Perch issue

[West Basin]

I have heard that enough people are keeping small perch, as little as 5 inches long, that it's getting noticed by fish cleaners and others. At least that's what I've heard.

There is no size limit on perch in any of the three Lake Erie zones. That doesn't mean it's encouraged that people keep the small fish. The 5 inch or shorter. Or maybe go up to near 6 inches.

Yes, I understand sometimes a person has one or two chances a season to catch yellow perch. They want to "fill the freezer", so to speak, if possible. Fine, no issue. If you get more than a few trips, perhaps resist the temptation to toss a bunch of 6" and even shorter perch in the cooler on every trip. Be a bit more sensible. A few on a slower day, fine. Otherwise, is it really worth keeping a bunch of small perch every time, just to get a limit, when instead keeping 20 or so gets you pretty close to the same amount of filleted fish?

I was out on Saturday. Buddy and I caught 7 keepers, all 9 inches or bigger. Caught one other that was around 6", tossed it back. And four more that were real small. All four of those were released. It's nice that we are seeing a larger number of larger perch. And also nice to see a good number of 5-4" perch. If we really want to see the yellow perch population stabilize and not continue to overall decline, even a little, we might want to rethink our standards on what size we typically keep on any given trip. At least for now.

[gb1234]

8" is my minumum. There's just no meat on the smaller ones.
However, if a little guy swallows the hook, he's a goner anyway. No sense throwing back a fish that isn't going to live.

[Ole fisherman]

Good point...as I clean my own, they need to be 8 plus inches to make cleaning worthwhile. Many estimate there Perch size and it becomes obvious that their measuring is off. I often chat with others when coming in and compare fishing stories. Often they show me a cooler full if " jumbo" perch where mist are barely 9" long. I know some guys that clean fish and their stories from customers about size can be hilarious ! I keep a scale right on my cooler to actually measure my perch to try and be as accurate as I can be.

[BigDan]

I have heard that enough people are keeping small perch, as little as 5 inches long, that it's getting noticed by fish cleaners and others. At least that's what I've heard.

There is no size limit on perch in any of the three Lake Erie zones. That doesn't mean it's encouraged that people keep the small fish. The 5 inch or shorter. Or maybe go up to near 6 inches.

Yes, I understand sometimes a person has one or two chances a season to catch yellow perch. They want to "fill the freezer", so to speak, if possible. Fine, no issue. If you get more than a few trips, perhaps resist the temptation to toss a bunch of 6" and even shorter perch in the cooler on every trip. Be a bit more sensible. A few on a slower day, fine. Otherwise, is it really worth keeping a bunch of small perch every time, just to get a limit, when instead keeping 20 or so gets you pretty close to the same amount of filleted fish?

I was out on Saturday. Buddy and I caught 7 keepers, all 9 inches or bigger. Caught one other that was around 6", tossed it back. And four more that were real small. All four of those were released. It's nice that we are seeing a larger number of larger perch. And also nice to see a good number of 5-4" perch. If we really want to see the yellow perch population stabilize and not continue to overall decline, even a little, we might want to rethink our standards on what size we typically keep on any given trip. At least for now.

that might help, but i think the cormorants are a bigger problem

[RobM1969]

I agree, but when releasing, people need to handle the fish corerctly. It doesn't do any good to throw back a fish that isn't going to survive. I think Water Dog might have posted something similar in his thread recently. I'd bet that most of us on this forum probably hande and release fish the right way, so I'm probably preaching to the choir.

[West Basin]

Yep, keeping perch that are injured and either won't or are unlikely to survive makes good sense. I think nearly everyone does that.

Yes, cormorants have been an issue and still are. They have been culled several times over the years. I haven't seen as many so far this year, not like some years where they seemed to be everywhere in large flocks.

Maybe White Pelicans will become the next emerging issue.
GREAT OUTDOORS: White pelicans could be Lake Erie's next 'cormorant' | Sandusky Register Ohio falls in pelicans' migration routes and are more commonly spotted.

[JERRYA]

Have you ever been around when the commercial fishermen empty their nets? The by-kill of small perch and walleye is horrendous - the gulls have a field day. Given that, along with the cormorants, I don't believe anything us sport fishmen do, given the limits we have, makes any difference.

[West Basin]

Managing the yellow perch harvest is a complicated process. A lot is factored into it. If you want to read about it, the following document has detailed information.

https://www.glfc.org/pubs/lake_commi...eport_2025.pdf

All methods of harvest, commercial and sport, have an impact. Sport fishing has a much higher TAC (total allowable catch) than commercial fishing. But commercial fishing harvests a higher amount, due to their having much more effective catch methods.

In 2024:
"In years with high TAC, anglers receive 65% of Ohio’s quota and the trap net fishery receives the remaining 35%. In low TAC years, anglers receive a larger share of Ohio’s quota and commercial quotas can be as low as 25%."

"The lakewide harvest of Yellow Perch in 2024 was 3.500 million pounds, or 53% of the total 2024 TAC. This was a 19% decrease from the 2023 harvest of 4.305 million pounds."
Neither commercial nor sport harvested their TAC.

And... the commercial yellow perch size limit is 8 1/2 inches. Imagine what the sport fishing harvest would be if we had the same size regulation.

[stampman]

I always can't believe when I hear people complaining about the lack of numbers an size with a bucket full of short fish. A lake in Ala put a 1 inch bigger size limit on crappie to give it another yr. of spawn and it work. I wish they would do it on Erie for a few yrs. at least.

[Ole fisherman]

Most folks don't realize how much they are paying when their bucket contains a bunch of small perch when they go to the cleaners. Cost is by the pound and all those little fish cost more to clean than having just a few bigger fish as the waste on each fish is over 60%. I clean my own, glad we have limits...my perch need to be well over 8" to make the effort worthwhile. If more folks cleaned their own fish, they would be more picky about size...