what id the story with stocking white perch? I never here about them being stocked.

Oh boy! I ain't touching that one!

All kidding aside, many people avoid them in small ponds because they require special management and planning to prevent them from over populating. Personally I beleive they can be worthwhile. I'm a bit biased because crappie are just about my favorite fish.

White Perch (Morone americana) can sometimes end up stunted in fairly large bodies of water so it doesn't sound like a very good choice in ponds.

http://www.iisgcp.org/EXOTICSP/white_perch.htm

Bobab,

Do you call crappies White Perch in your region or did I misunderstand you?

A fellow fisherman from NYC and Cape Cod area told be the only thing that white perch were good for was baiting lobster traps. White perch are a nuisance in Lake Erie.

The bucket squaters love them here. They are supposed to be real good eatin'.

"Bucket squaters," I like that!

Yes buket squaters is funny term. They can empty out a fishery though. I have seen them take 35-75 crappie in one sitting, 5lb Largemouth (in NJ mind you) and 3" sunfish.

I had an elderly lady bring in a 6 lb. largemouth and a 21 inch smallmouth to mount both caught in a stream and channel repectively sitting on a five gallon bucket.

Whoops! I didn't notice the OP was from NJ, or I wouldn't have replied. :rolleyes:

I guess I'm about the only person in my parts that call a crappie a crappie. Everyone else calls them "white perch" and "sacalait", about 50/50. If I call them "crappie", they look at me like I have green hair or something.

Appologies to masterbasser!

Masterbasser,
Use to catch them on the Potomac River under lights at night with a bare hook. Hardly ever much size. But, back to the question of stocking them (not crappie) in a pond is an interesting question. Wonder if they would spawn in a pond? Sure could be a mass of forage if your predator heavy.

Everyone, please wait until Bruce Condello gets back so he call tell you about white perch. Out of its range, if you want to destroy the fishery in a whole watershed, white perch will sure do it.

White Perch (White Bass), Morone americana or White crappie (Pomoxis annularis) are different fish. White Crappie are usually referred to as White Perch but so are White Bass. Which one are we talking about?

Neither, I am talking about a white perch. Native to the Delaware river. I know waht a white Crappie is and we don't have white bass here.

As noted by Cecil above "Masterbasser" is referring to Morone americana. It is a member of the sea bass family. It is a prolific spawner and lays adhesive eggs that hatch in just a few days. This fish probably moved into the Great Lakes above Niagara Falls through the Welland Canal. First reports in Lake Erie were around 1953. It seems to be a big competitor with the white bass (Morone chrysops) in Lake Erie. White perch usually grow up to about 10"-12" long. Some get bigger in the inland lakes of the northeast. It can quickly stunt if predation pressure is not heavy. Most of them I've seen while fishing in Lake Erie are around 7"-9". It is a pest in my opinion. I think of it as the greensunfish of the open water or pelagic habitat. The grocery stores around the midwest sell them in the fresh fish department. The fish has a coarse textured meat like white bass and it is not very good eating in my opinion.

White Perch are a prolific pest! We have white perch in two public lakes just outside of Lincoln. In Branched Oak Lake they are stunted and you rarely see them over 4-5" length, in Pawnee lake they are not stunted. The primary difference between the two lakes is that B.O. also has shad population which the predators prefer over the white perch, in Pawnee Lake there is no shad population and the white perch are a primary food source for most predators which helps keep their numbers in check. Right now there are special protective regualtions at B.O. lake for the predators, both HSB and Flathead catfish are 100% catch and release and the bag limits on walleye are very restrictive. The NE G & P has made lemonade out of the lemons (white perch) at BO which will need to be renovated some time in the future. Here is a FC catch and release picture from BO this last weekend. If you do consider stocking them I would make sure your pond is predator heavy and there are no shad present. I would also take steps to make sure they never leave your pond and get into watersheds below where the will likely cause lots of problems. Once they become prolific and stunted you will get very little succesfull reproduction from your other fish species as most YOY fry will a eaten by the hords of stunted WP. IMO the are not a good species to stock anywhere.

[img]http://heartlandforums.com/forums/album_picm.php?pic_id=59[/img]

Take a look at this map.



If you have a pond that is not in the red shaded area, and introduce white perch to your pond or watershed, you will have some biologists and state administrators that will be extremely unhappy.

White perch introductions have the potential to create tens of millions of dollars damage to a regional fishery.

DANGER.

I cannot emphasize this enough. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ACQUIRE, MOVE, OR OTHERWISE STOCK THESE FISH!!!

They are native to my area. I would not stock them because they have not worth to me personaly. I have caught them up to a foot long. I ask alot of questions that have no intentions behind them to just to learn.

I'm not targeting you personally, masterbasser. This is just a general warning.

The white perch, out of it's normal range plays the role of both fire and gasoline.

Here are some pictures of other species that white perch sometimes get confused with.
Young HSB, young white bass, and small white perch look very similar to a novice. This is one of the ways white perch end up in places they shouldn't belong. Dang Bucket biologists.

White Perch:


HSB or Wiper:


White Bass:


http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/fishing/guides/identification/

Here in Kansas, White Perch are a nuisance specie and you can get fined for having live white perch. A lake about 15 miles from me has them and they are EVERYWHERE. The walleye and stripers are getting huge from eating them, but the walleye and all other fish will start dissapearing. The white perch will eat all the eggs. You really have trouble fishing for anything else, because everytime you cast you catch a white perch. I would say keep them out of your pond unless that is all you want in it.