Hyrum Perchitos

[F15Hwhisperer]

Hit hyrum today, ice is looking good, 6-7" and crystal clear. There were a few people there when I got to the lake around noon, but by 12:45 I was all alone and the fishing started to pick up, a win win. I didn't catch any monsters, but fishing was pretty consistent and I took home 10 small 5-7" perch to make some fish chowder.

My question for you guys is, how small is too small to be worth the effort of filleting for you personally? These perch were borderline, but the be worth it when they are in my bowl.

Also, any good fish chowder recipes? I don't normally cook fish this way, but it just sounds good to me for some reason.
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[makinawfisher19]

I would say no perch is to small to fillet, even though they can be pretty small they are extremely delicious.
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[albinotrout]

[cool] sounds like a good day.
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[sysinu]

[quote makinawfisher19]I would say no perch is to small to fillet, even though they can be pretty small they are extremely delicious.[/quote]

amen to that! If there is a need to cull the population of smaller perch for a lake, I don't see any reason to not keep smaller perch (7+" in size). Best fish sticks you'll ever make involve oil, corn flakes, flour, egg, salt, and PERCH!
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]When determining whether or not to keep small panfish for the fillet knife, it is more a matter of girth or thickness rather than length. A healthy 7 inch perch will provide a worthwhile fillet...if you have several to use in your recipe. But a skinny fish of larger size may have fillets so thin they are difficult to process...and too thin to bother with.

Here's my "Pig Out Perch Chowder" recipe. Scale down the ingredients to fit the amount of fish you have to put in it.
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[SBennett]

I say 8" is a good benchmark.

My wife is nodding her head also but I don't know why?
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[SkunkedAgain]

+1 on Shane's 8" recommendation. Any smaller takes a lot of work for very little reward. Also a big +1 on TD's chowder you'll love it. However, it doesn't really matter what kind of white fleshed fish you use they all taste similar in the chowder. Thanks for the report. J
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[wagdog]

You've gotten some good recommendations already. I gotta throw one more in. This wouldn't work well for a chowder or any other recipe where you need fillets. Perch are also excellent whole. I like mine fried. All you need to do is cut the head off, get the guts out, and scale the fish. This is still my favorite way to eat members of the sunfish family as well. It is not too popular at my house because my kids would rather just eat fillets. However, in my never to be humble opinion, the meat tastes just a little better on the bone. Plus you can eat the tail of the fish when you fry it. It tastes like a potato chip. []
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[Springbuck]

On really small perch, I still like that "10 second perch" method, even though it takes closer to 30 second to a minute.

It leaves you with bone- in dressed perch with the tails left on for handles, like shrimp. If you fry them hot an thoroughly, the bones essentially disappear. If you want scampi or chowder, you have to do the rest of the filet work.
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[kyLURE]

Your "Pig out Perch Chowder" look awesome. Thanks for sharing
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[F15Hwhisperer]

That recipe looks great! I'll give that a try tonight for dinner! Thanks!
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