Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens)

Family - Percidae (purse-i-day). Perch species include Yellow Perch, Walleye, and Darters.

Yellow perch are in all the Great Lakes and many waters in between. You'll find some of the most significant concentrations eastern end of the Upper Peninsula.

Perch are usually a shallow water fish, most often found in less than 30 feet of water, but may be found deeper than 100 feet, particularly in summer. Young perch can be found closer to shore and in shallower water.

In summertime when it is hot, the old timers would take us to a 50 ft deep drop and we jigged a worm and got into a large school in Iron County Michigan.

Soft mouth made them hard to retrieve without loosing a lot of them. So a light touch when retrieving. Where you find one, there will be many like crappie and walleye.

Some lakes have special rules like Lake Gogebic in Gogebic and Ontonagon counties has the 25-fish daily limit with no more than five of those fish being 12 inches or longer.

Effective perch baits include earthworms, and minnows are a great choice, as is spinning with artificial lures or spoons.

The yellow perch is a common prey to many piscivorous (fish-eating) fishes, including largemouth and smallmouth bass, northern pike, musky, walleye, bowfins, burbot, lake trout, and others.

Yellow perch are most active early morning and late afternoon. Ideal times for perch to feed since the low-light conditions.

Health : Local waters have PCBs, dioxin, mercury, PFOS, and other chemicals that can be found in fish and stay in our environment for a very long time.

Be aware of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services - The Eat Safe Fish Guide (ESF Guide)

Wisconsin has the a health guide for eating fish in Wisconsin - Choose Wisely Contaminate Advisories for Wisconsin