Yellow perch are the fish that hook people for life. They school in big numbers, they bite readily on simple baits, they are active all winter under the ice, and they fry up into some of the sweetest fillets in fresh water. For a family outing or a numbers day, or just a delicious dinner, perch are hard to beat.
How to identify them
Yellow perch are golden-yellow with six to eight dark vertical bars down the sides and orange-tinted lower fins. They are members of the perch family (related to walleye), with a spiny front dorsal fin. That gold body with bold bars is unmistakable.
Where they live
Perch are schooling fish of lakes and ponds, roaming near the bottom and relating to weed edges, drop-offs, points and structure. Find one and you have usually found fifty; when you locate a school, the action can be nonstop. In winter they are a mainstay of the New England ice fishery.
Tip Perch travel in packs and often hold near bottom. When you catch one, work that exact depth and spot hard, drop right back down before the school moves on.
How to catch them
Keep it small and simple:
- Small jigs and jigging spoons tipped with a bit of bait, deadly, especially through the ice.
- Worms and small minnows on a light hook near bottom.
- Tiny soft plastics on a light jighead for a fun, active approach.
Light line and a sensitive light rod make the little bites easy to feel and turn perch into genuine sport.
Eating
This is why so many anglers love them: perch fillets are firm, white, sweet and clean, arguably the best freshwater panfish on the plate. A cooler of perch makes a memorable fish fry.