Yellow perch are showing signs of annual reproduction and survival of young fish in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan, although at much reduced numbers than 30 years ago, according to a Department of Natural Resources assessment.

The 2025 spring spawning assessment in Lake Michigan off Milwaukee yielded 159 perch, said DNR fisheries biologist Aaron Schiller, similar to the 168 in 2024 and 214 in 2023 but only about 1% as many as were netted in the same work in the mid-1990s.

Importantly, analysis of the fish caught in recent spawning studies shows at least some from each year class over about the last decade, said Aaron Schiller, DNR fisheries biologist.

This survival of young, or recruitment, is critical to sustain any animal population. It's been watched especially closely in Lake

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