Thread: White Perch vs. Crappie

Originally Posted by badbull

Your talking scientific names versus local names, I get that . I can tell you another half dozen names for crappie. The white perch you are speaking of is a northern fish and does not normally exist in Ga waters.


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Correct !!

And you wanna know something funny .... I was probably around 30yrs old before I realized that what my friends & locals around here were calling "white perch" ... were actually Freshwater Drum Seriously, I grew up calling Freshwater Drum as "white perch" !!

And as a pre-teen kid living & growing up with my Grandparents, who were avid Crappie anglers, I was "tricked" into thinking we were going fishing for a new species of fish when my GramPa said we were going fishing for "Newlights" I had heard him mention "Newlight waves" when there was a light wind ripple on the water, and even though I knew we were fishing for Crappie ... I never made the connection until I was older.

I've read where Crappie nicknames include "Strawberry Bass", "Bachelor Perch", "Calico Bass", or "Speckled Bass/Perch" ... but I've never heard anyone use those nicknames. Now, I've only fished in KY, Tenn, SC, & Ala. so those nicknames may not have been used in those parts, but I've never heard them called "White Perch" in any of those areas, either.

I mean no disrespect when "correcting" .... it's just that after 45yrs of working in the Pharmaceutical/Medical field, I've just picked up the habit of being precise.

My wife's dad, who was my fishing pardner and was from Mississippi, he always called them "specs" are "speckled perch". His other name for them was white perch. He hardly ever called them crappie. He loved to fish and I sure miss him.

When i first caught a white perch in clark hill years ago, i was mystified. Here was a fish that looked a white bass but was not. The pee dee river may have been as far south as their range but they are in russel and the hill. Have ate them and they are quite tasty. Usually catch them in open water or in the spring up at the mouth of broad river. Rumor has it that they were transplanted as a substitute for other fish by the various game departments. They have multiplied rapidly.

These white perch were placed in our lakes unlawfully. They have got so bad in all our lakes in SC, Ga and NC. SCDNR took white perch off of the creek limit so we can keep everyone of them caught hoping this will reduce the population. It doesn’t seem to be working. When the fish were all small they wasn’t worth keeping so many released them back into the lake. Now they have a good size to them ( a Pound fish) they are beginning to be fished for table food. They are good eating and not much different then Crappie. If you find a school of them catching 100 fish is common.


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Originally Posted by badbull

Your talking scientific names versus local names, I get that . I can tell you another half dozen names for crappie. The white perch you are speaking of is a northern fish and does not normally exist in Ga waters.


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They are in the Savannah River chain of lakes bordering SC/GA. I have caught them in all of those lakes.