Although it's a small fish, the yellow perch is so tasty that it's been a staple of commercial fishing in the Great Lakes since the late 19th century.
From 1889 through 1970, the yellow perch catch on Lake Michigan alone averaged 2.4 million pounds a year. However, the species began to decline so rapidly during the 1990s that commercial fishing is now severely regulated and several states have placed bag limits on sports fishermen.
The yellow perch ranges in length from 4 to 12 inches and in weight from 3 ounces to about a pound.
Its name comes from its yellow or yellow-green sides, which are marked with six to eight wide, darker, vertical bars. The back is olive green and the belly is gray or white.
Smaller perch feed mostly on plankton, aquatic insects, and fish eggs, using tiny, brush-like teeth. The larger ones also eat the young of various kinds of fish, as well as crawfish.
The fish feed in schools in rather shallow water, often near the shore of smaller ponds and lakes. Preferred feeding times are morning and evening. Yellow perch also feed the year around, so they're popular among ice fishermen.
Yellow perch spawn in the spring, usually in the shallows of a lake or pond, but occasionally in tributary rivers.
The female lays more than 20,000 eggs, which are extruded in a gelatinous ribbon and deposited over woody debris or vegetation. The eggs hatch in 8 or 10 days.
Because of the large number of eggs and the fact that yellow perch can tolerate low oxygen levels and live through the winter, the species can easily take over a small pond, resulting in a stunted population.