Has anyone in my parts seen any ribbons yet? I hope I didn't miss out!

I am north of you and have not seen anything yet. We have some trees in the pond just for them and nothing. Water is still really really cold.

Cheers Don.

benji - what is your water temperature about 2 ft deep? Blue dye in the pond will slow down the egg drop by YP. In ponds without dye in your region most YP eggs have been laid. Whey you are seeing daffodils and hearing toad trilling perch are often done or near done spawning.

Good tips there Bill.

We have not had any toads trilling yet and of the female perch we have caught they are full of eggs and their lady parts are swollen ready to pop.

A small interesting thing is we did catch a school of emerald shiners of all different sizes along the shore yesterday in a trap. Some how they have spawned in our little pool. I wish I knew just exactly how so I can make sure it keeps happening or if it is just dumb luck nature doing her best. A minnow trap full of these is a site to see. The shine is incredible.

Cheers Don.

Dono - Can you post a close up clear picture of a couple sizes (Lg&medium) of your emerald shiners in its own thread in Raising Forage and Bait? Then we can figure out what you are doing to get shiner reproduction and recruitment. Emeralds very difficult to get them to recruit in a pond and you've managed to get it figured out. Your discovery will benefit lots of fish oriented people. Adult emerald shiners can get 5" (127mm)long.

Will do Bill. We let them go but its not a problem trapping more.

New thread as soon as I can get some good pictures. Me and the boys can tell them by their V shape tail and chrome like shine. Nothing like the common shiner for shine.

Cheers Don.

Bill was bang on. Caught some perch on Thursday the 16th. They were quite slow at biting and the females were full of eggs and swollen.

Yesterday the 17th the perch were biting anything that hit the water and all the females had no more eggs. Last night the toad thrilling was defining.

We did catch some smaller female perch that I suspect were not stocked and they were still holding onto their eggs. They were 6" and the stocked perch are 3 or 4 years old now.

We have a brush pile in the pond that is completely sunken and one Christmas tree that is floating around in the pond. I do let the pond really get going in the spring and do not add blue dye until the pond visibility is only 15-12"s. It is 12"s or so now but think I will leave it still. Not seeing any FA yet or not dragging any in on a hook.

Long story long, we can't see any ribbons. The only year we did see any ribbons was the first year when the water was very clear and they laid the ribbon right near the top. I have not seen any ribbons since but we do have a few young recruitment in the pond. So nature is taking her course. With very little protection 15% at most its all working well I suspect.

Cheers Don.

Thanks for the update Don. I am in the same situation with low visibility so really have no idea if my YP spawned or not. Really warm day for us yesterday, almost 80. Toads were singing like crazy last night! I tried fishing for YP a little a week or so ago, but visibility was nil and so was the bite. What were you using for YP bait? I may give it a try again today if I get a chance before the cold front moves in for next week.

I find in the early part of the year like right now what is hot is a dew worm on a white jig head. What we were using yesterday was minnows we trapped right from our own pond.

We did find we had to use a bobber at about 36"s from the jig and keep reeling it in till the jig was laying on the bottom. You could tell with a long tall bobber when it started to float a bit higher in the water. Then just wait. If nothing in five ten minutes pull back in and re cast re set. They seem to be parked right in the shallows right now.

Pictures of them before on the 16th and then pictures of them on the 17th. If you look really close at the second picture you can see some eggs on the anal fin and how the lady parts are swollen.

EDIT: guess I need to stop turning my phone when I take a picture haa ha ha.

Cheers Don.

Nice perch! Congratulations!

Those are some great looking pond raise perch and a very happy angler. Ponds primarily for YP provide great, rapid catch angling opportunities. Keep in mind that Dono probably has close to 300 perch in his small pond thus the very good catch success even in 'dingy' low visibility water. Generally the clearer the water the better the 'bite'. YP seem to prefer a minnow impaled and restricted on a hook compared to catching free swimming minnows.

Thanks guys. These were stocked November 2012 at 4-6"s.

Did you take any length/weight measurements?

I have a surface temp of 58 degrees, toads of been singing and laying for three days, and have seen no ribbons. I put some tree tops in and have other cattails and things that I thought they would use. I put in 30 3"-4" YP in April 2013. Any YP that I have seen are still small, perhaps 5"-6". I haven't ever caught any, although when I fish I am usually targeting the HSB. I am disappointed as I thought they would really spawn this year. I had one egg mass last year.

I am going to target them for a while and see what I can survey. I am feeling like I missed a spawn this year somehow.

I feel like it is late, but just found YP egg masses in the pond yesterday. I also have very, very small fry (redundant, I know) swimming around. Can there be multiple YP spawns?

It is possible you had an earlier spawn and now a later spawn. Can you catch some of the very small fry, put them in a zip loc bag, and photograph them close up?

I would love to hear that there are multiple spawns. Glad to hear it is at least a possibility. I will catch a fry or two and re-post. Thanks Bill.

Nope but will in a week or two. The big ones are bulking up after their spawn. Caught a record last week that was 13"s. Must have been 8"s when stocked.

We have been catching young from our pond I am guessing to be 2013 class that are still holding their eggs. If I was to guess the smaller females will lay later if they do lay their eggs. Catching 6-8" with eggs trying to come out.

Cheers Don.

I had some ribbons on a submerged Christmas tree then one day when I was approaching the pond I noticed water ripples coming from the Christmas tree. A female mallard duck was right next to the tree, I don't know if she was picking on the tree or eating the perch ribbons. Do mallard ducks eat perch ribbons? I might be without fry again. : (