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I think that is a great idea Dave......that way you can make your own choice......I am interested in the idea of using them for bait to catch big pike. I have used yellows but never a white. Can't see why it wouldn't work.
There are probably seriously millions of white perch in the lake. VTMatt and I, and three other friends, spent a whole day last April pulling them in one after another ALL DAY LONG. No exaggeration when I say between the 5 of us, we had around 750 pounds of the things, many of which were in the 14" range, and around 2 pounds. We sold most of those to the bait shop in St. Albans, and the guy there said for the whole winter he'd probably bought and sold around 20,000 pounds of whites! There's no shortage of them, so keep 'em all! Fun to catch too!As for the taste, in my opinion, they are very similar to a haddock or cod. Just a fairly bland white fish. They only really get fishy if they get even a little freezer burned and still have the dark meat in the fillet. I have made them into brown sugared, applewood smoked fish, and they come out amazing. They are a bit tricky to fillet, but once you get the hang of it, it goes fast. Here's a how-to video I made on that: For me, these are so much fun to catch, it's the main reason I go out onto the ice. Even if you can't eat all you catch, you've got some high-quality cat food or garden fertilizer. Haha.
I only sold mine once to see what two buckets would get. Got handed less than $20 and laughed. 95% of the ones I caught got donated to hungry people lol.
I think selling them is still a good option. I can only eat so many and I don't want to filet that many of the slimy suckers either. 20 bucks will get you a few jigs and a hamburger after A FUN DAY of fishing
White Perch are feisty little buggers that are actually quite good to eat so long as you don't catch them in the middle of the summer out of warm water. They are really fun to catch for two reasons. One I know that I'm killing an invasive species and two they fight really hard.