Beware Of White Perch Populations In Your Local Waters!

[SENKOSAM]

About 15 years ago my club had a panfish tournament on our local lake and between my partner and I we brought in over 70 pounds of only white perch, average size 5-6". This year I've noticed a population explosion of WP with the largest average size up to 12".

 

WP are fun to catch - being of the bass family, they go after many bass lures , but after checking out their biology stats and checking with different state DNRs that have problems with them, I'm concerned for the other species in the lake. The reasons are as follows:

 

1. One female is capable of laying 300,000 eggs that are fertilized by many males. The eggs are dropped while the female swims and the eggs stick to vegetation - no nest for sunfish or WP to raid.

 

2. WP invade the nests of all species any time of year - this includes sport fish and forage species such as yellow perch, crappie and sunfish.

 

3. WP compete with all other species for forage which includes fingerlings of all other species and minnows as a usual part of their diet. The schools can hold over a thousand fish that sweep areas clean of forage that can be swallowed.

 

4. Once WP reach a certain size, they don't have enough large predators to control their population and they eat larger fish as they get bigger, not just fingerlings or fry.

 

One state, Kansas, recommends they never be released when caught and another state has seen the destruction of walleye populations due to WP over populations. My own local DEC fisheries biologist told me recently that WP were not native to one of our largest reservoirs and that the large population increase could be a problem for the native fish such as different species of trout, bass and walleye.

 

Fortunately I haven't heard too much on any site regarding WP, but having caught over 500 in all sizes this year, prompted me to report it to my fishing club which owns a launch on the lake. Hopefully the club will have a few targeted WP tournaments and restore balance. Otherwise, only larger bass will survive but only as long as their forage bases holds up to get that large.

[J Francho]

Fish with bigger baits.  I haven't caught a white perch in years.  When I do, it's early spring.  Otherwise, their preferred habitat doesn't seem to intersect largemouth bass'.  We used to call them "silver bass" when I was a kid.

[KyakR]

Interesting! I have fond memories of catching these with my dad for a fish fry......but SS post was enough to pull me out of happy nostalgia! Gonna ask the fisheries guy in my area (Southwestern Maine) what he's seen.....

[tomustang]

All you need to do is like the local catch and eat guys know they taste good and they will diminish

[SENKOSAM]

Thanks Kayak for the relevant reply.

Unfortunately the lake is private and far fewer meat anglers take fish like years ago. In fact I know of one member that take lunker bass out to stock his pond - all legal.

 

My fish & game club mostly fishes for bass/pickerel/pike for our tournament stats and many, believe it or not, don't have the right tackle,  know-how or desire to fish for pan fish. In recent years some members came in with a dozen crappie after fishing for six hours, but now the targeted species should be nothing but WP and anyone will catch at least 10 pounds in that time.  Of the 70 pounds my partner and I caught, both livewells in my boat were full and the floor littered with a layer of fish - no other species other than WP!

 

If the members aren't serious about protecting the lake, I'm not going to kill WP by myself. Besides, the big ones are fun to catch on small bass lures! (Wonder how WP taste...)

 

 BTW - No state DEC limits on WP of any kind.

[J Francho]

The ONLY 100% fool proof way to remove any population of a particular species would be to remove all live fish from the lake, and restock.

[PABASS]

Never caught a WP, not sure if they live in any waters I fish regularly.  I would image Muskie would put a damage on them..

[SENKOSAM]

There is no way to eradicate a species unless, as you say, take out everything and restock. That was done in a trout lake to get rid of smallmouth not far from me. But if the club can put a dent on the thousands of perch every year, especially those 12" or bette and remove them, hopefully bass and pickerel will shave off a few thousand more over the years. Just to see how many were in a school in 1 FOW, I fan cast a flat. I must have hooked over 50 - 3" WP. Every place crappie hung out, so did WP and WP commonly swim in schools of mixed species and by size. I've caught bass, pickerel, WP, crappie and yellow perch in the same school located near rocks and points  - but more WP recently.

[bigbill]

At one of our local lakes we had an out of control population of white perch. They introduced the great northern pike to control it. Now most all our lakes have great northern pike in them. All these lakes are connected by streams. I wish we had Muskies too.

[SENKOSAM]

Interesting you say that. Tiger Muskies were introduced into Greenwood Lake, NY and now the bass fishery isn't anywhere near what it was15 years ago. Just coincidence?  Did the pike end up helping control the WP?

[Bluebasser86]

They're illegal to posses alive in Kansas or even use for live bait in the lakes that they already exist. It must be working fairly well as they haven't been found in but a couple lakes in the state. I wish I could say the same for the zebra mussels that are popping up in a few new lakes every year it seems 

[J Francho]

Interesting you say that. Tiger Muskies were introduced into Greenwood Lake, NY and now the bass fishery isn't anywhere near what it was15 years ago. Just coincidence?  Did the pike end up helping control the WP?

 

Tiger Musky are sterile hybrids that get big fast, but don't reproduce - hence their popularity for use to control panfish populations.  They eat everything they can fit in their mouth, though, and they are somewhat territorial, so the best structures in the lake may not hold the best bass.  I fish a small lake that has them, and can tell you the bass are pretty big, though it isn't a numbers lake. I also fish a larger lake tat has stocked them, and that place is a bass factory. Most of the tigers I've caught though aren't very big.  Yet.

[SENKOSAM]

Must be something other than the muskies that caused a decline in the fishery. Could be the homeowners taking out every bit of weeds with harvesting machines in mid spring into summer, reducing cover for fingerlings. When I say bare I mean BARE!

[J Francho]

Didn't they introduce grass carp there to control the weeds?  Or am I thinking of Mahopac?

 

No weeds....very few largemouth.

[SENKOSAM]

Mahopac and unfortunately my local lake, Orange Lake outside of Newburgh - also a home owner sponsored overstocking.

[MitchTBF]

I'm not a big fan of them in my local waters, mainly because they are so small and numerous...but they come in handy when I take a non-fisher fishing and they cath a ton of them. Sometimes quantity over quality is welcome.

[SENKOSAM]

Strange, but yesterday I was fishing a rocky point where I caught a mixed bag -bass, pickerel, crappie and white perch. The water temp has dropped into the low 50's and the only fish I caught in the same spot were bass and crappie. I wonder if the WP have started suspending in deeper water. In any case they need to be culled from the lake to preserve bass and forage fish populations.