Caught a lot of white perch at Lake Townshend in Greensboro last week. Guy at the marina told us they were considered trash and they wanted them out of the lake. Caught some on Gaston a couple of days ago. How are these fish thought of in general? thanx, WL

Glad to have them!

Good to eat, fun to catch. Been cathing them since I was 4 years old. over 50 years.
Enjoy them.

Ditto. They put up a nice little fight, easy to clean and taste great.

Also some of the best flathead bait you can get!!

Great sport, good eatin...altho, when over-populated can be a real nuisance. they will bite anything from a 10" plastic worm to a real nitecrawler an eveything in between. so some people think of them as trash fish...kinda like what a lot of my crappie fishin buddies think of LMB. but, me? I like'em all, long as they'll stretch my line. an if they are as delicous as whiteperch, all the better!

Great. thanx for the info. WL

They are good eaters. The bigger the better. I filet them. They are also good catfish bait.

The 4-6" ones are annoying bait stealers, or at best bait themselves for bigger fish (if you didn't have the huge shad supply on Kerr, they would be very good striper and cat bait).

If you can find them in the 9" plus length, they are good eating, although as far as I am concerned their thicker rib bones make them a little harder to clean than other pan fish.

If nothing else is biting, they can at least give you some action on the water.

I agree with the majority on this one. They are fun to catch especially the bigger ones. They are delicious and make great catfish bait. And like fd said if they get over populated can be a nuisance. So don't hesitate to take smaller ones out especially for bait.

Bo