The First Fish- Perch!
Most all of us who love fishing will never forget their first fish. Here in Michigan your first fish was likely to be a bluegill, maybe a crappie, bullhead or rock bass. If you were really lucky, it was a perch! You may have been amazed at the pretty yellow fish with the vertical stripes and orange fins flopping on the end of your hook.
When you’re a kid and you’ve just caught your first fish, primal instincts click in. Anticipation, excitement, fear…but they all give way to the natural desire to hunt and eat! I’ve seen it time and again. Kids do not believe in catch and release, they all want to eat their catch—and there’s no better catch to eat than lake perch!
Perch are smaller cousins of the walleye (another top Michigan food fish) and there’s a reason why perch are in such high demand—they are delicious! White, delicate and sweet…so good that just the name “perch” is copied as a market name for other (and lesser) species such as “Ocean Perch” (really a North Atlantic Redfish) “White Perch” (a freshwater bass) or “Surf Perch” (small Pacific members of the Embiotocidae family). None of them can even touch our own premier pan fish, the Lake Perch.
So if you happen to be one of those poor kids who have never experienced the joy of catching a perch, come on by the market for free fishing advice—there are thousands of perch within 20 miles of Ann Arbor! Or just pick some out of our case for dinner or we’ll cook ’em up for your lunch for a true taste of Michigan.