UPDATE:
Since posting my call for affirmation, I have caught about 20 yellow perch in the pond!
Last evening, while targeting LMB with a soft-plastic chatter bait minnow, I caught a dozen YP in quick succession. While they are NO WHERE NEAR as fat as Cecil's pictured in this thread, I can't get over how much they have grown in the three months or so.... in both length and girth.
They seem to be trolling the weedy shoreline in the evening, hammering fingerling LMB and BG. Pretty cool.
PLP,
Glad to hear that! And to make you feel better some more, that perch in my picture was full of eggs in late February. Even she would have looked much thinner this time of year. The egg masses inside them that will peak in April can make up to 30 percent of their body mass. Wait until you see a female this spring that looks like she will burst!
