hello all. i am new to this forum, been reading as much as i can over the last ~3 months. my family owns a cottage in northern - LP - Michigan. amazing place been going there since i was a kid.
back in the 90's my uncle dug out the swamp and turned it into a 6-7 acre lake, they stocked it with yellow perch and i am pretty sure lake trout, cant remember. i live in south Florida and manage to get up there around 4 or 5 times a year. i have never seen a trout up there so im guessing they are gone. i was up there back in early february, got to do some ice fishing. caught 20+ of stunted YP and 2 of the guys i posted. I cant figure out what these guys are, I was thinking they look like creek chubs but theres no creek for them to spawn, maybe some type of carp? any help from you guys would be great.
as most of you, i would like to "manage" this lake as a hobby. im in the middle of planning a trip for the end of april to fly up. i have never seen a YP larger than about 3 inches (except about 8 years ago my cousin caught about an 8 inch one) seeing that i live over 1000 miles away and dont get up there to much i would like the lake to be "naturally managed"
after reading many posts on here i have come up with a small plan to let the yellow perch thrive. so far: my two buddies and i will spend a day or two catching and killing as many perch (and the unidentified fish if we need too). why? because once we finish that i would like to dipnet as many minnows as i can from the creek (creek is about 1000 ft from the lake) and transfer them to the lake hoping they will spawn and set up a minnow population(a long with this, we have 3 small ponds that i will throw them in). i also plan to use the loader to go around the property (800+ acres forest) and chose trees that have fallen, bring them to the lake which bring me to this question, on one part of the lake there are two trees about 40 ft tall along the edge that ive seen hawks and once a bald eagle sit in and catch fish from, would me setting 2 or 3 trees underwater near the tall tree help the predator birds catch fish? of course they wont get all the perch and manage it perfectly but hey if they could catch 5 a week at the end of the year that's 250 fish that other wise would be taking up the forage.
i have included a picture from google earth of the lake along with the three ponds to the northeast. wish i had some on ground photos but last february was the first time in 6 years.
Welcome Richard! Great to see more and more Michigan people checking in. I'm from the greater Grand Rapids area and have a small pond. This is the place to be to get answers to your questions. You are lucky to have a cottage in the nothern LP, beautiful place to relax. We get to vacation in antrim county every summer and I miss it more every year when we are away.
I can't identify the fish, someone here probably can.
as for stocking, you can regret a 'bucket stocking' event especially if you don't know what species from nearby streams ended up in your pond. If you want to build a forage base, I would go to a supplier of minnows and get FHM and maybe some golden shiners from them. This way you know what you are getting.
Of course, if your pond has a big population of other predators besides perch, or if it has a lot of perch then the minnows will rapidly become expensive snacks.
Any way you can sample the pond through seine netting a section of it, or work hard to fish anything you can out of it? If the pond has little fishing pressure, I would say typical LMB jerkbaits or soft artificial baits, or surface lures at night should elicit a strike if there are any 12" or bigger LMB in there. Also, live crawler or live small bluegill ***providing there are bluegill in there already to net for bait, would tell you what else is in the pond. If LMB are in there, then your plans may change dramatically.
Everything will do better if you can put in structure. Minnows like flat surfaces so think of how to get some pallets, flat styrofoam, recycled plastic etc.
Much more to say, what can you tell us about the pond depth, bottom structure, water clarity?
I assume you have access to power and water? Have you considered aeration? In northern michigan I have to believe there could be a winter kill concern?
As far as i know, there are no LMB and no BG. Im really hoping thats the case, in the future i would like to buy maybe 4 or 5 male LMB so they dont reproduce just help keep perch in check, i live a 2 minute walk from the everglades in florida and have no problem catching them at all so to fly 1000 miles to get good bass fishing isnt my top priority. There is zero fishing pressure on the lake, i am literally the single person in a family of 25+ that share the cabin that could give a rats ass about catching anything out of the lake.
At the beginning of may i plan to throw on my wetsuit and mask and hop in and take a look at everything the lake has to offer, as far as i know now, should be all sandy bottom with plants/weeds, no rocks no fallen trees no gravel. forgot to mention before its a spring fed lake, and im pretty sure the water is coming in on the south side where the telephone poles are and exiting on northeast side where the 3 ponds are. we have electricity running to the cabin but to get it out to the lake for aeration will probably be a problem with the distance to the deeper water and costs, which was why i came with the idea to bucket stock. I am only a 20 year old college student not looking to spend more than $500 on getting this up and running, i had considered finding a supplier but like you said dont want to be buying expensive snacks for them.
The deepest part of the pond is definitely in the middle reaching about 20' deep, on the northwest side near the cabin it tends to have a very shallow slope, the west side a little more steep. i would say the narrow part is anywhere from 8-12 feet deep and the "lagoon" on the east side is anywhere from 6 to 10 feet.
The pond looks like it is a candidate for winterkill thus YP may be the only sport fish that will consistently survive there. Since you are on a limited budget I would buy a minnow trap, bait it, and set it and run it every day each time you are there.
If it were mine, and only YP are present, I would start by stocking some 8"-12" SMB or less preferable 8"-12" walleye (see later). SMB 6"-8" might work but this will be financially risky when money is limiting. If you have access to lake access and are a good angler, you could risk bucket stocking these predators. Larger SMB might be a little pricey, but I doubt smaller 3"-5" sized ones will survive in a stunted YP pond due to excess food competition and heavy losses will waste your money. Been there done that before.
By adding any predators you run the risk of loosing them to winterkill. YP tolerate lower DO than bass or walleye. Let the predators (preferably SMB (reproducing)) do their job until you see the average YP catch sizes increasing. Walleye won't reproduce; a negative in your case. You really want a moderate reproducing predator to gradually outcompete the YP. Reproducing LMB will reproduce too fast and overpower the pond to provide you with a new problem.
Then when YP sizes are increasing to numerous 8"-9"ers gradually start removing some SMB each year until you have a more stable balance of predator and prey ratio. You may have to wait to do all this when your budget is bigger and can stock enough SMB to fairly quickly impact the stunted YP fishery. It will likely take 15-25 SMB/ac to make a noticeable impact within 2-3 yrs.
Your white suckers could be spawning in the spring water area that enters the pond since the one you caught appears to be a youngster abt 8" long.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/24/1509:10 PM.
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