The Friday fish fry is not what it used to be.
Staple of that meal was yellow perch – plentiful and often caught commercially on Green Bay and Lake Michigan. It was a booming business in corner bars, diners, drive-ins and even dives.
There was an unseen problem ahead, however, that changed the habitat of those waters and left commercial fishermen with empty nets and changed Friday night fare.
Other fish, often commercially raised, are less costly than perch.
Gordy says he often has Friday fish in Readfield, but seldom perch. “It is a good meal and all that you can eat,” he said of the alternate white fish.
Walleye, its giant cousin, reigns in the Wolf River basin and is closely managed. The Winnebago System is unique as it has no closed season on walleye.
One walleye also equals several perch in the pan and on the plate.
I first began writing about the diminishing population of perch in Lake Michigan in the 1980s as its numbers were already in decline. The year class – numbers of fish surviving in birth year – were decreasing in trawler nets used for the study.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) trawler nets, once filled with yellow perch, were virtually empty dating to 1990. Historically it was common to catch thousands of perch in the survey. Only 79 perch were caught in five nights of netting in 2013, down from 300 perch in four nights in 2012.
The same process is used on the Winnebago lakes to determine year class of walleye that spawn in spring along the Wolf River. Those numbers have remained strong as spawning areas have been enhanced by conservation groups, most notable Walleyes for Tomorrow.
Fred Binkowski, a fish scientist at UW-Milwaukee is one of those searching for a reason, including underwater studies of perch spawning areas and the changing ecology of the lake with a growing number of exotic species.
His study found virtually no activity on those sites.
A “Lake Michigan Yellow Perch Summit” in March 2014 left DNR members and ecologists – from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Canada – with shared information but no resolution to the problem.
During a high abundance period (1985-1993) yellow perch commercial and sport fishing harvest exceeded two million pounds annually.
Exotic species, particularly zebra mussels, are seen as the main villain as their voracious appetite strains zooplankton and other food sources for perch fry from the water.
Commercial harvest was reduced in the mid-1990s and closed in all Lake Michigan jurisdictions except for Green Bay by 1997. The yellow perch problem is prevalent in all Great Lakes.
In 1988 renowned Chicago Tribune outdoor writer John Husar was among the first warning about the dangers of ballast-born exotics discharged by oceangoing vessels to the Lake Michigan eco system.
“So far we have been lucky. But things may change now that we face the invasion of river ruffe (white perch) which threatens our popular yellow perch populations,” Husar wrote.
Eleven years later he wrote pessimistically, “it can’t get much worse than right now. Or maybe it can.”
In the 1960s when I came to New London, Franklin House and Friendly Place were two popular bars serving fish. Perk’s in Medina was another favorite spot.
A table near the Friendly Place kitchen where Viola Sohrweide did most of the cooking was a regular gathering spot for Leona Mech, Art Gesse and Ruth Pribbernow and several irregulars. Edna Spencer helped in the kitchen and served the meals.
Ole and Marshall Ladwig were busy taking orders Friday at the bar and by phone.
A lot of fish passed through the Franklin House Cook Street side door in brown paper bags of takeout orders. Ole’s wife managed the kitchen staffed by several local women.
One of the hot spots for perch had the unappetizing name “Rat Hole” according to a Clintonville area man. Bennett’s adjacent to Olen Park was another popular place.
The Friday fish fry was popular with my Post-Crescent coworkers, too. We often ordered meals from Bleier’s Bar and Badger Bar in Appleton. When I filled in for George Mancosky, the News Record staff would dine at a bar near the bridge to Theda Clark.
Perch lovers need to start “Perch for Tomorrow” to make their favorite fare the main course once again.