Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Yellow Perch

Caught this little bugger in my pond tonight, on a Rapala almost half his length.

First perch I've caught in my pond.

(It is a yellow perch, right?)

I'm sure that YP is bigger than it looks cause you didn't use the Condello photography method.

It's all in the camera angle!!

Depending on what the goals are for the yellow perch, I'm finding a lot of excitment in live-lining a YP of that size to catch a much bigger fish in my pond.

My goal for the YP are actually to see how they do in my pond.

I "officially" stocked the pond earlier this year with BG & LMB fingerlings. 10-12 YP fingerlings may have been added at that time. I will neither confirm nor deny if that happened.

My pond seems to run on the cooler side, from what I can tell. Despite it's smaller size, no inlet, and being only 8.5ft deep, it usually has an outflow often around 5-6gpm.

The highest water temp reading I've seen this year has been 78F. Today, at noon, it was 58F.

For that reason the perch mayhave seemed like a good species for an experiment.............if someone had actually put any in............as I'm not sure.

I'd just like to see how they do.

Jeffrey, what kind of cover do you provide for them in this pond? Realistically, what are the chances the YP take in the presence of LMB?

I didn't provide any additional cover, other than what was already there. That, being mostly plant growth.

I honestly don't know what chances the YP take with the LMB presence? I'm still on the bottom end of the learning scale.

You might be able to answer the second question better than I?

In my, admittedly limited, research, YP have difficulty sustaining a population in the presence of a relevant LMB population due to their size and fusiform shape. Adequate cover could assist them however. What kind of vegetation do you have? If nothing else, you'll certainly know what color of crankbait to throw out there for your LMB.

I believe that YP do just fine with LMB. It's just the timing. The original YP have to get over 10" or so, and bigger, and then they are just another fish in the pond that are too big for the LMB to eat.

Keep in mind though, that YP are both a forage and a predator fish, so you'll need smaller fish for the bigger YP to eat, as well as the LMB.

Sunil, I agree, bigger fish will avoid LMB predation, but what about recruitment in his pond without proper cover? Or are we assuming against the YP successfully spawning?

Assuming that Jeffrey D has both male and female YP, he'll need some kind of structure for them to lay their eqg strands on. A more hardy pond weed might suffice.

But this will only occur once the YP are of spawning age/size. I'm guessing that if his YP get to 8-10", he might start to see some egg strands. Maybe next spring 2011, and if not, then most likely spring 2012.

Hey, thanks guys for all the input. My brain is getting bigger.

Omaha, to answer you question about what kind of plant growth I have, I don't know what it is. I know I have algea, duckweed, cat tails, for sure, but the underwater plants I'm not sure about.

I just went and took a pic of some of it. There's another type of plant, too, but I'd have to go out in a boat to get a pic.

The other(to me) looks more like a long bladed grass, but submerged.

So there is a chance the YP might spawn? If so, cool!!

I stocked the pond on 6-15-10, so it's been just shy of 3 months. The YP were about half the length of the one in the pic(about 3inch when stocked). Is that an ok amount of growth?

Yes very good growth. An inch a month for yellow perch is about as good as it gets.

Jeffrey, it looks like you have enough aquatic plants right now for YP to spawn on, but will they be in that condition after a Minn. winter, the YP spawn real early so you might need to put some structure in like Christmas trees, or artificial weeds, best to check it out right after ice out.

Good point, AP.

A few X-mas trees will vastly improve the chances of a YP spawn.

Actually the truth be known they get all happy and giddy thinking Christmas is here again. Next thing you know they get so relaxed the eggs just slide out. Many people don't know this but it's a fact!

Cecil, I don't want to know how you know that they know when Christmas is, and I especially don't want to know how you know what slides easily out of them....you know?

Hmm, your saying that's pretty good makes me wonder how accurate my figures are??

I was gonna guess just ok.

I need to start keeping better records. I'm gonna make a phone call and see if someone knows how big they were, for sure, at stocking. And get a scale, and..........

Cecil, or anybody who might know, are perch alright with catch and release? I know some fish have a tough time with it, while other don't. Do they get spooked after being caught a time or two?

The christmas tree idea is good. The DNR recommended to me to do that, also. Just haven't got around to it.

YP also should spawn and eggs hatch okay using old cattail stems as spawning strucure. The difficulty comes in getting the small fusiform shaped young perch to live long enough to get to 8" long which can take 2-3 yrs (see additional post below). In that time young LMB love to eat them, even better than eating BG. A strong small LMB population, which is usually common in most ponds, 'hammer the heck out' of young YP, often to the point of extinction of the 1&2 yr old YP.

YP normally tolerate catch and release well providing they are not bleeding or are not misshandled.

That's some good looking water and plants!!

Cecil, got a return phone call from the man, although I wasn't around to get the call. He say's the perch were in the 3" to maybe 4" range, so, it may have only been 2" in 3 months.

Still he said 6" was good.

Bill, thanks for the response. A question. You mentioned 2-3 years to get to 8". How old would you guess the fish in my pic is? I have no idea, but (probably wrongly) thought it was this springs spawn. So, no, then?

Thanks Esshup. You can see by the pic why I was using a floating rapala last night instead of sinking lure.

I get tired of draggging half the pond bottom in with each cast.

The water is very clear. Hard also.

JD - Growth of YP as with many fish is highly dependent on proper food availability (proper size and abundance) and competition with other fish (same and other species). As exceptions I have seen YP at 8" long with eggs at 12 months old, including a normal central Ohio winter of 3.5months. This meams the fish was very close to 8" long going into winter at 6.5-7 months of growth in water above 50F (Mid Apr-end Oct). Note these large YP were the fastest growers with optimum food availability. However most YP in the water body of the same age would or willbe 3"-5" long in the same growth period and similar temperatures. Also in this year classs there can be some 2"-3" and some 5.1"-7.9" ers. If one has this spread of size ranges, usually the smaller ones are males and larger ones are females. I hav also seen where YP are crowded and lacking good food resources that almost all of them are 2"-4" long at 12 months old. These fish when food limited then only grow to to 4" to 6" in their second year of life. It can take the 3rd year for many of them to get to 7" to 8" long. This last growth pattern is typical growth of YP in many water bodies. This slower growth is usually due to the YP having to compete with many other fish for the same food items. This slower growth and smaller slender body shape make many of the YP very vulnerable to predators for the first 3-4 yrs of their life.