I would keep a 7 incher....I rate the sizes as a "Taco", "Sammich", or "Dinner"...dinner being a jumbo.

They just have to be big enough to go through the commercial scaler at Port Clinton Fish Co.

I prefer eating the smaller ones myself. In fact, tell me if I'm wrong here.... that when you're cooking up some fried perch and someone comes to talk to you in the kitchen...they always sneak a piece or two to "test"...which ones do they snatch up? Yep, it's the littlest ones.

Also, if a smaller fish is going to die because it swallowed the hook and damage is done trying to get it back...I keep it. Throwing it back is just going to feed the seagulls. Seagulls can eat the white perch I throw them. (I like seagulls)

Be gentle with the little ones....they are the future.

Saturday, there wasn't any live minnows available anywhere...but, luckily, I had made a minnow run earlier in the week, so I could freeze some. We used those, and they worked for us. I freeze mine in Wintergreen Rubbing Alcohol.