Perch

While freshwater perch (also called sunfish) are known to reach sizes where they can be cleaned and eaten on their own, they are generally considered a baitfish, useful for catching (at least where I'm from) catfish, and, to a lesser extent, bass.

The best way I've found to catch them is to place a small bit of earthworm on a tiny baitholder hook - I don't know the size, but the ones I use have a gap of about 5mm and a shank about 8mm. Use 6 lb. or smaller line, and set a small split-shot about 3 inches above, and (optionally) tie a swivel a few inches above that. Put a bobber about 12 to 14 inches from the hook, and toss the whole mess out about 10 feet or so from shore. When the bobber goes under, jerk the rod lightly upwards to set the hook. No need to rip the fish's lips off, here.

Once you bring them in, there's a number of things you can do. Alive, they make excellent bait for yellow catfish and largemouth bass; larger ones can be hooked through the jaw and upper lip, rather than the head (like one would with a minnow). They're also useful as cutbait; there doesn't seem to be any point to filleting them, but just chopping them works fine; I pulled in the biggest channel of my life on a perch head.

Perch (?), n. [Written also pearch.] [OE. perche, F. perche, L. perca, fr. Gr. ; cf. dark-colored, Skr. pni spotted, speckled, and E. freckle.] Zool.

1.

Any fresh-water fish of the genus Perca and of several other allied genera of the family Percidae, as the common American or yellow perch (Perca flavescens, or Americana), and the European perch (P. fluviatilis).

2.

Any one of numerous species of spiny-finned fishes belonging to the Percidae, Serranidae, and related families, and resembling, more or less, the true perches.

Black perch. (a) The black bass. (b) The flasher. (c) The sea bass. -- Blue perch, the cunner. -- Gray perch, the fresh-water drum. -- Red perch, the rosefish. -- Red-bellied perch, the long-eared pondfish. -- Perch pest, a small crustacean, parasitic in the mouth of the perch. -- Silver perch, the yellowtail. -- Stone, or Striped, perch, the pope. -- White perch, the Roccus, or Morone, Americanus, a small silvery serranoid market fish of the Atlantic coast.

© Webster 1913.

Perch (?), n. [F. perche, L. pertica.]

1.

A pole; a long staff; a rod; esp., a pole or other support for fowls to roost on or to rest on; a roost; figuratively, any elevated resting place or seat.

As chauntecleer among his wives all Sat on his perche, that was in his hall. Chaucer.

Not making his high place the lawless perch Of winged ambitions. Tennyson.

2. (a)

A measure of length containing five and a half yards; a rod, or pole.

In land or square measure: A square rod; the 160th part of an acre.

In solid measure: A mass 16

3.

A pole connecting the fore gear and hind gear of a spring carriage; a reach.

© Webster 1913.

Perch, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Perched (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Perching.] [F. percher. See Perch a pole.]

To alight or settle, as a bird; to sit or roost.

Wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch. Shak.

© Webster 1913.

Perch, v. t.

1.

To place or to set on, or as on, a perch.

2.

To occupy as a perch.

Milton.

© Webster 1913.