinng you of these....
Mike
have a CRAPPIE day!!

Offline wisicefishinnut

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #2 on: Feb 07, 2004, 07:18 PM »
Perch are AWSOME.  THey taste great and are fun to catch. 

Offline LoveIce

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #3 on: Feb 07, 2004, 08:08 PM »
In maine bird food ;D
YOU DONT HAVE A FLASHER what are you nuts.

Offline mike692

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #4 on: Feb 07, 2004, 08:39 PM »
Best eating fish there is.

Offline burdo

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #5 on: Feb 07, 2004, 08:50 PM »
what i fish for 98% of the time--great eating

Offline Trevor

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #6 on: Feb 07, 2004, 08:55 PM »
I think it depends on your location.  I've heard of areas where perch are so worm infested they are inedible.  Perch are my favorite fish for the table hands down.  Here in the west they are absolutely delectable, in fact I prefer them to shrimp. 

However I grew up in an area where they are also considered garbage and the government does not even recognize them as a sportfish, hence no limit.  I returned to that area(New Brunswick, Canada, which borders the state of Maine)after several years and took the old man out for perch after convincing him how great they are to eat.  We had a great time catching and even took some 12+ inchers.  They weren't wormy but didn't taste anything like the perch out west, were sort of tasteless and the texture was not nearly as firm...

One of the reasons the perch fishery may not be as popular there may be because New Brunswick boasts world class Atlantic Salmon and Smallmouth bass fisheries...Fishermen are spoiled there...

Trev

nuke1neil

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #7 on: Feb 07, 2004, 09:22 PM »
I always thought that a lot of people did'nt like perch because most people used to scale and cook fish whole.did you ever try to scale a perch?Of course I filet them and they are the best.If you don't like perch,you don't like fish.Maybe they do taste different in other areas.

Offline Out4Trout

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #8 on: Feb 07, 2004, 09:44 PM »
People here in Maine eat alot of white perch. you can catch them by the bucket full in the somertime. But yellow perch are given to the cat.

Offline Van_Cleaver

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #9 on: Feb 07, 2004, 09:57 PM »
Down here in PA, the white perch tend to get stunted while the yellow perch seem to prosper in certain lakes. Love fishing for big yellow perch, and would rank them as my favorite freshwater fish on the table. Maybe it does have to do with where you catch them, I bet N1N is catching them in nice, clean lake, with lots of deep water,eh Neil? Just a wild guess. Hope we can get out the fillet knives soon!

Offline bushbunny

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #10 on: Feb 07, 2004, 10:31 PM »
Yellow perch is without a doubt the finest eating fish out there, including walleye!!!  In Alberta it is probably the most sought after fish through the ice.

Offline PERCH_INC.

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #11 on: Feb 07, 2004, 10:51 PM »
Here in New York the "Yellow Perch" is the fish that all fisherpersons that eat fish are looking for!! I have eaten white perch alittle fishey tasting but Yellow Perch are the "BEST"!!! Sounds like us New Yorkers  better take a trip up to ME. All the yellow perch we can take!!! :'(
MONSTER PERCH RULE ! !  

Offline kenelz

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #12 on: Feb 07, 2004, 11:21 PM »
Yellow perch is my favorite also, I have caught some white perch, but didnt like them at all.
It does depend on the area, just like burbot and pike, some areas consider it a trash fish, other areas a delicecy.

mooseslayer

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #13 on: Feb 07, 2004, 11:29 PM »
IN MAINE KIDS PLAY HOCKEY WITH THE FROZEN ONES. I CUT THEM UP AND USE EM' FOR SMELT BAIT . MORE OF A NUSANCE UP HERE. THEY HAVE RUINED MANY A GOOD COLDWATER FISHERY BECAUSE OF THIER ILLEGAL INTRODUCTION. I CATCH THEM JUST TO GET THEM OUT OF THE LAKE. I HAVE EATEN THEM AND THEY ARE TASTY BUT PALE IN COMPARISON TO WILD COLDWATER BROOKIES OR SMELTS. YOU PERCH GUYS WANT PERCH COME ON UP ILL GET YOU A TRUCK LOAD!! 

Offline billditrite

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #14 on: Feb 07, 2004, 11:46 PM »
im with you jacksmelt,nothing like a good game of "perch hockey" with the boy,work on his wrist shot.total junk fish but nothing better to keep the kids entertained,bucket full of pinner shiners those flags will pop all day!like i said great for the kids ,boring to me.throw them on the ice so you dont waste another shiner on them.if trust me im a firm believer in big bait big fish and the bait on my traps will scare the scales of those dinky little perch :o

Offline Jigmaster

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #15 on: Feb 08, 2004, 06:06 AM »
Dido with the Maine boys. Come and get 'em!

