Another thread got me hungry for them. Any good places in MN close to I-35?

OK, anywhere in MN?

Good luck. This WI native has been trying to find a good perch fish fry since I moved to MN 12 years ago. Sometimes during Lent you can find one in the Twin Cities at places like Red Stag, but no honest-to-goodness supper club perch fish fries that I've seen. Seems that perch just isn't a thing here in MN.

Any in Superior?

Real yellow perch I never heard of any place serving them?

I've never heard of a perch fish fry in these parts. Its pretty much always either walleye, zander or cod.

Geez, now I'm hungry :) Fish for dinner tonight.

I usually have a hard time trusting resturaunts serving fish unless its salmon or fish tacos. I have seen many a time where "grouper" is advertised and the mystery fish is something other than grouper.

Real perch dinners are about as good as it gets and pretty much smokes walleye dinners IMO, at least when you go out to eat. I usually find perch dinners as a special at 4 star restraunts........the price is usually rather "special" as well fetching $20 to $25 for a plate.

The Lake Elmo Inn just east of St. Paul serves Sunfish. I've heard they are very good as is most everything there. $27.50.

perch? i don't think any true minnesotan would admit to eating perch. i could be wrong.

quote jwartman59: "perch? i don't think any true minnesotan would admit to eating perch. i could be wrong."

There was a time like 40 years ago few people fished them. Now it is very popular,especially in the winter time on lakes.

quote Pinetree: "Real yellow perch I never heard of any place serving them?"

We have a local restaurant that serves yellow perch. They farm their own.

Actually fairly common fare in Michigan during the summertime, usually around places like Traverse city. Fresh yellow perch dinners are not to be missed. Probably the best eating fresh water fish IMO, particularly the larger ones.

quote jwartman59: "perch? i don't think any true minnesotan would admit to eating perch. i could be wrong."

You are wrong. Wonderful tasting walleye cousin, easily caught year round.

I have caught and eaten perch. Yes they are very good.

quote jwartman59: "I have caught and eaten perch. Yes they are very good."

very sweet and much better than walleye.

quote Pinetree: "

quote jwartman59: "I have caught and eaten perch. Yes they are very good."

very sweet and much better than walleye."

I agree! Sweet and better than walleye.

The best fish I ever ate was smallish yellow perch caught forty feet down in Little Bay de Noc on the north shore of Lake Michigan. So sweet and nutty.

If you are ever in Cornucopia, WI in the spring when the smelt are running, there is a bar, Little Nikki's, that does a smelt fry that is out of sight. Their bloody mary menu is also very good. Haven't had their regular fish, but based on everything else, I think it will be good.

Little Nikki's Menu

That's another Great Lakes dish I miss

quote Pinetree: "

quote jwartman59: "I have caught and eaten perch. Yes they are very good."

very sweet and much better than walleye."

I concur.

Perch dipped in milk, rolled in corn meal and fried in an old cast iron skillet is my favorite way to each perch. My mom would pan fry fish on the tiny stove in our trailer on Borden Lake almost ever day that we were at the trailer. It would be perch or walleye or crappies or sunnies. It just depended on what we caught for the day. She made good old fashioned bisquik drop biscuits to go with the fish too.

Fried perch are tops. Wally and crappie too because not all perch are big jumbos. Sweeter indeed.
Have seen them on menus around lake Erie in past but no clue about MN. Used to see more. Like fried crappie on reelfoot lake. The restaurant trend seems to have mostly gone away. Hope you find some.

Years ago they commercially harvested perch from the Great lakes,I think like lake Michigan they stopped in the mid 90's.

quote Pinetree: "Years ago they commercially harvested perch from the Great lakes,I think like lake Michigan they stopped in the mid 90's."

Seems to me I read that the collapse of the fishery on upper Red Lake was brought on by commercial perch fishing.

quote marsonite: "

quote Pinetree: "Years ago they commercially harvested perch from the Great lakes,I think like lake Michigan they stopped in the mid 90's."

Seems to me I read that the collapse of the fishery on upper Red Lake was brought on by commercial perch fishing."

No not at all. The collapse of Upper Red lake and Lower Red lake was uncontrolled commercial fishing by Red lake Indian tribes.
It got so bad that in the spring a river going into Lower Red had only one walleye recorded going up to spawn in it a male.
Upper Red was not quite so bad because Minnesota controlled part of the lake and walleye numbers got low but not as bad.
Interesting the vacuum of low walleye population in Upper created a niche for a black crappie population explosion. With the walleye population now very high in Upper Red the crappie population is less than 10% of what it was.

Various studies have shown if walleye numbers increase,crappie numbers drop and the opposite can be true also. Why? I am not sure. But certain lakes stocked with walleye,crappie numbers drop.when walleye population drops the crappies come back.

Perch are good, but I certainly wouldn't say that they are better than walleye. I haven't caught jumbo perch in a long time though, and the keepers I have caught have frequently had worms in their flesh.

