What's In a Name?
Yellow perch: a perch with sides that vary from a pale yellow to a bright orange yellow

Perca (purr´-kah) the early Greek name for "perch"
flavescens (flah-vess´-sins) means "becoming gold" or "yellow colored" in Latin

How Big Do They Get?
How Long Do They Live?
Female yellow perch grow faster and reach an overall bigger size than males do. Some females get to almost 375 mm (15 in) and weigh over 0.5 kg (1 lb). But it is more common to find both sexes at lengths of 200-290 mm (8-11 in) and average weights of 170-300 g (6-10 oz). The state record for this fish is 1.5 kg (3 lb 4 oz). It was caught in Lake Plantaganette in Hubbard County. Yellow perch typically live for 7-9 years. The oldest known age is 13. Females live longer on average than males do.

What Eats Them?
The yellow perch is a common prey to many piscivorous (fish-eating) fishes, including largemouth and smallmouth bass, northern pike, musky, walleye, bowfins, burbot, lake trout, and others. Even sunfishes and crappies consume larval yellow perch. Common fish eating birds such as gulls, mergansers, loons, kingfishers, eagles and herons consume perch of various sizes. Since the meat from this fish is similar to that of the ever-popular walleye, it is commonly a treat for many anglers, especially those who ice-fish.

How Do They Reproduce?
Yellow perch spawn fairly early, soon after ice-out in April and early May. Water temperature only needs to reach 7° C (45° F) to induce spawning. They build no nest, and there is no parenting of the eggs or young. Males reach sexual maturity at 2-3 years old and females at 3-4 years old. These adult perch move to shallow, weedy areas of lakes or into slower protected areas of a stream. At night females are escorted by two or more males as they move among the weeds. Females drape their eggs in an accordion-like strand over the vegetation. The males fertilize the eggs as they are released. A single female may lay 10,000-200,000 eggs, depending on her size and health.

The eggs (embryos actually) hatch in about 2 weeks and shortly afterwards migrate to the open water of the lake or drift downstream to pools or backwaters. They stay in the open water until they are about 25 mm (1 in) long and then migrate into weedy areas near shore.

Conservation and Management
Yellow perch are usually not the sport fish most anglers try for, but they are one that most anglers catch. They are especially common in the ice-anglers bucket. Yellow perch flesh is firm and very good tasting. One of the problems with perch is that they have a tendency to overpopulate, especially in lakes where too many of the larger sport fish have been harvested. Lakes with lots of "nuisance" small perch are called "perch lakes". The usual management strategy is to allow the predator fish species to recover, which often happens on its own because anglers go elsewhere.