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4 Attachment(s)
White perch??
I have been fishing Lake Anna for 30 years but really just started using the fly rod this June. I was trying to catch crappie and for the first time I have been catching dozens of white perch!! I have been using a small white or chartruse streamer I tie on a size 8 jig (cap spider) hook, and they like it stripped FAST. Most are small, 4", with a few larger fish, up to 6". So, any tips on catching the bigger ones? How are these for eating? Lotta fun on my 3wt. Funny how changing to a fly rod enabled me to catch a new species I had never caught in 30 years of chucking bait.
Attachment 5065
PS - sunrise on Lake Anna, VAAttachment 5066
and a couple other pretty fishAttachment 5067
Attachment 5068
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First of all, great pics!!!!
Ocean Perch is my favorite eating fish, but not sure how good white perch would be since it's closer related to the bass family.
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White perch are very good eating, and just as easy to fillet as bluegill. Actually I find when you are getting small ones, go two or three feet deeper and you will find larger ones. It's just tough some times to get past the little guys.
If the water gets real warm, they will get worms. Best in spring and fall
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Bass Bug, I'm pretty sure perch are members of the walleye family while bass (largemouth, smallmouth, etc.) are acutally members of the sunfish family along with bluegill, crappie and various other sunfishes. I think they are all excellent eating.
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Just some info to clear up any "which fish is in what family" confusion....
White Perch are in the Temperate Bass family. This family includes striped and white bass.
http://www.fishbase.us/identificatio...&fins=&c_code=
Large and small mouth bass are in the Sunfish family.
http://www.fishbase.us/identificatio...&fins=&c_code=
Yellow Perch & Walleye are in the Perch family
http://www.fishbase.us/identificatio...&fins=&c_code=
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My buddies mentioned here awhile back about how they can't drift crawlers for walleye at a couple local reservoirs because the perch just steal the crawler and won't leave their jigs/bait alone. I am trying to convince them to go out and try some ice fishing spoons and little chunks of crawler. From what I've heard of their tablefare, I want to try them out!
With all that in mind, how about an S.J. worm or chamois worm under an indicator?
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I fish a pond that has tons of the little buggers in it. There are 2 reasons to keep any and all of these that you catch (including the 3 inch long ones).
1. they are damn decent table fare. I like to fry mine in either a simple beer batter or using Zatarain's fish breading. Like all temperate bass they have a line of dark meat in the center of the fillet, on the skin side. If you are catching them in the 8-10 inch range it is worth trimming this out, as it improves the flavor.
2. They are an invasive species similar to purple loosestrife or kudzu. Here in Nebraska they get transfered around from place to place by well meaning bait bucket biologists who think they are white bass and by catfishermen who use them as bait and then release the leftovers into the lake when they are done. Once in a body of water they prey on the smaller plankton, aquatic insects, fish fry, and fish eggs. They are extremely prolific, and because they feed through the top of the food chain as well as on fish eggs and fry they will take over a smaller body of water within just a couple years. For the first few years you might see decent sized ones, but then you will notice that everthing will start getting thinner and smaller including the white perch. They are nearly unstoppable once they have gotten into a body of water, Our game and parks department is presently trying to remove them from a large lake by stocking very large predator fish into the lake and making them C&R only. The 2 species that I know of for certain are Wipers and Adult Flathead catfish that they netted out of the Missourri river.
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They are a terrible blight here, lots of those amature fisheries clods here too. They started accidently with some striper or wiper fingerlings in two lakes and it got worse from there. In Kansas it is illegal to posses live ones and using them for cut bait is strongly encouraged. They do taste good tho.
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Here we are strongly encouraged to take them all. The fisheries guys are playing hell trying to stop them and will probably never succeed short of rotentoneing the whole eastern half of the state and restocking it.
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They have put 22'' limits on stripers wipers and walleyes and 34 on recently stocked blue cats at Cheney and Eldorado. This is to combat the invasion of perch and zebra mussles. Nothing can eliminate them, of course, but with luck they can be limited.