I fish Chickamauga quite regularly not that seriously though. I have caught a few yellow perch over the years but they seem to be few and far between. I wish that fishery would develop because that is one fish I do keep to eat when they're big enough. On a side note this summer I have caught a half a dozen walleye out of the lake. All seem to be in the 14 to 15 inch range so they are growing.
Yellow perch question
- Thread starter RUGER
- Start date
shootsme1
Well-Known Member
I can show you 100 a day
Biggun4214
Well-Known Member
That's a log perch.View attachment 114356
I'm guilty as well…. But he did ask…
Now I've gotta send of and get me one of them TWERP certificates…
Sorry Ruger…
shootsme1
Well-Known Member
I think we both know the same honey hole it's in Polk county
shootsme1
Well-Known Member
Best time to fish is end of feb first of march
Love eating yellow bass! They are very tasty.
Yes, they will try to kill you if they can. My fishing buddy says they would sneak into your bedroom at night and cut your throat if they could.
Lake Erie is full of them. Cought many during my early years. I also consider them the beat I've ever eaten.
They eat very good! I used to go to Ontario every couple of years on a fishing trip and they were plentiful and easy to catch. So were the smallmouths.
Rancocas
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I know that place too. Fished it for over 20 years. It used to be good, but it seems to me that after that guy disappeared there a few years ago, leaving an empty kayak, and the rescue people opened up the road a little, then the place was "discovered".
I think the new TN state record yellow perch came out of there.
I went there one Saturday last year and the place was a circus. Several guys were bragging; "We got 200!" or "We got 300". WTF you never heard of catch and release?! Yeah. They sure spoiled the area for me. I haven't been back there in over a year.
It happened way before the guy went missing but y'all are right, that lake is NOTHING compared to what it was 20 years ago. Can you still catch a lot of fish, absolutely! But not like in the "good ol days" and definitely not the quantity of quality because nobody knows how to catch a mess or two and leave.
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Everybody knew about it before the guy drowned. It was just such a hassle to get to with a boat that not a lot of people fooled with going. The kayak fishing explosion/popularity made it easier for people to access it without having a boat and the internet/YouTube, etc put it on the map for non locals to find. Don't forget about TVA draining it too (can't remember the exact yr but its not been too long ago). The bigger quality fish all came before they drained it. Now it's choked full of numbers of fish all the same general size. I like going up there for catching numbers of fish. I don't like eating them though and throw all of them back. I took some home to try and wasn't particularly fond of them but they are fun to catch. With that said I fished it several times last year and only saw 2 other boats the entire time and was only there on Saturdays. When I go there I make a day trip of it too. Maybe I just got lucky and hit it right. The last time I went, I was the only person there and I fished from about 1 pm until dark.
If you want to see a real circus, go to Dayton boat ramp or Wolftever on Chickamauga. I took off one day last week and was at the ramp before daylight. I pulled in and there was 6 trucks ahead of me in-line to launch and the parking lot was already 3/4 full of trucks and trailers that had already launched. By the time it was my turn to launch, 6-7 more were in line behind me. I asked if there was a tournament there that morning and they said no, just a normal day there. I'd hate to see it on a weekend or Friday!
If you want to see a real circus, go to Dayton boat ramp or Wolftever on Chickamauga. I took off one day last week and was at the ramp before daylight. I pulled in and there was 6 trucks ahead of me in-line to launch and the parking lot was already 3/4 full of trucks and trailers that had already launched. By the time it was my turn to launch, 6-7 more were in line behind me. I asked if there was a tournament there that morning and they said no, just a normal day there. I'd hate to see it on a weekend or Friday!
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nashvillefishingguides
Active Member
Where y'at? I'm thinking of making a trip to the east side of the state for some perch.
Be more than happy to reimburse for gas, bait, etc.
nashvillefishingguides
Active Member
Are you sure you weren't catching yellow bass?
Those are prevalent in this area (Nashville) but I've never heard of a "perch" coming out of Percy Priest or Cumberland river.
We catch (keep and eat) yellow bass all the time and lots of them, never caught a perch here.
nashvillefishingguides
Active Member
Morone mississippiensis, commonly known as the yellow bass, is a member of the family Moronidae. This species is a deep bodied fish that possesses five to seven dark stripes laterally along the sides, the lowest few of these are often broken or disrupted anterior to the origin of the anal fin. Wikipedia
nashvillefishingguides
Active Member
Attachments
nashvillefishingguides
Active Member
This is a Yellow perch
nashvillefishingguides
Active Member
Yes, as are the ones on yellow bass, hybrids and white bass!
nashvillefishingguides
Active Member
Those are white bass, not perch.
nashvillefishingguides
Active Member
Care to share what lake?
As for stocking, the bigger question is how successful biologists could be at raising them in hatcheries? I'm told by my biologist friends that walleye are fairly easy to rear and raise in a hatchery environment. However for some reason, their close cousins, sauger, are extremely difficult to raise in a hatchery environment. I have no idea how hard yellow perch are to raise, but I do find several sources online where you can buy them for stocking, so apparently it's possible. However, in my Googling I also found this on a couple of fish management web pages: "Being a very prolific fish with few spawning substrate requirements, perch can cause serious stunting problems in nearly any lake or pond."
I cannot let this old, but resurrected thread pass by, however, without pointing out that my guide partner, Capt. Scott Lillie, SLAYS huge yellow perch when fishing Chilhowee Reservoir in the mountains of East Tennessee. See: for just one example.
To book a trip call me.
