I think white perch is good eating. You should try it & form your own opinion. Just be sure to trim off the majority of red meat before cooking.
Yellow perch are in a whole other class though. Very similar to Walleye & delicious!
As kids back in the 1960's we'd catch hundred's of them when they 1st showed up in lake erie & bring them home to put in the garden. Every year 1 row of the garden wouldn't get planted and a trough was dug and filled with fish/fish guts, compost, egg shells, oyster & clam shells, etc. It was nothing to toss a couple 1000 white bass in 1 of those troughs in the garden.
While most people up here don't eat the white perch I do. You should give them a try
I like them broiled with a little butter, lemon pepper and salt. If filleted I eat them strait out of the oven. If I cut the head off, scale and gut them and then broil them I let them cool and pick the meat off and put it in rice or vegetables. They're actually down right tasty with broccoli.
Anyway don't let me discourage you from trying them. I just wouldn't put them in the same class as yellow perch.
I think white perch is good eating. You should try it & form your own opinion. Just be sure to trim off the majority of red meat before cooking.
Yellow perch are in a whole other class though. Very similar to Walleye & delicious!
DRFISHDUCK LIKED above post
I have heard some from South Mississippi refer to crappie as white perch . I guess the white perch you speak of does not exist down there .
Smitty39365 LIKED above post
Both are great eating...yellows have a firmer "chew" feel than whites. Used to eat the roe as well. Only a couple rivers in NW Florida(Appalachicola region)that have a few yellows, to my knowledge, no white perch in Florida.
u2s
Pretty sure the white perch they are talking about are a species that lives mainly up and down the eastern states along the Atlantic coast and apparently in the Great Lakes region based upon some of the replies. I've never caught one. We do have yellow perch in the Tennessee River. I've caught several of them in Kentucky Lake and during a trip to Pennsylvania in my youth. They are delicious. I've never caught or tasted white perch. Have heard crappie called white perch often as well.
It looks like what we call a white bass or sand bass. They are often crossed with stripers around here and called wipers or.hybrids.
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I have read where some towns up in Wisconsin and Michigan have ice festival perch cookouts with great attendance. Fresh caught off the ice and deep fried in a town party atmosphere. Sounds really good with some ice cold Leinies!
Bob
Where I'm from white perch and yellow perch are the same, the only difference being white perch are in Lake Michigan and yellow perch are caught inland and are typically darker colored. The other white perch is an invasive, and my buddy says they taste terrible. We had fresh caught caught yellow perch tacos today and they were awesome.
I caught a yellow perch at "Beaver lake "on the Tombigbee Waterway last year . Had never seen one before . Threw it back .