Blas Lara was fishing Lake Michigan in Lake County during the Mayor’s Fishing Derby in Hammond on April 21 when he landed a 3-pound, 2-ounce yellow perch, shattering a 43-year-old Indiana state record.
The previous state record for the species was a 2-pound, 8-ounce fish caught from a gravel pit in Vigo County by Roy W. Burkel Jr. in 1981.
The yellow perch record was the second long-standing record to fall in the Hoosier State this year. On March 3, Rex Remington set a new standard for smallmouth bass, eclipsing a mark set in 1992.
Yellow perch are native to Lake Michigan and popular with anglers due to the relative ease of catching them and their quality as table fare. Although the species’ population has declined from its peak decades ago, there is still a strong fishery for large perch.
“Perch growth rates have accelerated over the past few years, with many reaching true trophy sizes at younger ages than in the past,” said Indiana Department of Natural Resources Lake Michigan fisheries research biologist Ben Dickinson. “Many anglers have been catching true ‘jumbo’ perch, in the 14- to-17-inch size class over the past two years.”
