Eating Silver Perch

Silver perch are excellent eating with a clean white flesh that can be cooked any way you like. Unfortunately they can have a muddy taste to them and this is known as an “Off Flavour”. This is usually from the weeds they have been eating and commercial farmers would catch their fish out alive and purge them in clean clear water for 7 to 10 days before sale. This ensures they never have an off flavour. Off flavours come and go and you may not have it this month but get it next month. Unless you purge your fish there is not much you can do about it as you will not know until you cook them and go to eat them.

Generally it is from the algae in the dam and not from the mud. Contrary to popular belief, the muddier the dam the less chance of an off flavour as the turbid muddy water stops the algae growing which means the fish cannot eat it so they don’t get any off flavours.