Golden shiner: can be gold or silver depending on the water they are in - however they have a single dorsal fin and no visible lateral line.

That fish is a white perch and is very common in NJ. You can walk the shores of a small shallow pond on "ice out" and count those that didn't make it through the freeze by the hundreds.

OK, Roger, it not only looks LIKE a "white perch", it IS a "white perch". Note the deepest part of the body at the front of the dorsal fin, which along with lack of multiple lateral lines separates it from the white bass. The dorsal fin is a deep-notched almost two finned dorsal, like bass. This is a Morone americana, not a perch at all, but one of the temperate bass of which family the striper belongs too. I found a link that might help for you Jerseyites. http://www.njscuba.net/biology/fw_fishes_midwater.html

Jim

If it was partcularly smiley and stinkey then assume a big Shad.   If not, then be thinking drug/skipjack.

Definetly a white perch, or as we call'em around here a stiffback perch. I catch 'em by the the bucketful down on the rappahanock river.