By Louie Stout

Blas Lara of Highland, Ind. with Record Yellow Perch

There are jumbo yellow perch in Lake Michigan…and then there’s this monster.

If you thought 12- inch perch were jumbos, Blas Lara of Highland, Ind. blows those away. His nearly 17 incher also blew away the Indiana’s state record with the 3.135 pounder caught during the Mayor McDermott’s Fishing Derby last weekend.

Lara’s yellow perch, caught from shore, broke the old record of 2 pounds, 8 ounces set in 1981 from a southern Indiana gravel pit.

He caught his giant while fishing a golden roach livebait under a bobber while actually fishing for smallmouth in the Hammond Marina. The fish was weighed at the Strack & VanTil Food Market.

Interestingly, that store sells yellow perch by the pound in its seafood section. If someone were to buy that record fish for dinner, it would cost him $53.26.

Yellow perch have begun their spawning run in Lake Michigan so that likely contributed to the weight. However, there are likely more giants like it swimming out there. Several 15 and 16 inchers were caught in northwest Indiana by boat anglers last winter.

Lake Michigan DNR Biologist Ben Dickinson said earlier this year that the growth rate among yellow perch has been astounding.

“We’re seeing 12- and 14-inch perch that are 6 to 8 years old,” Dickinson said. “In previous years, those fish were 10 to 14 years old.”

Why the rapid growth? Either there is more food to go around or, due to lower perch numbers over the past several years, there is less competition for food.

“When we began seeing the rapid growth numbers, we thought maybe something was off in our data, but Illinois biologists tell us that they are seeing the same thing.”