New member but have read tons of info on the site. Thanks for all the great info. I have a 7 acre sand pit that has been established for 20 yrs. currently we have a lot of small bass with the majority in the 8 to 15in, crappie in the 9 to 16in, gills in the 6 to 11in, channel cat and carp. We are wanting to introduce perch and some walleye. The lake doesnt have a ton of structure but plan on dropping many cedar trees and pvc setups to help. The plan is to put in 5-7in perch and walleye this fall. We plan on doing about 150 walleye and 400 perch this year and then about the same next year and maybe the year after. My question is will the perch survive if they are in that 5-7in range. I realize the walleye wont reproduce which is fine. Our main goal is to keep the nice crappie and gills currently along with growing a nice perch population. The bass are not a priority at this time. Please help with any advice. Thanks again!!

Welcome to PBF!

I am not a pro but I don't think it will work with hungry LMB there to greet the newcomers. Hopefully, I've got it all wrong and the pros will chime in with encouraging advice.

Bill D.

Welcome to the forum. The survival of both species would be marginal. Too much pressure from predation.

When you say that there is not a lot of cover in the pond, that is another nail in the coffin. For the YOY fish to have enough cover to survive predation, AND for the stocker YP to do the same, I wouldn't feel comfortable stocking fish that were smaller than 50% of the size of the LMB until I had 20% of the pond surface area in cover for the fish to hide in.

20% doesn't sound like much, but once you start calculating square footage and then calculating how many brush piles, etc. that requires, you will have 2nd thoughts. PLUS, if you use woody cover for the brush piles, you will have to do that same amount of work all over again in 5-7 years because of decomposition.

Thanks Bill and that is my fear as well. As bad as i want perch i realize the initial perch need to be big enough to hopefully avoid the bass. Ugh. We want perch so bad so any other ideas would be appreciated.

Also, any channel cats that are over 3 pounds start acting like largemouth and switch their diet to mostly fish. So, the CC will be eating the stocker fish too, depending on the size of the CC.

Thanks esshup. I agree and our goal is to drop as many trees as we can this spring and summer to hopefully give enough structure by november when new fish are stocked. That along with cold water temps will hopefully give the fish all winter to grow while the bass will be feeding a bit less. I dont know maybe that dont make much diff. Trying to learn with all your help. Thanks

Do some rough calculations on how many sq. ft. a tree will cover, then see how many trees you will have to drop to equal 61,000 square feet...........

Hi Jwet, welcome to the forum. You'll find answers to most of your questions on here. I'm no expert and probably just barely an amateur, but I have read many threads on perch(YP) and Walleye (WE). The best thing I have found on here is using the search function or going to google and type in a search such as, perch site:pondboss.com. There is also a thread with common acronyms to help you understand what fish others are discussing. Your ponds crappie are Getting good size but relative weight (RW) would be important to know i.e. Are they skinny or feeding well. Crappie are probably being helped by overpopulated bass keeping crappie numbers down. Based on body shape of perch, fusiform, they would probably be preferred target of your bass. There are many threads on perch with bass and walleye. Good luck. I'm sure there will be some experts on shortly. Welcome to the forum.

This doesnt help my hopes of a nice perch population. Haha. I do appreciate your info and realize it is reality. I have lots of work to do. We have such good crappie and gills with little structure i hate to complain but realize the perch would be first to the dinner plate. Part of me wants to think though that 5-7in perch would not be eatn for the most part???

Depending on how hungry a bass is, a 15" LMB could eat a 7" YP.

Then there are those pesky CC..............

I'm not saying that it can't be done, just saying that work will need to be done, OR stock them strictly as put and take, but you will have to stock them in a lot higher numbers.....

Think needle in a haystack.

Did any buddy suggest keep every bass you catch? And most crappie.? Maybe let a few choice brood stock go,? But pull them out to make room for biomass lower predation and have some good fish fries. If you have specific is you don't want keep every oNE of them.

Hi Jwetovick - a fellow Husker welcomes you to the forum!

Great advice so far here, you're in the right place. I work on a lot of fisheries in Nebraska and am happy to help in any manner I can - I specialize in cool water species fish [WE, YP, HSB, SMB]. I just purchased several hundred 8-10" YP and I'm feed training them in cages for personal use. I also purchase 12-15" WE every Fall for friends, both advanced sizes to help survive predation from apex predators. Just so you know, these size fish are available. My advice is free, here to help anyone I can anytime. Ping me if you want some local advice, I can help you with a stocking strategy, cover/structure, and fish sources if you need it. Also, too much to relate here, important help manage your expectations. Establishing WE and YP into a LMB/CC dominant fishery is a challenge per Esshup above - can be done, but need to walk you through the scenarios first. It's all going to start with major biomass reduction [see fishm_n above] [LMB, CC, CP, Carp] and then you need to consider what the WE and YP are going to utilize as forage. YOY BG will only take them so far. Feel free to email or call anytime. I have rarely experienced NE fisheries with LMB present feature a reliable YP or WE fishery [occasional angling survey], but if you're dedicated enough I think it can be done.

TJ

tj@hudlandmgmt.com
402.730.4897