The yellow perch is a favourite sport fish of children. This small prolific fish, widely distributed in Canada's inland waters, has delighted generations of young anglers, not to mention their elders. But its importance does not stop there. Commercial fishermen catch large numbers, the greatest production coming from the Great Lakes. Today it is the most valuable commercial catch taken from Ontario waters. As well, in the ecology of many of our rivers and lakes, it is of inestimable value as the prey of larger fish.
The scientific name of this fish, Perca flavescens, describes its body colouration perfectly. Perca is an ancient word meaning dusky and flavescens means yellowish. The yellow perch is dusky olive green over the back, and its sides to below the pectoral fins are yellow or yellow-green marked with six to eight broad, dusky, vertical bars. Its belly is white. Like other members of the perch family, such as the walleye and sauger, it has two well separated dorsal fins, the first spiny-rayed and the second softrayed. It seldom exceeds a length of 30 cm or weighs more than 450 gm, averaging in weight only 100 to 300 grams.
Primarily a lake fish, the yellow perch is also found in ponds and slow-moving rivers and streams across the northern United States and in all of the Canadian provinces. It is especially abundant in Manitoba lakes and in the Great Lakes drainage system. It occurs as far north as Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories.
Perhaps the easiest of all fish to catch, it is taken in all seasons of the year. It responds to any type of natural bait and will also attack artificial lures. Usually it moves in large, loose schools which, when encountered, provide the angler with fast and furious activity.
Commercial fishermen catch the yellow perch with gillnets, poundnets, and trapnets.
An excellent pan fish, the flesh of the yellow perch is firm, white, and sweet-tasting. Most of the commercial catch is filleted for sale in the United States, but there is a growing market for it in Canada. It is marketed here both as the whole fish and as fillets.
