I recently did some hook and line fishing in my warmwater pond with a jig to catch several species for pictures for my website. I pulled in a 13 inch yellow perch, and even though the fish wasn't deeply hooked, and handling was kept to a minimum, (always wet my hands if fish has to handled), the fish started bleeding apparently from the gills. Any idea what the survivability of this fish is? It really bummed me out to see the blood and I hope there is a chance the fish will be O.K. The hook was removed.I haven't seen the fish floating yet and it has been a day and half.

I put in about 95 eight to twelve inch feed trained female only yellow perch this spring, and they are really growing fast and look healthy. I hope to grow them to at least 14 inches and sell to other taxidermists. (See http://www.ligtel.com/~jjbaird/bairdfish2.htm

I will have a picture of one of the yellow perch, a smallmouth, and a bluegill added soon. I presently only have pics of a rainbow and brown from my coldwater pond and a smaller spawning stressed largemouth (tail a little frayed from stress).

Cecil, I findly get to reply to one of your posts with knowledge. In my area of the country (north shore of Lake Erie)we have some of the largest and quality "jumbo" yellow perch anywhere. The key to survival I believe is the temperature of the surrounding water. In Lake Erie you are still catching perch full of "row" because they can still find that 55-60 degree water for spawning. In warmer water they should do fine if caught in the mouth area and released quickly following proper release protocal. In my new lake of warm water (like yours) which is full of yellow perch I have caught many large perch while trying to get an accurate reading of the overall size of all fish presently in the lake. The results are they survived the stress of catch/handling and releasing from the mouth area. However, if they "eat the hook" you are taking your chances for survival. Are your pond perch a darker shade of yellow/green etc because of the warmer and weedier water conditions (great distinct colours). The perch from the cooler water of lake Erie are less colourful because of the water and little or no weeds. I hope this helps?????

Rowly

Rowly,

Thanks for the reply. My perch were purchased from a place called Freshwater Farms of Ohio and were being raised in a RAS (Recirculating system) during most of the year but put into a pond during the winter to induce egg develpment. It seems perch need colder temps in winter to induce egg development and in the constant temps of a tank it doesn't work well. Dr. Smith of Freshwater Farms of Ohio tell me they are originally a strain from Lake Erie.

Anyway, the fish I am raising are a brilliant yellow gold although the fins are not as orange as a males would be during spawning time. I should have a picture of one on my website in the near future. (Hope the true color shows I've had it not reproduce well in some cases)

I especially like the fact that I will not have to worry about stunted perch to manage as all my fish are females. They were purchased as 8 to 12 inch fish at three years of age so I should get at least a couple more years out of them. So far I have only caught one perch under 12 inches out of about 10 perch. I'm going stop fishing for a while as I now have pics for my website.