Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose yellow perch and walleyes

Hello folks,

As most of you know I finally stocked my 2/3 acres 20 ft pond with 6 inch walleye and 50 gallons of FH's in Oct. I also started throwing in YP as I caught them from my other pond. My Dad and twins (boy and girl) transplanted probably about 30 8 inch and bigger YP before winter hit us in SW Mich. I am planning on putting another 50 gallons of FH in during the spring and I was also thinking about putting in some Rainbow trout. Any suggestions on how many trout and should I add more perch from a fishery or just continue to catch and release from my other pond? The YP are bigger than the walleyes right now so I am not concerned about them getting eaten-rather having enough in there to reproduce for walleye forage
What do you all think?
Trout in the Pond? if so how many?
More YP in the Pond? if so how many?
Thanks,
Dave

How many WE did you put in ?

Are you sure you got both male and female YP ?

More FH is good.

Will the RT survive your summer water temps ?

I put in 100 walleye. I dont know how many of the perch are both male or female-I was just putting them in as we caught them with the idea that the more I put in the btter the chances were that I would have both male and female. I am hopping that with the 30 I put in I should have some of both and once ice is off I ama going to continue to add more perch beofre they spawn. The trout I am still questionalbe about

If you feed the trout with pellets, you'd be fine adding them. Stock as many or as little trout as you want. I'd stock no more than around 100 if feeding. If you don't think you'll eat that many trout, then stock less. A consideration is if the trout will survive your summer temps. If they won't, spring usually isn't the best time to stock trout. Most stock them in the fall to enjoy them for a longer period of time.

All it takes are just a few males to do the job for your YP. At 30 adult YP, if you do have a least a few males, I think you will be good. Just make sure the YP have a good place to spawn in your pond.

I have placed 5 wood pallets around the pond in the fall along with some braches off of trees. That worked well last year in my other pond. Thanks!

This spring I would buy some pellet fed perch (40-100) from your neighbor Laggis Fish Farm. He has very good stock of domesticated perch that eat pellets. Perch will grow well on pellets that are fed to the trout. He can also advise about trout.
The 100 WE in 0.6 ac pond is probably too many. A neighbor of mine did that despite my advice and most of his WE never grew bigger than 10"-12". He thought he could keep them fed by seining minnows - didn't work. Your regularly adding 50 gal (400lbs) of fatheads may help with top end growth of WE. YP will also eat lots of FHM if they are not eating pellets. I estimate that each adult perch will eat about 1 lb of minnows per yr (250-325). It will take a whole lot of YOY perch & FHM to feed 100 WE. However, If you over stocked WE to produce heavy predation pressure that can result in big perch and are happy with 12" WE for eating then this could work well. Time will tell the rest of the story. Keep us posted on your results.

There is another pond owner near me that stocked 120 WE in a one acre with YP back in 2001. Plenty of forage minnows and shiners were available. After about 9 yrs the largest WE are around 19"-20" and relatively few perch are in the pond with still lots of minnow/shiner forage. Perch that are in the pond are mostly large. In this situation IMO there are too many WE and there is not enough larger sized forage fish for the WE to grow well above the 20" size if large WE are one of the goals. This same 'type of' problem can occur in LMB ponds. Bass won't grow larger than a certain size due to not enough adequate sized forage present. However I think this situation can be viewed as very good. A 19-20" is a very good size for cleaning-eating and YP are not overabundant and large sized. The predominance of medium sized WE are effectively cropping small common YP (2"-5") and effectively reducing their numbers.

As for trout, in your area of MI and if pond does not receive well or spring water do not expect trout to live past June. Depths of 20 ft and cool temps have nothing to do with maintaining trout in July-Aug in SW MI. It is loss of DO below the thermocline that will kill the trout in most all ponds. CJ is right, and I assume you already know this, if one wants the full benefit of trout in regular ponds in our region, the trout should be stocked as 1 lb+ fish in fall, fed pellets and harvest most fish before early to mid June.

Bill-Thanks for the advice on the walleye and the trout. Laggis is were I buy my fish and he has always done right by me. I think I will skip the trout and just concentrate on the perch and walleye.
Thanks,
Dave

Get some of Laggis' YP and feed them pellets. Some of his larger perch come from a farm in Ohio producing great perch. You will be pleased how well they feed and grow. You will probably want more.

