eating yellow perch

[oldskidoo]

It is not exactly a New Years resolution but I will be eating a yellow perch this winter if the opportunity arises. I have managed to get through 69 years without eating one but I am really trying to be open to new experiences.
There is not much chatter about grubs anymore but what should I be watching for?

[Muggsy]

Perch are a great eating fish. After filleting, if you find what looks like a yellowish dot, about 1/4 to 1/3 the size of a grain of rice, just pick it out with your knife point and get ready to cook as usual. I enjoy eating them and have picked out many; they are easy to see if you hold the fillet up to the light. Don't worry about any of the black specs that look like ground pepper, either. If a fish happens to be loaded with them, then it ends up as compost rather than dinner. 2-3 in a fillet are no big deal in my opinion.
Any perch between 8 and 12 inches is a keeper for me. The smaller ones can be a pain to clean but they are super firm and fry up great with your favorite coating.
Do a search on YT for "Rogers Rigs" as he loves his perch and makes a good case for keeping the smaller ones. I think it's on his video about cleaning them by beheading them first.

[missoulafish]

People freak out about perch here. The really are good. Not sure why they have a bad rep up in that part of the world.

[woodchip]

after many years of feeding the eagles i was reading  about a diner in NH and comerical fishing for them a few year back i  started to eat them and found out what a quaility fish they are  I keep them all and highly recomend all others fillet and try them .

[fishslap]

Perch are prime eating and you can just ignore the grubs, they are harmless and have no effect on the meat.  You probably eat thousands of other parasites and microorganisms that you just can’t see.

[Anomaly]

In many states West of Maine, yp are a sought after delicacy and restaurants serve them for upwards of $18.95 and entree. Many folks catch them as supplementary income and even as a winter occupation. Tough job!!! Some serious guys catch as many as several hundred pounds in a day. My best day, years ago was 250#. I think I got $1.10# for them. These are local Maine and virtually grub free. No safe ice there, yet

Yellow perch are, to me, on the top of the freshwater best eating fish. Happily I have found a few places where that yellow grub is not or is a rare presence. Yellows are the firmest of freshwater fish too, which lends them to excellent "poor man's shrimp". For the "shrimp", fillet and remove skin. Cut the fillets into finger food size pieces. Get some water boiling. Enough so the the water temp doesn't cool much. Like a couple quarts to a pound. You want a consistent temp. I add a rounded tablespoon of Old Bay or the like and a lemon cut in half and squeezed. Bring to boil for a few minutes then add the perch for no more than !!!45 seconds!!!. Immediately drain and chill in ice water bath. Serve with cocktail sauce, maybe as an appetizer for some deep freind fillets. You shall not be disappointed!!! And they won't last long!!!!
  [/size]

[jigmaster5]

There is not much chatter about grubs anymore but what should I be watching for?

At 69 yrs, I don't think you have much to worry about from perch. Sometimes you can tell if the perch will be loaded w/ parasites by looking around their gills or if they are loaded w/ those black parasites.

Other stuff to watch out for is mercury + PFAS, but you'd have to eat alot of perch.  Google for more info.

[maddogg]

Yellow perch are over $25 a pound here in Wisconsin.

[threewack]

Perch are of the Darter family of fish as are Walleye as in cousins as in great tasting fish,I'm 62 and have eaten both for most of those years.Dont miss the opportunity any longer,its a great meal.

[Wallace3716]

I fish a cold water lake that is infested with yellow perch and when they become too much to fish around, I pull out a jig rod to harvest as many as I can.

I try to find a use for them so as not to waste them. Most of the perch are 6-11 inches, they overpopulate in the lake, get stunted.

My question is how small of a perch would you bother to filet? When I filet small ones I get tiny bones and it makes eating them not pleasurable. Should I invest in an electric knife if I’m trying to do 40-50 at a time?

I’ll check out Roger’s rigs as another poster mentioned. Any other processing tips?

Thanks guys, stay safe.

[missoulafish]

Hey Wallace, try skinning the smaller ones whole and then fry them. You can usually flake the meat right off the spine and ribs. That’s what I do with smaller ones when I want a meal of perch and can’t find any big enough to fillet.

[Wallace3716]

Thank you, I’ll give that a try. That’s how I would cook a trout on the smaller side, if I kept one.

Poor mans shrimp always intrigues me every time Joe posts it, I need to give that a try with some smaller ones too.

