White Perch Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Deep-bodied, laterally compressed fish with a distinctly humped back profile, especially in older adults
• Silvery-white to pale olive-green coloring that fades to white on the belly, without stripes or bars
• Two dorsal fins set close together or slightly touching, the first spiny and the second soft-rayed
• Large, rough-edged scales and a moderately forked tail
• Generally small, usually 7-12 inches, with a maximum around 19 inches

Common look-alikes

• White bass - similar silvery color and shape, but shows several faint dark horizontal stripes running along the sides that white perch lack.
• Striped bass - much larger and more elongated, with bold, continuous dark stripes from head to tail rather than a plain silvery flank.

Where you'll see one

Despite the name, white perch are actually a member of the temperate bass family, not true perch. They inhabit brackish estuaries, tidal rivers, and coastal bays along the Atlantic seaboard of North America, and also thrive in landlocked freshwater lakes and reservoirs where they've been introduced, often forming large schools.