Heralded as an attractive anglers’ target from North Carolina to Maine, the native and ubiquitous white perch earns no such honors west of the Atlantic Seaboard. Just the opposite, in fact, including in Ohio.
Its migration originally blocked by Niagara Falls, the white perch bided its time until the Weland Canal was built. Then – just the same way the sea lamprey did – the white perch quickly went from friend to foe. In Lake Erie and in inland impoundments through (likely) accidental releases from bait bucket-armed anglers.
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