[fishslap]

I’ll filet down to 7.5”.  Once the filet is off, remove the skin. Then place the filet rib cage down and make a cut along the pin bones on the rib cage side, angle the knife under the rib meat and on top of the ribs to separate the rib meat from the rib cage.  Do the same on the other side but you’re only going down and slightly away from center at the end (basically filleting off the pin bones vertically).  This removes the rib cage AND pin bones and you loose .001% of your meat.  A little extra effort for boneless filets. Just baked these.

[Nitz]

I thought OP was joking at first.  Perch and Walleye (same family) are some of the best eating fish I have ever had - they are both highly sought after here in WI.  Now White Perch, which is a different family of fish, is a different story.

I can think of at least two people who do not typically eat fish, but who will order Perch if out on a Friday night and the restaurant/bar has some - it usually does not last long into the evening.

"...feeding the eagles...." with Perch?  Wow.  This would most definitely get a reaction of some sort from the other fisherman on the lakes I fish - perhaps not a great one.

[Brian VT]

I like to leave my left over bait for critters (birds of prey and otters) but the State says you must dispose of bait on land. :-(

[woodchip]

When fishermen leave a few small perch or shinners the eagles ,crows and Ravens love them and all camp owners enjoy seeing the Birds. yesterday we left two small perch on ice and Camp owners on Little sebago were pleased to see 7 Bald eagles and Ravens out their at once

[tonyjackson]

I'll take yellow perch over white perch, but I'll take crappie over anything I've caught in Maine.

[9huskies]

My preference is white perch, crappie, then yellow perch. That's if I catch then through the ice or in very cold water. I won't eat yellow perch from warm water.

[Wallace3716]

A lot of people will drive a lot of hours this weekend to fish at a derby at a premier salmon lake in the county. They will spend a lot of money on gas, equipment, lodging, booze, premium smelts for bait, etc.

Then that first flag will go up and a 6” yellow perch will take out 20’ of line choking on their 5” smelt and they will say bad words.

I think part of the disgust and resentment of yellow perch in Maine stems from that type of situation, not their quality as a food fish.

[woodchip]

My preference is white perch, crappie, then yellow perch.also ,I stay away from lakes of high Mercury count, Like Sabbatus.

[gunn308]

The problem is not the perch it's the ingrained generational mind set that anything other than Trout and Salmon are trash fish. Yellows, at the bottom of the scale like hornpout, can be a little gross lookin in the summer with the grubs and Joe next door says their wormy.
 

[badbrad2186]

Yet here in NY yellow perch are what we chase

[Steve H.]

A lot of people will drive a lot of hours this weekend to fish at a derby at a premier salmon lake in the county. They will spend a lot of money on gas, equipment, lodging, booze, premium smelts for bait, etc.

Then that first flag will go up and a 6” yellow perch will take out 20’ of line choking on their 5” smelt and they will say bad words.

I think part of the disgust and resentment of yellow perch in Maine stems from that type of situation, not their quality as a food fish.

I agree.

[Anomaly]

A lot of people will drive a lot of hours this weekend to fish at a derby at a premier salmon lake in the county. They will spend a lot of money on gas, equipment, lodging, booze, premium smelts for bait, etc.

Then that first flag will go up and a 6” yellow perch will take out 20’ of line choking on their 5” smelt and they will say bad words.

I think part of the disgust and resentment of yellow perch in Maine stems from that type of situation, not their quality as a food fish.

Gonna be there fishing March 6-7. Targeting Yellow Perch on Long and Cross!
 I hope the darn salmonids don't become a nuisance!!!

[woodchip]

A friend of mine used to fry his pickeral and small perch in Vinegar and he said   it disolved the bones.

[kraz]

caught a bunch of yellow perch yesterday
Fish tacos fro dinner tonight

Kraz

[Wallace3716]

Gonna be there fishing March 6-7. Targeting Yellow Perch on Long and Cross!
 I hope the darn salmonids don't become a nuisance!!!

You can always feed the eagles a 3lb salmon when it gets in the way of your perch harvest.

[woodchip]

Ive had a Coyote we shot in Garden as  ground wAs to hard for bury process ,a Bald eagle and Ravens and crows were sharing with a turkey vulture ,a day later a Golden showed up and shared with Bald eagle  20' away i have a row of white perch filleted carcesses now crows and ravens are eating perch,  and Golden eagle and Bald eagle  working on Coyote , Ive never seen a turkey vulture around in winter until March 17th.

[Brian VT]

You should get involved with this:
https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/species-information/birds/golden-eagle-study.html

[Steve H.]

You can always feed the eagles a 3lb salmon when it gets in the way of your perch harvest.

Honestly made me laugh out loud. Love it.