Home › Volumes › Fishes › The Perches
Yellow Perch; Ringed Perch
"I pray you, sir, give me some observations and directions concerning the Pearch, for they say he is both a very good and a bold biting fish, and I would fain learne to fish for him."
The Complete Angler.
The yellow perch is found in the eastern United States, chiefly northward and eastward. It is abundant in the Great Lakes and in the larger coastwise streams and lakes from Nova Scotia to North Carolina; also in most of the small lakes in the upper Mississippi Valley, especially in northern Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. It is found in some of the streams of this region, but it is by preference a lake fish. It is not known from the Ohio River, nor from the lower Missouri. In most of the New England lakes and those of New York it is an abundant and well known fish.
Wherever found, this species is the perch par excellence. Among other names by which it is known are American perch, raccoon perch, red perch, and striped perch. It is one of the most abundant and best known of freshwater fishes. Its usual length is 10 to 14 inches, and its weight 1/2 to 2 pounds. Examples of 3 and 4 pounds, however, have been recorded. The largest examples of which we have a definite record are one of 4 1/4 pounds recorded by Dr. Goode, caught in Delaware Bay by Dr. C. C. Abbott, and another reported to us by Mr. F. A. Lucas. It was taken at Moreys Hole, Massachusetts, and weighed 3 pounds 2 ounces. The yellow perch of Europe seems to grow much larger, examples of as great as 8 and 9 pounds having been recorded.
As a pan-fish we do not know of any better among American freshwater fishes. We have experimented with the yellow perch and several other species, including both species of black bass, the blue gill, wall-eyed pike, and rock-bass, eating each for several days in succession, and found the yellow perch the sweetest and most delicious of them all. One does not tire of it so soon as of the other kinds. Several other persons who tried the same experiment reached the same conclusion. In most parts of its range it is highly esteemed, and in many places it is of very considerable commercial importance. In the Great Lakes, the Potomac River, and the small lakes in the upper Mississippi Valley large quantities are taken, which always find a ready sale.
As a game-fish the yellow perch can be commended chiefly on account of the fact that anybody can catch it. It can be taken with hook and line any month in the year and with any sort of bait, grasshoppers, angleworms, grubs, small minnows, pieces of mussel, or pieces of fish; and it will even rise, and freely, too, on occasion, to the artificial fly; we have taken it "skittering," and also on the trolling-spoon. It is easily taken through the ice in winter, when small minnows are the best bait, as they are perhaps at other times. The yellow perch is not a great fighter,--its small size precludes that possibility,--but it bites well, and a 2-pounder, or one even half that size, is a fish well worth one's while to take. If it be angled for in deep water,--say 25 to 40 feet,--in water that is cold and pure, and with light tackle, it will be found able to make a fight quite enough to please any except the most blase of anglers.
Besides, the yellow perch is a fish that can be caught by the women and children, who do not, as a rule, seek the more noble game-fishes; and many an inland summer resort is made vastly more attractive because our wives and children who are spending the summer at the little inland lake are always able to bring in good strings of delicious yellow perch. As Thoreau has said in "Walden Pond": "It is a true fish, such as the angler loves to put into his basket or hang on top of his willow twig on shady afternoons, along the banks of the streams." Only the yellow perch is by preferenee a fish of the small lakes rather than of the streams.
This perch is gregarious and may usually be found in schools.
"Perch, like the Tartar clans, in troops remove,
And, urged by famine or by pleasure, rove;
But if one prisoner, as in war, you seize,
You'll prosper, master of the camp with ease;
For, like the wicked, unalarmed they view
Their fellows perish, and their path pursue."