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Yellow perch question

RUGER said:
With the exception of KY Lake, in what seems like scattered and limited quantities, there is nowhere around here to catch the yellow perch.

I have caught two in my life, both about 4" long while bream fishing on KY Lake.
I see where TWRA stocks bass and sometimes shad in lakes around the area.

Would stocking Yellow Perch in, for example the TWRA family fishing lakes be something that might happen?
Would they survive in those types of lakes?
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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.
 
RUGER said:
With the exception of KY Lake, in what seems like scattered and limited quantities, there is nowhere around here to catch the yellow perch.

I have caught two in my life, both about 4" long while bream fishing on KY Lake.
I see where TWRA stocks bass and sometimes shad in lakes around the area.

Would stocking Yellow Perch in, for example the TWRA family fishing lakes be something that might happen?
Would they survive in those types of lakes?
Click to expand...
I can show you 100 a day
 
Crow Terminator said:
If you're ever on this side of the state and want to go, give me a shout. I'll take you to yellow perch honey hole. Very easy to catch 100+ eating size in a short amount of time. I need to get new tires on my jon boat trailer and I plan on hitting it in October myself.
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I think we both know the same honey hole it's in Polk county
 
WTM said:
yellow bass are very good eaters too. taste a lot like bluegill toward the side of crappie. mix some in crappie filets and most cant tell the difference.

i will warn you, they come out of the water pissed off and will hurt you with those razor sharp gill plates.
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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. :p
 
shootsme1 said:
I think we both know the same honey hole it's in Polk county
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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.
 
Rancocas said:
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.
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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!
 
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Crow Terminator said:
If you're ever on this side of the state and want to go, give me a shout. I'll take you to yellow perch honey hole. Very easy to catch 100+ eating size in a short amount of time. I need to get new tires on my jon boat trailer and I plan on hitting it in October myself.
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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.
 
brassmagnet said:
Me and Urban Hunter got into a mess of them on Bledsoe Creek, off of Old Hickory Lake. We literally got tired of catching them. They did eat good though. I need to go get tired of catching again.
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brassmagnet said:
Me and Urban Hunter got into a mess of them on Bledsoe Creek, off of Old Hickory Lake. We literally got tired of catching them. They did eat good though. I need to go get tired of catching again....
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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@gm said:
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.
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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@gm said:
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
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RUGER said:
With the exception of KY Lake, in what seems like scattered and limited quantities, there is nowhere around here to catch the yellow perch.

I have caught two in my life, both about 4" long while bream fishing on KY Lake.
I see where TWRA stocks bass and sometimes shad in lakes around the area.

Would stocking Yellow Perch in, for example the TWRA family fishing lakes be something that might happen?
Would they survive in those types of lakes?
Click to expand...
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. :)
 

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