Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose What about Perch?

I have a one year old 1/2 acre pond max depth 10'. Last year I stocked it with Hybird blue gill, redears, and minnows. This year I want to add some bass and maybe some perch.

Some of the things I read say not to add perch.......they will eat everything and take over a pond. Yet others say that the are fine, also some of the local hatcheries sell perch, I figure they wouldn't sell them for ponds if they were trouble.

Anybody have an opion?

Good morning, fins. I suspect you'll get a diversity of opinions on yellow perch in ponds!! It's a lot like crappies -- some people like them, while others want nothing to do with them, and actually for some of the same reasons.

I live in South Dakota, where people love their yellow perch. We have far more perch fisheries than bluegills fisheries in this state.

Anyway, that interest in yellow perch means that quite a few people want them in their ponds. There are many ponds in this state managed with a largemouth bass-yellow perch combination. The largemouths should be kept in a crowded state, so the high density of bass will control the reproduction of yellow perch. By thinning the small perch, the surviving perch growth to sizes of interest to anglers (10-12 inches).

The yellow perch spawns only once during the spring, so they are not as desirable a prey (forage) species as is the bluegill (multiple spawns during the summer).

Now, when we manage a pond for yellow perch, this also means that the bass population is abundant and mostly small fish. Up here, such a pond will have few largemouth bass that exceed 12 inches or so. They are fun for catch and release fishing, but we don’t manage such ponds for big bass.

Finally, I’ve never seen redear sunfish with yellow perch in a pond, so I don’t know what to expect from that.

So, what are your management objectives?? What are you trying to produce? Sometimes, one thing must be sacrificed to obtain another. I see that your pond is only ½ acre. I wonder if you should consider keeping the fish community a little simpler in such a small water body?? Just a thought. I’ll be interested in hearing other viewpoints on your question.

Dave

Fins,

If you want big perch without the problems of reproduction and subsequent stunting, if you do not have enough predator fish, why not get female only yellow? Dr. Dave Smith of Freshwater Farms of Ohio in Urbana sells female only perch of 9 to 12 inches. A little over $3.00 a piece.

I put close to a hundred in my 3/4 acre pond two springs ago and they are now over 14 inches now. They are also feed trained so you can feed them for even faster growth, but my perch for the most part went off pellet feed due to the amount of aggressive largemeouth bass I have at feeding time pushing them away.

Just another option.

D.Willis has a good handle on the perch management issue for smaller ponds. For all readers we are talking about northern yellow perch not any type of sunfish/bluegill ("perch")common in south central US. For most success you need to decide on what fish is most important to you in your small pond. Once you decide on the prominent fish for your pond then you manage it so that fish suceeds best.

If you are more interested in bass then leave the perch out. Perch will eat bass fry in spring and compete with the smaller bass for food. Larger bass (15"+) will eat most all the perch around 7"-9" and you will have very few perch maintained in the pond long term. Restock of perch will have to be bigger expensive fish.

If you want perch as the dominant fish then the bass will have to be kept small so bass predation is heavy on the perch less than 4"-6". The best perch fishery ponds in NW Ohio have proved to be "perch only" ponds where the perch are the only sport fish and are feed high protein artificial food and pond owner manually removes excessive numbers of smaller perch and relies on large perch 12"+ to help eat small perch. Often these perch only ponds have had minnows also stocked as forage fish. Large older perch seem to do better at surviving the hot periods of July -August in northern OH ponds than southern OH ponds. Deeper ponds (14'-18' vs 7'-10') also seems to favor perch survival during hotter periods.

Cecil's option of using all female fish is a distinct workable possibility. However this is relatively expensive when it comes to annually replacing the fish that are harvested for table use. However you never have to worry about crowding and too many small perch.

Another option is to proceed like you are currently thinking and stock several fish species. You will end up with a mixed fishery, be able to catch several different types of fish and few if any will be large & predominant and likely very few will be exceptional size/quality.

PS: Your current stock plan of minnows, redears, hyb bgill and bass, from our local experience, will not produce bass much larger than 13". This has been proven by numerous neighboring pond owners. To get the bass to grow beyond 13" they either have to feed them high protein food, add about a hundred of pounds of minnows per year or add bgill. For more information about why this happens use search and look in past topics for hybrid bluegill.

fins: In reference to your note about "perch taking over a pond". In my experience this only happens when the pond is allowed to get very weedy and or most all the predators have been removed and predation pressure is minimal.

In regards to them eating everything. Perch have moderate sized mouths and do have the ability or preference to eat more smaller sized fish compared to say bgill or redear sunfish. However they will also eat thin shelled snails, small crayfish and numerous types of insect larvae and benthic worms. Overabundant perch as with any other overcrowded fish will over eat the food source.

Brian mentions below the fact that you will get male perch into a pond with only female perch. I am currently working with a female only perch pond. WE will see if males naturally invade the pond. I think you are much more likely to get a male perch due to selection and stocking errors than from nature putting a male perch in your pond from a nearby pond. I removed a four questionable sex perch that turned out to be males from my first batch of female perch from the hatchery.

One problem with the all female perch population is the introduction of eggs from birds. If there is a healthy perch population in area waters you WILL get male perch. I have bluegills spawning in my pond after stocking all one sex and I had bullhead babies last spring which I certainly didn't stock. That is why we stock to max capacity to help make sure the unwanted hatchlings are eaten. Ultimately if you think you can have total control over the pond it is an illusion. You can guide it in a general direction, but nature will slip things past you.