Built in 1908, the Cross River Reservoir has long been a part of New York City’s water system. The 915-acre lake is also a favorite fishing spot for 48-year-old retiree Yongfeng Tian, who lives in Brooklyn just 40 miles away.
“I was fishing alone from a 12-foot rowboat and found a school of fish near a drop-off in 35-feet of water using my portable depth finder,” Tian told Wired2fish. “It’s a quiet, restful place, and I usually fish for bass and crappies there. I made a cast with a small 1/8-ounce red plastic-tail jig and waited for it to sink deep near the fish school on my sonar.”
A Surprising Catch
Tian thought the fish were crappies he’d marked on his sonar at noon that day, Nov. 23.
“The water is clear and the temperature in the 40s, I caught a couple one-pound white perch instead of crappies,” said Tian. “Then I hooked a bigger fish, and I tried to keep it from going back deep so it wouldn’t spook the school I’d found.”
But the fish was too big. And, since Tian was using light spinning tackle and six-pound test line, he couldn’t keep it from diving. When Tian netted and boated his fish, it was so big he didn’t realize it was a giant white perch.
“I thought it was a carp or something else,” he explained. Using his cell phone, Tian ultimately identified his catch as a huge white perch.
White perch are small to medium-sized freshwater fish native to the eastern United States. Despite their name, they are not true perch but belong to the temperate bass family, which also includes striped bass and white bass. White perch have silvery-white sides, a darker back, and slightly striped bodies, and they typically grow to about 8-10 inches long. They live in rivers, lakes, and estuaries, and can tolerate both fresh and brackish water. White perch feed on insects, small crustaceans, and tiny fish, and they are popular with anglers because they are both easy to catch and good to eat.
Confirming a New Record
When Tian sent photos of his fish to a buddy, that friend told him to get it weighed on certified scales. Tian and the fish headed to a Brooklyn supermarket, where the perch weighed in at 3 pounds, 4 ounces. It topped New York’s previous record for white perch, which was set in 1991, by three ounces.
Tian drove to a state regional conservation office for his perch to be weighed again, and also verified as a white perch to be certain that his fish broke a 34-year-old record.
New York has now officially certified that Tian’s fish is the new state recordholder for white perch.
“I’ve got it frozen, but I’m not going to eat it,” said Tian. “I’m going to have a mount made of the fish.”
