If we had a spawn of yearling perch this year in our pond how big would the perch be? Just about all of the fish are 9"-11" and we have been catching 3-5" perch as well.

We can only catch 2-2.5" shiners and fathead minnows in our minnow trap on the shore no perch minnows at all this year.

Cheers Don.

Well mine are in the 1-1/4" range at present. Pic was taken almost 2 weeks ago now. Further south I might expect mine to be a week or two ahead of yours based on water temps influencing spawning dates.

Thanks so much for the picture. I have been told that I should be able to see the strips on them. I now know what to look for.

I guess the thousands of small minnows we see could be yearling perch.

How soon do they get their stripes. Right now there is a bunch that are just about clear. Just about .5-3/4" long with just eyes that look dark.

Cheers Don.

Wish I knew more about YP and what to expect. This is my first time with them. I stocked a redone pond with some 3-5 and 5-7 inch in June of last year. I did hatch at least one bunch this spring because I caught 2 about 1 and 1/2 inches long in a minnow trap earlier. Haven't seen any small ones since, so they may have all gotten eaten by the SMB and larger perch. Some of the perch feed on the AM but they seem to also hammer the FHM along with the SMB. I put about 25 pound of FHM in in late may and I rarely see any now. No schools of FHM fry at all but 2 or 3 together occasionally. I don't really care right now because I would like the SMB and larger YP to keep the newly hatched BG in check. I'll likely put some more FHM in in late fall to provide them some extra food over the winter.

Saw my first today about 2 1/2 inches.

It appears some of my hatch survived so far. Son and I walked over to the pond a couple hours ago BG fishing. I was using Stubby Steve's and caught 3 small YP. Smallest was about 2 and 1/2 inches and the other 2 were just under 3 inches. All looked very healthy.