Yellow Perch in Kentucky?
Keith Lusher 10.02.24
Robert Welsh lll of Madison County, Kentucky, is no stranger to bass fishing. He’s fished for bass his whole life and currently fishes the BFL Series.
On Welsh’s latest trip, he was fishing out of his new 12.5-foot Feelfree Moken. “Oh, I love that thing! That kayak is a lot of fun. I can get into spots that I could never get to in a boat,” he said.
Welsh was fishing at Lake Linville in Mount Vernon, KY, which is about 15 minutes away from his home. The lake is about 360 acres. He has been fishing the lake for years and wasn’t expecting to catch anything over 2 pounds.
Welsh tried numerous lures but wasn’t having any luck. That’s when he reached for a crankbait. “I tried a buzzbait and tried a chatterbait. It was kinda dark and cloudy with light rain, which is usually prime time for a spinnerbait, but they didn’t want a spinnerbait either,” he said. “I don’t know what made me pick up a crankbait.” Welsh tied on a Cotton Cordell Big O C77 Squarebill Crankbait in Perch color.
He made a few casts and set the hook on what he thought was a log. “There was a point with a rock and an oak tree hanging over it,” he said. “I cast out there and it came off the rock and just stopped,” Welsh said. He set the hook, and after he saw the line moving sideways, he knew he had a fish.
Welsh battled the fish and managed to get it near the boat. “I was just kinda fun fishing, and I didn’t have a net,” he said. “I reeled her up, and she came close to the boat, and I grabbed her.” He weighed it and the scale displayed 4.5 pounds. The bass was the biggest bass he’d caught in Lake Linville.
But while the fish was a surprise to Welsh, there was another fish that he caught, that was even more of a surprise. Welsh was casting and set the hook on what he thought was a small bass. He reeled it in and flipped it into his kayak. As it was flipping around, he grabbed it so he could get a better look at what he just caught. “I got it, looked at it, and said, ‘Man that’s a Yellow Perch,”
It was the first yellow perch he had ever caught in Kentucky. Welsh sent a picture of the perch to his friend in NY. “My friend texted back and asked where I was fishing,” he said. Welsh told him he was in Kentucky. “He was as shocked as I was,” Welsh said. The bass fisherman didn’t realize there were yellow perch in Lake Linville.
The catch reminded him of an old story he had once heard from the locals. “Some of the older gentlemen in the area used to talk about a truck that was carrying some yellow perch and broke down. Then the driver just threw them in the lake just so they wouldn’t die. But who knows if that’s true or not,” Welsh said.
While the report of yellow perch being caught in Kentucky is unusual. The fish have been reportedly caught even farther south in South Carolina and Georgia.
