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Yellow perch

Good question.
I want to catch some this year.

I know they catch them in God's Country (East TN) but not sure how far West they are at.
 
I've heard of some good catches of yellow perch come from Melton Hill Lake but lots of folks won't eat anything out of there because of contaminants. Biggest one I ever caught was a little over 3/4 lb around Solway.
 
TnBob said:
Where can you catch yellow perch in Tennessee?
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We have started catching some in the last few years on pickwick lake,one or two in early spring,trolling for crappie,and one or two went we start fishing for shellcracker. :)
 
there are a few in tellico/ft. loudon lakes and i have caught a few in chilhowee while trout fishing. but i have never really targeted them.
 
I know one guy who says he catches them below Tellico Dam while crappie fishing. There are quite a few below Ft. Loudoun Dam also, but small. When I was growing up I never remember catching yellow perch. They started mysteriously showing up in the 1980s. I've caught some small ones out of the Emory River and Clinch River sections of Watts Bar, but nothing over 9" or 10". They're usually much smaller than that, say average 5" out of that lake. Some think they migrated here by the Ohio River. Others say some retirees from up north moved down here and introduced them to Tennessee because they were their favorite fish..
 
I was told that TWRA stocked them within the TN River system of reservoirs. I'm sure that's documented, or someone on the site knows.

I've caught them fishing with minnows on the Kentucky Lake before while crappie fishing in the spring (I was too early, and the crappie hadn't moved into the shallow water where we were fishing). The bite was slower than a good crappie bite for us, but we did manage to catch about 10-15 of the guys in the 10-12" range. I've only caught them a few times up there, and that was many years ago (1992-1994, I would guess).

They are great eating, but you can't scale them like crappie. They are a northern fish with hard, tightly spaced scales. The best way of cleaning is to fillet off the scales, then trim the ribs out of the meat.

The flesh is very white and excellent for cooking any way you can think of to cook fish.
 
TnBob said:
Where can you catch yellow perch in Tennessee?
Click to expand...
Best lake in the state is Chilhowee. Yellow perch thrive in the Tennessee mountain lakes. BTW, it so happens we have a guide, Capt. Scott Lillie, who guides on Chilhowee routinely. #justsayin

perch1.jpgperch2.jpgperch3.jpgperch4.jpgperch5.jpg
 
I catch a good amount of them in Melton hill, none the size that are in the pictures above but cat them when fishing for bream or crappie
 

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