New Michigan Perch Record Set After Mistakenly…

Growing up in a small town in Michigan on the shore of Lake Huron, I would have to say that my experience with the perch is extensive.

Never mind the idea that I would be out on the lake whenever I got a chance catching perch (even when the lake froze over), but I have a great amount of experience when it comes to eating it.

It seemed like you couldn’t throw a rock in my little corner of the world without it bouncing off of a restaurant that had perch on the menu.

I think everything but the fast food chains themselves had perch. So I can definitely say that the perch is definitely seared into my brain.

Michigan by and large is one massive fishing village. Everyone you know in most corners of the state have just gone fishing, are actively fishing, or are making plans to go fishing soon.

I suppose it was the lakes and rivers calling to us.

Anyway, enough about me. I want to talk about a fellow I learned about named Scott Smith. Scott was fishing on Lake St. Clair and had brought in what any competent fisherman would call a respectable haul.

He was about to bring the boat in when he made the decision to cast out one last time. He struggled with the fish on the other end of the hook and when he brought the creature to the surface he assumed by the size that it was a smallmouth bass.

Only when he looked at it a little bit closer did he see that it was a giant white perch.

So he called up a friend of his that worked at a fishery nearby and the friend said it was a white bass.

Still not convinced, called up the Michigan DNR office and they correctly identified it as a white perch. In fact, it was a new state record for the largest white perch ever caught.

It tipped the scale at 2.58 pounds and was somewhere around sixteen and a quarter inches long.

When asked if he was going to replica mount the fish he said that he had so many fish mounts in his house from catches over the years that he had no other place to put another one. Sounds like a guy who has done more than his fair share of fishing.