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.