Thread: What the difference between White Perch and Perch

Having grown up on the shore of Lake Huron I have caught a lot of yellow perch. I used to sit on weed beds with small minnows and the action was non-stop. The numbers are down now and many attribute this to the salmon. Still catch them well in Saginaw Bay but not up near my place. The flavor of the yellow perch is wonderful. It is a mild flavor with nice flaky meat. I love the taste of crappie but I do prefer the taste of perch.

I like the Yellow Perch the best, but there is nothing wrong with Crappie either.......

The differance in Indiana is. The Y.Perch is gr8 eating, and what I call a W.Perch is not. But thats my opinion. To me a crappie is not what I call a W.Perch, up here a W.perch is also called Silvers. They look the same as the bucket full of fish shown in the picture on this post.

In Lake Erie, the yellow perch are the sought after species. The white perch are an invasive species and we bounce them off the back of the boat for the gulls to eat.
The fish they call "ocean perch" is nasty. When I see perch on the menu I have to ask whether it is "real" perch or ocean perch.

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Im just curious what was the mistake? What it because of the fishing?

Originally Posted by pescatore

Might could be that I'm a lot older than most of you. Lived on the shores of lake Erie for over 67 years,then moved South(mistake)
The fish in the picture,we used to call silver bass,few people ate them.Yellow perch is king at the table.However,some may remember an extinct species ,last caught in the early 50's. We called it blue pike and it was better than walleye and better than perch.

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I am from WI. and agree, I enjoy the taste of "yellow perch" more than crappie. But taste enjoyment depends alot on what fish is in your "neighborhood", which is the species you will eat most of the time. In WI. perch/walleye are the big eaters. In Ark (I fish there every year) cat's and crappie are the big eaters (of which for a Fri/night fishfry I'll take over Haddock), being more common to the area. All-in-all most fish I have eaten I enjoy, ie "salt water" if prepared to local receipts and one knows how too. In Ark. also, some people call crappie, white perch!

I sure would have liked to sample some of that extinct (blue pike) you mention back there Pescatore, did they have teeth like there Predecessors'?

Originally Posted by papermouth scaler

I sure would have liked to sample some of that extinct (blue pike) you mention back there Pescatore, did they have teeth like there Predecessors'?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_pike

Here you go.