Marv Vick of Janesville, Wi. caught an 11 inch BLUE perch while fishing on L. Kegonsa south of Madison on Monday. Fish hit a piece of redworm on an ice jig in 10.2 fow along weed edge. BLUE perch truly is blue…about the color of faded levis. Fins are translucent rather than orange.
This was one of about 100 perch Vick caught this day. Bite continues to be good. Perch are off of deep weedline foraging for bloodworms on the bottom. Interviewed several Wis. DNR biologists for story which should appear in today’s janesville Gazette. I have fotos…just don’t know how to post them. If anybody knows how to do this and can PM me w/ email address will send them asap for posting.
Odds that such a genetic mutation would occur are extremely long according to biologists. There have been several reports of partially blue perch from northern L. Michigan over the years, northern pike which turn blue when stressed, and blue walleyes ( a perch family cousin) in parts of Ontario and years ago in Lake Erie…but all biologists say this perch from Kegonsa is something special. So if ANYBODY can provide an email that knows how to put fotos w/ this post can advise, we’ll get ’em up asap!
Awesome pics Ted!! Never seen a blue perch before. Do they taste like blue cheese dressing vs ranch??
Surprised that fish surived long to get that big. How could it blend in with vegetation and such.
Sure you weren’t ice fishing.
Get it blue perch. Cold Perch.
OK back to work
Derek
I didn’t catch the fish Marv Vike did. Got his name wrong in the paper. Spelling is V-I-K-E. Apparently foto is all over the internet on fisheries-based websites. The guy called today to make sure a correction was made. Said he took another limit on Kegonsa today…but no blue ones.
WOW!!! Never heard of nor seen a blue perch before. Neat.
Thanks for sharing this with pics. 
Thanks, Bill
A blue perch is new to me too. Way cool
IF you still have it, the DNR might be interested in it, and they might be able to provide some probability, and history on something like that,
keep us posted.
Jack..
DNR folks from all over the midwest have weighed in on this fish. One thinks it may be a temporary thing with the mucous slime which covers fish, one things it might be a rare case of stress, which is more common in northern pike caught in Canada, a couple think it is merely an “anomaly of nature” like the white buffalo which was born a few years ago.
Apparently there have been a couple of semi-blue perch taken from northern L. Michigan over the past 20 years. But if you do the math by any means the odds of catching this fish are one in a gazillion, which the most educated fisheries biologists only able to offer up hunches rather than base cause for coloration on multiple case studies.
Kegonsa’s 2300 acres get an extreme amount of angling pressure which is species specific for perch—something like 5,000 man/hrs per acre between May-Sept. How did this critter make it to 11 inches ? Are there that many fish down there…or are they just more angler-saavy than we give them credit for?
My guess is that man hour rate will go up for awhile as others try to find more like it. VERY rare fish for sure. Happened at a good time though [hunting season] so there won’t be a ton of anglers out pounding the lake at this time on top of a normal, should we say, summer crowd. Was the fish mounted, returned to the water, eaten?
Thanks, Bill
fish is being mounted by taxidermist Don Rich jr. in Janesville. He does all my stuff too. Think if I was Marv Vike I would have bought a fist-ful of lottery tickets Monday after catching the fish!
Truely and interesting fish…you sure you didn’t use last years easter egg dye?
PS nice tee shirt too!
it’s a cool fish alright…but I like the shirt even better
The wildest thing beyond the color were the fins on this fish–translucent–The fact that we can tell the difference between a blue perch and one of the regular colors PROVES all men are not dogs! Dogs are COLORBLIND. Asked my yellow Lab Hanna what color the perch was and she barked “azure”…