My "unofficial" state record yellow perch of 16 1/4 inches and 2 lbs. 13 oz.; although purchased from Dr. Smith of Freshwater Farms of Ohio (FFO), may have originally come from Bill Lynch that supplies Dan Laggis.

Cecil, just admit it... You filled that thing up with helium!

HAHA

My perch are just as big as your perch. No doubt same stock. Where do we find stock that gets 17+"?

Actually CJ if I would have caught this fish just before she dropped her eggs she would have been pumped up even more. My supplier says she would easily have gone 3 lbs. or more!

Suuuuuure. That's what they all say.

Sorry Bill had to do it. Yes Bill has big perch too and big bluegills! I'm not invited anymore because one dies every time I show up.



They catch a lot of them that big on the fishing websites. Problem is when you ask to see a picture they mysteriously forgot to bring the camera that day.

There's a couple for you Cecil... Some big perch!

http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/recreational/tournament/staterecords/ypstrecfrshwtr.html

I've seen those CJ. See how much bigger their bellies are than mine?

Yeah, from the time of year they must be full of eggs...

Any information on the length of those state record yellow perch?

Bill, if I recall correctly the one that was 3 lbs, 5 oz was 17.5" long. I cannot find the official Maryland release when the record was broke on-line anymore. But I do recall it was caught in a private pond where there was no known records of YP being stocked and this was the only YP to ever be caught from it. Biologists surmised that with it being the only YP in the pond, it had no competition and had more food than it knew what to do with...

The other one was 15" in length.

Bill, CJ,

A good friend in Michigan that is a trophy yellow perch aficionado and follows leads all over the state of allegedly monster mounted yellow perch in bars, restaurants etc. sent me this which has the stats on the above big perch. I hope you don't mind CJ.

The BS claims he is referring to are the ones he and I see all the time on the fishing websites with no pictures to back them up. You know like, "I got an 18 inch perch the other day," or "I catch 16 inchers all the time."


Hi Cecil,
I'm always fascinated with giant perch information so I spent some time doing some more internet research. It also provides me with some facts to counter the BS claims of some incredibly large perch (For which there is no proof.)
The elite states who have record perch 3 lbs or heavier are:
1) New Jersey...historical world record.....4 bs 3 oz
No length recorded. Caught in 1865
2) Michigan.....3 lbs 12 oz.....21"...caught in 1947
3) New York....3 lbs 8 oz....no length....caught in1982
4) Maryland.....3 lbs 5 oz....16 1/4"......caught in 2006
5) South Carlolina...3 lbs 4 oz...16 1/2"...caught on 1979
6) Wisconsin....3 lbs 4 oz....no length....caught in 1952.

It's noteworthy that the Michigan record perch is the single recorded perch in any state that was over 17" long. So when one of the chest pounding liars claims someone caught an 18"+ perch I think I'll mention these stats.(LOL) Even the 3lb+ record perch were under 17" long. There's no question that your pond monster would have surpassed the magical 3 lb mark if it had been caught when full of eggs. Here's a very interesting photo of the Maryland record perch.
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/recreational/tournament/staterecords/ypstrecfrshwtr.html
Do ya think she had any eggs in her? Hint; Caught March 12!

All this talk about YP is making me want some YP fillets. I hope the cold lasts for a while. One of the local lakes has YP in it, and I know some spawning areas that they favor.

Those are some big perch Cecil! Thanks for sharing that... Cecil, do you believe that Mich record perch was really 21"? The record dates from 1947, so I wonder just how accurately it was measured... Some of those older records I get a little iffy about.

Most of my perch fishing is done in tidal waters like the Potomac. The perch are about to start their spawning run. The YP will head up near the fall line and hold in the deeper holes near it just before they start their spawn. You can really get into then... If the commercial fisherman don't get them first!

Don't know but I'll ask my friend in Michigan if there is any documentation and if so what kind. He would know.

Reminds me of the world record bass from Georgia. No picture whatsoever. I still wonder how that holds up.

Caught around the same time period too if I recall correctly... But back then, there wasn't the money to be made off catching a world record, particularly a world record LMB. I think Perry ate his bass! HAHA

Tenure