Originally posted by trainwreck:
Cecil, thanks for the great info. I am located in the southern UP (Escanaba). I was thinking about getting perch from PRI in Standish, Michigan but I dont know if they sell just females but I know they have feed trained perch.Should I stock some kind of minnows and when should I stock them,with the perch or put them in and wait a year then put the perch in?So is that mammoth perch a fluke or do you have a pond full of those giants? The world record perch came from a lake about 80 miles from here (Lake Independence)
Trainwreck,
I would call them and ask them. They may do it for an extra fee. If not, let me know and I amy be able to find another source for you. The time to get all females is before they spawn to be sure they are all females, however, you may be able to get them to sort out all females for you just after they spawn as they will look like deflated tired with bellies as thick as a dime. Just be aware it only takes one male to get them reproducing and then you could have problems with out any predator fish.
If I had to do it all over again I would have a pond just for female perch without any predator fish like bass. My bass are so agressive at feeding time they push the perch and bluegill away from the feed. I'm actually not convinced my perch fish on the artifical feed much due to the bass. However my pond is extremely fertile with nutrients coming in from a trout pond etc.
You could plant fatheads ahead of time but once the fatheads are depleted (won't take long) you want to be ready with feed. Even with fatheads present I would feed right away on a regular basis.
My fish is an exceptional one out of the pond but not a fluke. I caught another one over 2 lbs. and several in the 1 1/2 to almost 2 lb. range. The fish are still quite young compared to wild standards and grow faster than wild fish too. I and other didn't fish the pond that hard or often this winter, and I did remove about 30 smaller perch between 10.5 and 12 inches that were just planted last spring at about 9 inches which is on par with growth of the bigger ones when they were that age.
If you look closely at the picture this fish did not have fully developed eggs yet. They don't fully develop until late March early April and up to 20 percent of weight of a female's body can be perch eggs. Just before she dropped her eggs, if she would have lived, she could have weighed a few more ounces making a 3 lb. perch a real possiblity. I may have to electroshock the pond after ice out to remove some bass for a couple of taxidermy schools. It will be interesting to see if any bigger ones pop up, but of course they will be released.
