SAE: 1 hour
Research done using: http://www.iowadnr.gov/fish/iafish/ylp-fish.html, http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/pictures/Perca_flavescens.html, http://www.stoneflysociety.org/fishinfo/yellowperch.htm, and http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishfacts/yellowperch.asp
Yellow perch are very different from sunfish. They are longer and skinner comparatively. There are two main types of perch, yellow and white. Both are found in freshwater, but I have never caught a white perch, only yellow. Yellow perch are commonly found in freshwater reservoirs and calm waters across the east coast. They appear yellow and sometimes green with several black or dark stripes across their backs. The fins are anywhere from red to orange or yellow to white.
Also, their dorsal (top) fin is completely split into two sections; the first spiky and the second, smooth. Few freshwater fish have this, but it is not uncommon in saltwater. Yellow perch can grow to up to eighteen inches in length, most adults reach between a foot and a foot and a half. Male yellow perch migrate to shallow areas where they wait for the females. The females can lay between 5,000 and 109,000 eggs. They lay their eggs in strands that are delicately attach to organic debris or some type of structure. Numerous males fertilize the eggs and in two to three weeks the eggs hatch. The larvae feed in the shallows until they can manage to get into deeper water where they are safer. After one to three years for males and two to three years for females, they can go back to the shallows and annual lay eggs and fertilize. The spawning areas change a lot with the receding and expanding of the water's shores. Yellow perch have been known to live up to thirteen years.
Yellow perch eat invertebrates, zooplankton, snails, insects on the surface of the water, and the occasional small fish. They can be caught in freshwater during the warm, bright hours of the summer with live or artificial baits. They will eat the commonly used blood worm, as well as fake minnows. Usually they are caught on fly rods because the bait is a bug or insect skimming the water's surface, where the yellow perch often feed.
SAE: 1 hour
Another panfish I catch is the red-breasted sunfish. In the same family as bluegills and pumpkinseed sunfish. Red-breasted sunfish have the more nicknames than the other panfish, they are sometimes called bream, or river bream, sun perch, robin, yellowbelly sunfish, and longear fish. Red-breasts are appropriately named because they are the brightest sunfish, with their red and scarlet stomachs. The vivid colors are only prominent on male fish, females also have red and orange, but it is much duller. These fish can be told apart from other sunfish by their gills. Red-breasts have a longer gill cover, usually longer than an inch in length, and it is entirely black. Other species have shorter, more colorful gill covers and the long black covers of these fish set them apart from the others. There are no subspecies for this type of fish.
Similar to other panfish, they create circular beds, but unlike the bluegills, they are spread apart and scattered among the freshwater floor, rather than clumped together. This species will also take over abandoned beds other fish had used in the past. Males construct and guard their nests, which can get filled with between 1,000 and 10,000 eggs. The female's age and health determines the amount of eggs and the number of larvae that hatch.
Red-breasted sunfish are some of the best freshwater fish when it comes to diet. They do not eat much at any given time, but they will eat just about anything. From small fish and larvae to crayfish, shrimp, clams and sometimes even the occasional snail. Despite their good eating habits, red-brested sunfish are the slowest growing sunfish they usually grow to a maximum of eight inches and do not live past seven years. It takes them between two and threee years to reach just six inches. Most sunfish will only eat in the daytime, but red-breasts will feed on live bait and artificial lures even in the night. A fisherman can use things like flies, grasshoppers, crickets, worms, and the occasional small minnow too. Another unique fact is that the red-breasted sunfish have a stripe, usually green or blue colored that separates their tails from their body. This stripe can help them hide from predators because it helps them blend into the strips of weeds and plants on the ground where they hide.
A red-breasted sunfish looks like:
The colors of a female fish are duller and sometimes the body and tail separation stripe is not prominent. Every red-breasted sunfish, whether male or female, always has the extended black gill cover and a red, or orange shaded stomach. The top half, usually a dark or medium green is almost identical to that of other sunfish, like bluegills. The red-breasted sunfish tails are usually a deep red, or burnt orange color, it can also look rusty and therefore further helps to disguise the fish when it is hiding from predators. Red-breasted sunfish are commonly hunted by trout, bass, pikes, and even larger sunfish.
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