White Pearch Trash or Treasure

[Howard Webster]

This is the first of these i have ever caught. I was not sure what it was so I Googled it. I am going to try eating the four tht I kept. I read that some states have laws that all white pearch caught must not be allowed back in the water. So I am asking people with mor knowledge than I whats the deal with these fish. I don't know how they taste but they are real easy to clean.

[Farm Hunter]

Hey Howard -

Others will probably chime in - but that looks more like a mature Golden Shiner. Full grown golden shiners are often more silver than gold. A white perch looks real similar but has two dorsal fins. Super Bass bait right there!

FH

[John Sheehan]

I totally agree that that is NOT a white Perch but a Shiner! White Perch have rough scales like yellow perch...Shiners are smoother scaled fish I believe.Also perch have a distinctive puffing out of their gills when held in the hand that I dont think shiners are capable of.The lateral line in White Perch is very apparent while not so in Shiners.Never noticed that at first glance, at least in a photo I can understand a mixup in ID

[IceWarriorGill]

That looks like a large golden Shiner there in your photo!! Have caught quite a few of them around 12 inches in length!! They make great bait for 10 lbs + Largemouth Bass!!! Above is a photo of a White Perch for comparison. Notice the absence of prominent lateral line on the Golden Shiner (present on the White Perch). Also notice the elongated shape to the Golden Shiner vs the more rounded shape to the White Perch. Both put up a great fight on light tackle and love small spoons and tiny Mepps Inline spinners!!

[Alex]

that IS NOT a white perch. It looks to me like a golden shiner. Its definetly not a white perch though... I perosnally wouldn't eat them but thats me.

[Don Swearingen]

According to A.J.McClane, the golden shiner (My opinion is that that is what it is, too.) large golden shiners are "edible panfish". I am awaiting your report on what they taste like. Otherwise, they are considered forage fish for bass.

[creekx]

Thats a Golden shiner,White perch aren't bad table fare as long as they are under 1 lb in weight, anything bigger you have too much mud vein to trim from fillets.

[John Sheehan]

Howard-What did you catch this Shiner on? I'm guessing a nightcrawler on bottom .I havent caught one in a long time.Time for me to target one!

[Howard Webster]

I caught them with a quill bobber and small piece of worm and the 2 I ate were very good eating.

[Howard Webster]

AS you all know this is not a white perch. The place I am fishing is over run with them they run from 6 to 9 inches average. These things will bite anything tossed to them they can fit in to their mouths. On the couple I cleaned to eat their guts were full of what looked like pearch eggs. The meet is more like that of a trout and very mild. I can not find a thing about them in the Vermont fishing regs I dont know if they can be kept or not. We have a very strict law about bait fish and their transportation. At this spot a person could have a ball with a flyrod.
This evening after work I caught between 75 and 100 in about 3 hours.

[Farm Hunter]

I'd be really surprised if you couldn't keep them.

My guess is that you have an inlet nearby. They will run upstream to spawn like other fish and gather in bays and around inlets in the early spring. We used to catcht them by hand along with white sucker on a local creek flowing into a natural lake in NY when I was a kid. We would trap them and use them for Pickeral bait ( or bass bait if they were still around in June) They tend to disperse again as summer comes on.

even in NY they can get 10-12" sometimes.

FH

[Howard Webster]

Keeping baitfish in Vermont is a gray area. The law states tht a person cannot transport bait fish from one body of water to another. Alive or dead. We are suppose to kill all unused baitfish and leave them on the water. We are no longer allowed to trap or posess any bait fish without a bait dalers tag then you may keep them for 24 hours after purchase, Unless you keep them on the body of water you were fishig. I will complain more about this in my blog later. Anyone travling to Vermont wants to be carful and fully understand this issue. I don't and I live here.

[Jim Gronaw]

Nice golden shiners, Howard. We have them in many of our lakes and on the Delmarva ponds they are known as 'millroach'. They are a important forage species for bass and stripers and pickerel...we try to imitate them with Lucky Craft Pointers 128's in ghost shad patterns to catch stripers in Piney Run Lake. The white pech that Warrior posted is a quality panfish specie in the Chesapeake region and has found its way to many Mid Atlantic lakes through Johnny Appleseed stockings. Some of these results have not been good as white perch can dominate the panfish environment, especially in small reservoirs, if no adequate predators exist.