Students and anglers alike appreciate the Yellow Perch because it is so easy to catch and easy to identify. Jumbo Perch. On a White Perch, the pelvic fin faces downwards, and widens from the root out. Feel free to bring them over and I'll dispose of them for you. This is where the White Perch vs. Yellow Perch debate really kicks off. They kinda taste like a skunky rotten salmon. In fact, I've installed a disposal site at my house for those nasty critters. The perch of the Midwestern fish fry are Yellow Perch Perca flavescens Mitchill, 1814.
Yellow perch are pretty crappy tasting too. In Ontario, any perch over 10 inches is called a Jumbo Perch. There are some days when you can’t keep the Perch off your line. For many Canadian anglers, yellow perch are synonymous with summer fishing outings at the cottage with the kids. Yellow Perch have a triangular pelvic fin, which points out in a 45-degree angle. Taste. White perch are another invasive species, like John said, good seagull bait. Yellow Perch are yellow with 5-7 dark vertical bands that fade gradually near the belly. Another difference between the two species are the pelvic fins.
The two dorsal fines are separate. By the way, I was fortunate to fish in Finland one time – for pike and zander – and when I saw some of those giant European perch my first reaction was that they were yellow perch, because they look identical to our North American fish.
In fact, European perch can grow to as large as six pounds or more.
But they attain much greater sizes. North Eastern Ontario is well known for our Jumbo Perch population.