White Perch or Yellow Perch? The Differences are Clear.

Today i decided to fish the North Pier.  The wind was blowing steadily from the west and the air temperature was a very nice 75 degrees.  The channel was calm but the current was swift.  I had a very large yellow perch up to the pier and when i went to pull it up it fell off.  I caught about 10 gobies that I fed to a great blue heron and I caught a double of white perch and then a single white perch.  That was it for today.  The bite was very slow this afternoon.  A fisherman next to me gave me a yellow perch.  I'm happy he did so that I can show you a picture of a white perch and yellow perch side by side.  This is not the greatest photo because the fish were in my bucket for a couple hours while i continued to fish.

It is very easy to tell the difference between a yellow perch and white perch.  However, many people mistake white perch for silver bass.  If you eat the fish you catch, there is a big difference in the taste of white perch and silver bass.  White perch are very good; silver bass are a lot fishier tasting. 

The easiest way to tell the difference between a white perch and silver bass is by looking at their stripes on the side of the fish.  White perch only have 1 solid stripe which is high up on their back.  Silver bass, on the other hand, have five stripes on their sides and appear to be more silver in color.  There are other differences between the two fish and hopefully in the future I can post a photo of a silver bass alongside a white perch and describe them to you.  Here's to good fishin'

Perch Still Hanging on in Channel.

Yesterday, my friend Rob and I decided to do a little bit of evening fishing.  The weather was very nice and there was not a cloud in the sky.  The wind was directly from the east.  We both concluded that we would not be catching many fish.  I managed to catch a couple nice jumbo's before dark and Rob caught a couple small ones that he let go.  He also caught two mud puppies and one of them was orange!  The fish still might be in the channel but today conditions were not ideal.  We'll try again soon.  Good luck fishin'

Perch Leaving Bay through the Channel.

Yesterday was my best perch day of the year.  When I got to the South Pier it was drizzling out and it did not take long to catch fish.  The wind was blowing steadily from the east-northeast but the fish didn't seem to mind.  My brother and I were reeling the fish in one or two at a time for much of the afternoon.  I ended up keeping 24 fish some of which were huge.  They ranged in size from 8 inches to just over 14 inches.  The majority of them were around 10 inches.  We threw back lots of smaller ones. 

My brother caught the largest white perch that I have ever seen.  I think it was a citation but he didn't want to keep it so he tossed it back in.  Our final numbers:  I kept 24 fish, he kept 18.  The fish are heavy in the channel but will soon be gone.  We might have a couple more weeks tops to catch them.  Good luck fishin'

Good Perch Evening on South Pier

The water is warming up into the 50's and the big perch are heading out of the bay and into the lake.  Channel fishing on both sides has been very good and this evening did not let me down.  The wind was blowing out of the east and the current kept shifting in the channel.  I didn't think I was going to catch any but I was happy to be wrong.  I caught 5 nice perch within about 10 minutes of sitting down.  My friend Rob showed up (check out his blog too, lots of good information and hunting stuff also -Robfisherie blog) and he quickly started catching fish.  It slowed down towards dark and I ended up with 14 nice fish around 10 to 11 inchers were most of them.  Not huge but very nice perch.  The shore spring season is nearing the end.  We might have three weeks left if we are lucky.  I am going to be hitting them hard over the next couple weeks.  Good luck fishing and if you are fishing one of the piers and not catching any, try moving around to find the schools.  Bass fishing continues to be very good in the channel during the midday hours.  Remember you can only keep one fish and it has to be 20 inches until the regular bass season in June. 

Sunny Weather Slow Perch Day

This afternoon I went out and netted minnows and then tried again for perch.  I went down to the South Pier and there were a lot of fisherman today.  The channel was calm but still had a strong current so I could not cast out far.  I fished for nearly three hours and just caught 1 big goby.  Right before dark, though, I caught a nice jumbo perch around 12 inches.  My friend Randy caught a white perch and a big ole rock bass.  We gave the rock bass away but decided to eat the white perch and compare it to yellow perch. 

I cleaned the fish at my friends house along with about a dozen we caught the other day and then we made dinner.  The yellow perch were fantastic like usual.  The white perch I would say was very good.  It tasted mild like haddock but not sweet like yellow perch.  I would definitely keep them and fry them up again.  My friend Randy said, "Heck, if I want fish like that I will just buy some Van de Kamp's fish sticks."  He said he thought they tasted the same.  Well, perch season from the shore is almost over.  I got to fish with a couple of my friends and brother but some people are missing it.  I won't put all of their names here but one is Mike and the other is my cousin Billy.

They missed out on one of the best shore spring perch seasons in a long time.  My friend Rob slammed the fish almost every outing.  I didn't do too bad myself.  Thousands of perch have been in the channel for several weeks now and I have seen numerous limits of fish caught mostly by the old timers who get there sometimes before I even get to bed.  I am usually not a morning person and it's pretty hard to wake up and go fishing at 4:30 in the morning.  If you go to the pier this early, you will see quite a few people fishing and pulling them in one after another. 

Having said that, during the day quite a few trophy smallmouth bass have been caught.  I talked to one gentleman today that said he caught 7 fish all over 20 inches and put them all back.  I saw several whoppers caught today on grubtails and crankers.  I am not a big bass fisherman because I like to eat what I catch, however, this year looks like a banner trophy bass season. 

The only fish that I heard is not being caught in good numbers is crappie.  Maybe they will turn on soon but I talked to quite a few guys that aren't doing too well on them.  A few nice ones were pulled out of the US Border Patrol pier a few days ago.  I am going to go after them in a week or so when the water warms up a couple more degrees.  The water temperature today is right around 50.  Good luck fishin'

Perch Still Present in Channel in Good Numbers.

Today was a beautiful spring day and I decided to head down to the South Pier.  The water temperature in the bay warmed up a couple of degrees and now the invasive round goby is active and stealing the bait.  My brother and a friend Randy went fishing with me and we sat there for quite some time just catching gobies.  About a half hour before dark, the perch starting biting.  The size is smaller than just a week or so ago.  Most of the fish were around 8 inches give or take an inch so quite a few that we caught were thrown back.  We managed to put two jumbos in the bucket along with 9 keepers.  My brother also caught two mud puppies which is a good sign.  Mud puppies are a great indicator of a healthy ecosystem.  Pollutants that sink and stay in the substrate tend to kill the sensitive mud puppy.  The more mud puppies the cleaner the channel substrate.  I would have loved to take a picture of the mud puppies but did not have my camera.  They were both very large for mud puppies with no sores.  Both of them very healthy.  Good luck fishing and if you catch mud puppies, please toss them back in the water.  The gobies;  well, you can feed them to the seagulls as they love to eat them.

Big Perch Still Hanging Out in Channel.

Some real nice perch have been caught over the last couple days in the channel.  Today, I tried to fish the South Pier and had to fight a very strong outgoing current.  The fish are still there, however, it is kinda tough to catch them when your bait is rubbing up against the pier due to intense current.

I managed to catch a nice 12 inch jumbo before getting ticked off at all the weeds and trash colliding with my fishing line.  I took off well before sunset.  If you are fisherman, you know you have to take the bad days as well as the good.  Today was not too great but maybe Wednesday I will catch more.  Good luck!