In Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, updated regulations for yellow perch will be in effect for the 2026 fishing season.
In response to six years of low recruitment, Maryland reduced the limit for yellow perch caught in tidal waters, and freshwater streams and rivers from ten to five yellow perch per person per day. The minimum size for recreational anglers remains 9 inches.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced the change to the recreational daily catch limit by public notice at the beginning of January.
The rules for catching yellow perch in freshwater impoundments, such as the popular Deep Creek Lake fishery, remain the same.
In 2009, the recreational fishery daily creel limit was increased from five fish to 10 fish. The recreational harvest of yellow perch in Maryland remains largely unknown because there are no current reliable recreational harvest estimates available.
The commercial sector’s Total Allowable Catch (TAC) is designed to decline when the population falls. Commercial fishermen have been allowed to harvest fewer yellow perch annually for several years, while recreational regulations were left unchanged.
The commercial TAC averaged about 36,000 pounds a year since 2009 and has declined from a high of 59,662 pounds in 2018 to a low of 14,184 lbs in 2024.
The TAC is determined annually for the upper Chesapeake Bay, Patuxent, and Chester River fisheries, largely based on an annual stock assessment.
The commercial fishery operates under a slot size range of 8.5 inches to 11 inches. All areas other than the upper Bay (areas north of Bay Bridge) and the Chester and Patuxent rivers are closed to commercial harvest.
The Choptank River does not have a commercial yellow perch fishery, and DNR biologists do not believe fishing pressure from the recreational fishery is the main driver of the population contraction.
Lower population levels are most likely due to factors other than fishing, such as poor reproduction, habitat degradation, predation, or disease. However, because of lower population levels, the revision to the
The reduced creel limit is intended to reduce the harvest of larger females, thereby preserving the spawning stock biomass. DNR Biologists hope this change will increase the chances of spawning success and juvenile recruitment throughout all tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay.
Yellow Perch Surveys
Since 2009, data from the upper Bay winter trawl survey show that the yellow perch population abundance in the upper Bay has declined by more than 50%, largely driven by below-average recruitment in recent years.
The annual Choptank River fyke net survey also tracks the abundance of yellow perch. Six fyke nets from Kingston Landing to Martinak State Park are fished for 4-6 weeks starting in the third week of February.
This survey has been conducted since 1988, providing a robust data set. In recent years, yellow perch abundance in this survey has been at or near survey lows and has largely mirrored information coming out of the upper Bay survey.
On a positive note, the 2025 yellow perch young-of-year index produced from the Estuarine Juvenile Finfish Seine Survey was above average both Bay-wide and for the head of the Bay. The Bay-wide index was the highest since 2018.
Biologists are hoping that an increase in young-of-year abundance seen in the seine survey might translate into higher catches of juveniles in the 2026 Upper Bay Winter Trawl Survey.
This survey is a 6-week survey that runs from the beginning of January through the middle of February, with 20 sites that include two in the Susquehanna Flats, one in the Northeast River, four in the Elk River, three in the Sassafras River, and the remainder in the mainstem of the upper Bay.
Traditionally, late winter and early spring runs of yellow perch have supported a robust recreational fishery throughout Maryland.
Yellow perch range from South Carolina to Nova Scotia on the East Coast and can be found in all Maryland reservoirs, including Piney Run, Liberty, Loch Raven, and Prettyboy Reservoirs.
In Maryland, yellow perch have adapted to the saltier water of the Chesapeake Bay and its major tributaries.
In late February, adult yellow perch in the Chesapeake Bay region go on their spawning run from the lower parts of the tributaries to the upper regions.
In 2025, angler Thomas Dembeck Jr. caught a 2.3-pound, 16-inch yellow perch while fishing in the tidal waters of the lower Susquehanna and broke the Chesapeake division state record that had been held since 1979.
For those who fish for yellow perch, DNR recommends releasing full-bellied pre-spawn female perch and concentrating fishing on post-spawners, which can be found slightly downstream of the spawning areas, as an additional conservation measure.
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