Hello. Have a 7 acre old sand pit in nebraska and looking to introduce perch. Max depth of about 24ft. Currently over populated with bass which is resulting in big gills and crappie. Also have catfish and carp in the lake. Looking at introducing perch and if i do will be 7-8in perch. Will stock them right before ice up to help elimate the bass predation. Very few bass over 15in from what i have seen or caught. Any advice as far as how many to stock per acre? Thanks!

If the sandpit has weed beds the perch will have a better survival rate. With high numbers of bass do not expect very many new perch from reproduction. Bass will eat most all the small slender bodied perch before they reach 8" long which can be a period of 2 to 3 years. To keep a population of larger harvestable perch you will need to periodically stock the 7"-8" size group. Number to stock per acre will depend on the size of your wallet and the frequency that you want to catch a perch.

What hatchery are you sourcing 7-8" yp this spring?

Thanks Bill. Planning on putting in 400 or so for each of the next few years or maybe longer depending on results. They are about 2 bucks each.

Still searching a bit. Any suggestions?

7-8" YP in Spring will be very difficult to come by. I posted my contact information and offered to help a while back - feel free to ping me sometime. YP in NE can be tricky.

I have an order for 400 YP to be delivered within a week. They are 7-8in. I am hoping they actually end up having more than 400 and we will plan on buying them as well. Very rare to find this size of perch to stock in NE so I'd like to buy all I can get. One issue I'm trying to figure out is how well they will grow? Our sandpit is about 11 acres and not 7 like I previously posted. We seem to have an overpopulation of bass which has led to nice gills and crappie. My thought is hopefully the perch will spawn early enough and give the bass and other fish more forage to grow as currently the bass and crappie are pretty thin but gills look great. Ideas/advice?? Hate to add more fish to a sand pit that is probably already over capacity but the thought is the perch will also be adding forage? I'm no pro, just want to catch perch Thanks

Do you currently remove lm and crappie? If you are close to capacity now, and want yp to recruit, that may help.

We actually do not have an abundance of crappie but we did put in 100 8in crappie this summer. The bass we have been trying to cull as many as possible but that has only been about 150 which is not that many. Rare to catch a bass bigger than 15in currently. Our goal is good sized crappie, gills, and perch with the occasional nice bass. There are so many bass in there now its hard to cull as many as we need to.

If you can't cull enough LMB, then it's time to call in an e-shock boat and have them remove every one that comes up. There's a chance that many of the YP will become snacks. Ever see a LMB swim around with a fish tail sticking out of it's mouth?

11 acres = 330 pounds of bass to remove every year for the next few years..........

Thanks esshup. I agree we are up for a challenge culling bass. Is it possible for many of my 8in perch will get eatn by 12 to 14in bass ? I know there may be some bigger bass but they are rare. Still looking for advice. Thank you

The perch arrived today and released very well. A couple hours later i went fishing for some crappie and seen one swim by. Beautiful to see. Now will keep fingers crossed. Guy we got them from said we are definately overpopulated with bass which i knew. He said to cull all the bass we possibly can going forward. Will see what happens.

Have you thought of stocking something to eat the bass? A few tiger muskie might help your situation. Glad to see your perch released ok.

8" YP? No. 6" YP? Yes. Did you put a ruler to the stocked YP?

o

Have thought about doing muskie as well. May try it couple years if the pit does not improve.

They ranged from 6 to 8in.