Vanessa Weldon, Extension Associate, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
Large female yellow perch (courtesy of Cecil Baird, Baird Fish Taxidermy & Fish Farm, Ligonier, Indiana).
Yellow perch, Perca flavenscens, is a sportfish found throughout the Great Lakes region and highly valued for its high-quality, firm, white, flaky flesh (Hinshaw 2006). A commercial fishery established for yellow perch yielded as high as 37 million pounds through the 1950s and ’60s but nearly collapsed shortly thereafter (Scott and Crossman 1973). …