Benchmark Record For Yellow Perch From Lake Sinclair

When you think of a yellow perch setting a lake record in Georgia, a mountain lake probably comes to mind, or maybe one of the Savannah River reservoirs where these fish are more common. But Lake Sinclair?

Brent Evans with his Lake Sinclair yellow perch that weighed 12.8 ounces (0.8 pounds) on certified scales at Smith Farm Supply in Milledgeville.

Lake Sinclair is middle Georgia epitomized—and not prime yellow perch waters. But Sinclair does have some yellow perch, and GON is recognizing a new benchmark lake record for one from Sinclair.

Brent Evans, of Milledgeville, caught a 0.8-lb. yellow perch (12.8 ounces) the of morning, May 4, 2020, while fishing Lake Sinclair with his daughter Lucy. Brent got the fish weighed with witnesses on certified scales at Smith Farm Supply in Milledgeville. Brent said he was trolling a black/chartreuse grub near the mouth of Island Creek, trying to catch crappie. Just prior to catching the perch, he caught a 15-inch crappie.

“I wasn’t using a depthfinder, but based on lake maps it looks like about 15 feet of water,” Brent said. “I’m relatively new to Lake Sinclair, but I have caught a couple of very small yellow perch in Potato Creek. We called these obnoxious yellow perch ‘minnow wasters’ when I was growing up on West Point Lake, where they are common but virtually never grow beyond 6 inches.”

Brandon Baker, a WRD Fisheries Biologist, said Brent’s yellow perch is a very good one for middle Georgia.

“Middle Georgia is at the southern end of the yellow perch range,” Brandon said.  “They don’t get as big as yellow perch in their northern ranges. We’ve sampled yellow perch in Lake Sinclair ever since we’ve been sampling the fish populations in the lake.

“The larger ones that we sample can be approximately a pound. The majority of the yellow perch that we sample in middle Georgia are much smaller than a pound.”

Lucy Evans admires the 0.8-lb. yellow perch her father Brent Evans caught at Lake Sinclair.