Fishidiot wrote:
Lake Marburg, for example, is swarming with 'em. If you can find 'em in decent sizes, they make for a great fish fry.
You are very observant, FI! Actually, the white perch in that pic is from Marburg a couple days ago!
The white perch breed two times a year and are overrunning Lake Marburg. Everywhere along the shore at Marburg are signs now that ask anglers to please keep all the white perch you catch.
Every morning and late evening, the schools of white perch gather on the top to chase the small minnows. A little streamer is just perfect for catchin' them. During the day time hours, the perch stay in deep, about 30', water and a spin rod is the only way to catch them.
As far as tablefare: yeah, from a clean lake like Marburg, the perch fillets are great eating. The big ones, usually around 11", have a dark red section in the middle after you fillet them. You have to cut it out because of the strong taste. But the smaller ones, 8" or 9", make a perfect white firm tasty fillet. I use a electric fillet knife and can make nice fillets in 15 seconds!
Most boats that troll in the afternoon are using inline spinners with a hunk of worm, and usually catch over 100 white perch every trip. Schools have been reported at ten feet thick and over 100 yards long...... they are taking over the lake and eating all the small other fish!
Even though I'm a C&R guy, I keep a few white perch to help the lake?