Offline ChenBassHead

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #16 on: Feb 08, 2004, 08:08 AM »
JUNK?! I couldn't believe that...perch are the best eating fish out there, followed by pike and eyes. It's interesting that Trevor mentioned that the government didn't even recognize them as a sportfish. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the crappie earn sportfish status just a few years ago here in NY? I just find it odd how a certain region can sterotype a fish as junk, while in another area that same fish can be the center of attention as far as ice fishing goes. I think that this attitude goes back generations, and is just passed down to each new generation. I believe that the state laws also play a part in this. People will look at a certain species of fish, and see that there are no bag limits, and no minimum size. Therefore, they assume that the fish are no good, and will spread this attitude to others. I'm probably wrong, but this is just my opinion.

-Zach

missfishylicious

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #17 on: Feb 08, 2004, 08:20 AM »
Smeltshack are the perch in maine of any size I know I used to catch perch in ny in the summer they were mostly small fish to much work to clean .I never realised how big perch get till I started ice fishing  theres nothing junk about a 14"fish that tastes like slightly salted cod and they put up a good little fight too  ;D I went up to maine smelt fishing one time it was fun but it turns out I didn't like smelt after catching and cleaning about 300 of them LOL  ;D

Offline cold_feet

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #18 on: Feb 08, 2004, 08:29 AM »
Perch are a total Garbage fish. Lowest of the fish species lower than a carp throw them all back and move to a diffrent area to get away from them. ;D
Cold Feet

Offline DigJiggin

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #19 on: Feb 08, 2004, 08:36 AM »
I spent most of my early fishing days on a lake in Maine. We never kept the yellow perch-they were consider pests, always stealing your bait. I never really kept any cause they never were big enough. But I never thought of eating Blue Gills either. Now living near Oneida Lake in New York - I can't get enough of either. I don't understand why white perch are so abundant in Maine but not much to speak of here in Central, NY.

Offline Trevor

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #20 on: Feb 08, 2004, 08:53 AM »
Coldfeet,  I can see you're thinkin' like me.  Get all the perch fishermen to leave so we can have em all to ourselves ;D

PerchBusterSD

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #21 on: Feb 08, 2004, 10:29 AM »
Here in South Dakota, if you did not have perch fishermen you would cut down the fishermen by about 90 per cent. They come from all states around us just for the perch fishingIt is amazing, all the guys here that say i only fish walleyes, in the winter they sure change over to perch.I cant say anything bad about smelt"never ate them" but here they use them for snot rockets"northerns" ::)

Offline Polar

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #22 on: Feb 08, 2004, 11:07 AM »
perch are great eating fish.Next year point me to where I can catch a bunch of the big ones. ;D
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MCfishnut

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #23 on: Feb 08, 2004, 11:17 AM »
Here in Indiana, only thing better then catching Yellow Perch are catching Jumbo Yellow Perch. ;D

MCfishnutt

Offline billditrite

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #24 on: Feb 08, 2004, 05:10 PM »
MOST of the perch i have caught in maine ,and ive lived and fished here fo 36 yrs , have probably averaged 8 inches and dont pull very hard on anything.i dont really eat much fish but if i did i wouldnt want to need 42 of them to make a decent fish-fry

Offline Damn Yankee

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #25 on: Feb 08, 2004, 05:57 PM »
[.i dont really eat much fish but if i did i wouldnt want to need 42 of them to make a decent fish-fry
Quote

Scott:
If you ate fish you could try those other fish ( trout etc.that taste the same as a roll of wet toilet paper) or you could taste a real fish as Yellow Perch, Walleye, etc.

Damn Yankee
Leave Some For Seed

Offline kenelz

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #26 on: Feb 08, 2004, 05:59 PM »
billditrite, just because a fish is small, dosent mean its not good eating, look at smelt, bluegill and crappie, all very good eating.
To me there is nothing better than a Sunday having a few beers, watching a football game and eating perch caught though the ice. Fry the perch and put them in a bowl and eat them like potato chips.

Offline fisherman5s

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #27 on: Feb 08, 2004, 07:05 PM »
People here in Maine eat alot of white perch. you can catch them by the bucket full in the somertime. But yellow perch are given to the cat.


MEOW, MEOW, MEOW!!!

Offline billditrite

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #28 on: Feb 08, 2004, 07:25 PM »
oh, too funny... lmao...i will definately think of you guys the next time i get into those darn perch . in fact i have talked it over with my son ,and the next time out we are gonna jig up some "tigertrout" and try those little babies out.it should make for an adventure. so how should i cook em' folks

Offline Out4Trout

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Re: Yellow Perch - Junk Fish?
« Reply #29 on: Feb 08, 2004, 07:31 PM »
By the sound of it, I'm with you Scott, I'll have to try em out. Just close my eyes, hold my nose and take a bite :o

 



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