Short answer to OP: No.
The desirability of various species by geography is an interesting topic. I grew up in Pine County along I-35; I graduated from high school in 1981 and have been paying attention to fishing and fish my entire life. One of my high school teachers told us about how guys from Wisconsin would drive to Lake Winnie in northern MN to ice fish for perch and then EAT them. Funniest thing I ever heard. Then, in college at UMD, we'd go to Fish Lake north of Duluth and ice fish for walleyes. At the time the lake was full of big perch; they all weighed one pound, four ounces. The locals would throw them away on the ice like they were invasives. We'd walk around and pick 'em up once we discovered how good they were. A buddy once got a limit of 100 that weighed over 100 pounds; he had a hell of a time dragging them off the ice. He was all alone just out from a public access. The point being, no one else in the area cared to fish for perch.
It's been a relatively recent change in MN culture to actually fish for perch. (with the possible exception of Mille Lacs.)

Here in Cook County I'm always asking the schoolkids about fishing. I asked a kid who lives on a lake if there were any fish in it. "No, the fishing is terrible !" I said I thought there were bass in the lake, and she goes "yeah, it's full of bass." I don't tell anyone when I go bass fishing or they'll think I'm a hunyuk. Growing up, my dad wouldn't bring a bass all the way in the boat. Biggest smallmouth I ever saw was when I was a kid; this old guy had it on the stringer to bring home and bury it in the garden.

My uncle once traded bullheads for walleye with a guy from Iowa.
So anyways...

Lake Winnie is the reason a limit was finally put on perch at 100 and now much less. People from Wisconsin and Illinois would come up to Winnie in the winter and fill multi coolers completely up with perch and take them back in unbelievable numbers. This was like in the 1970's.

quote jwartman59: "perch? i don't think any true minnesotan would admit to eating perch. i could be wrong."

I will admit to it, it is every bit as good as walleye especially from a cold deep lake or any lake in winter. Havent heard of a perch fish fry being offered anywhere if there was Id be there.

Urban Growler Brewing Co.
In St.Paul


Wisconsin Perch fry - Friday's - All Day $16

http://www.twincities.com/2017/07/25/new-urban-growler-chef-kicks-brewerys-food-up-a-notch/

You're going to have to type it - can't link it for some reason

link

Pinetree,that's kind of not fair to set out Ws.and ILL. people when I'm sure MN.folks were doing it to....
Not sure but aren't perch game fish. And would they not need a game permit to sell them.also they would have to buy from a licensed provider....
I mean you can't go out And catch 100 bluegills and turn around and sell them for $15.99 a plate....

I heard of an old gentleman who would fish for gills all spring and then make a bar run like the cheese lady and make a killin....

Thank you - I just figured out how to link it. Just had to look around a little

quote yogi59weedr: "Pinetree,that's kind of not fair to set out Ws.and ILL. people when I'm sure MN.folks were doing it to....
Not sure but aren't perch game fish. And would they not need a game permit to sell them.also they would have to buy from a licensed provider....
I mean you can't go out And catch 100 bluegills and turn around and sell them for $15.99 a plate....


I heard of an old gentleman who would fish for gills all spring and then make a bar run like the cheese lady and make a killin...."

Yes,much it is unfair that I singled out those two states. Those were the states often mentioned in the 70's with lot of stories about their perch take and they wouldn't quit fishing after catching so many.But like always many fishermen from central Minnesota seen what others were taking and maybe themselves and felt like it was too much by others. There actually was groups coming from those states and taking yellow perch in tubs load before the first limit was established. Some(probably less than many thought) came in mobile homes and just stayed out there for days than went back and sold them or had excessive amounts of perch themselves.
The actual effect these fishermen had I am not sure. But the perceived harvest by locals got themselves up in arms and pressured the DNR to put a limit on perch.
Actually now it is 20 perch limit because the Mn DNR study in the 80's and 90's looked like a continued decline on perch size with the increasing popularity by a fast growing clientele of perch fishermen mainly on Winnie.

In some lakes perch may constitute a fair amount of the forage for the more targeted game fish and thus it is in the best interests of the sportsman (whoops, sportsperson :-) to have a healthy perch population.

Commercial netting is often the real culprit when it comes to a collapsed fishery but sustained recreational guys turned fish sellers can also have a significant impact.

On my home lake (lake Okeechobee) there are a dedicated fleet of snowbirds, largely staying in trailer parks which ring the lake, who go out almost every day. Some guys supply fish for the weekly park "fish fry" while others often lay in a store of crappie filets filling their freezer to take north. So far the big lake has rebuffed the impact with modestly reduced overall catches but who knows how long that sustainable satisfactory catches will continue.

While I am sympathetic to the traditions of harvesting fish and game we must also strive to be responsible stewards of what has been entrusted to us.

quote mastertangler: "In some lakes perch may constitute a fair amount of the forage for the more targeted game fish and thus it is in the best interests of the sportsman (whoops, sportsperson :-) to have a healthy perch population.


Commercial netting is often the real culprit when it comes to a collapsed fishery but sustained recreational guys turned fish sellers can also have a significant impact.


On my home lake (lake Okeechobee) there are a dedicated fleet of snowbirds, largely staying in trailer parks which ring the lake, who go out almost every day. Some guys supply fish for the weekly park "fish fry" while others often lay in a store of crappie filets filling their freezer to take north. So far the big lake has rebuffed the impact with modestly reduced overall catches but who knows how long that sustainable satisfactory catches will continue.


While I am sympathetic to the traditions of harvesting fish and game we must also strive to be responsible stewards of what has been entrusted to us. "

Agree