Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Monster Perch at buybass.com

The buybass.com website is for Schultz's Fish Hatchery in PA. Anyone have any experience with the perch there?

LOL. Just tell them to fly to the mitten...

I was wondering if these might be a hybrid of some sort. Maybe Jumbo yellow perch and Condor...

Maybe, they are sorting and then breeding just their top 20% of pellet trained YP year after year. Reminds me of someone I know who is doing something similar with just male BG.

disclaimer: see the big "Maybe" at the begining of this post one more time.

I called Schultz's and asked him what the big secret was all about.

He just replied "I know nothing, I know nothing, I know nothing..."

Sunil,,, Honestly, is that all he would tell U about his perch?

He mumbled something about Colonel Klink too.

Yea and I bet they have old Hogan the YP Hero caged up in the place. :p

My best YP hook and line was 13 3/8".
I've seen a few honest 15" YP.
And I've seen TONS of them.
All the above were in tidal rivers.

YP seem to grow very slowly.We stock fry at day 5 or 6 post hatch,into fertilized ponds, and it takes about 40 days before they are big enough to harvest and bring inside.And they are still SMALL at this point.
They do take to artificial feed quickly and easily,but still seem to grow slow.I've never kept any beyond about 3 months of tank culture (so a little less than 6 months of age),but most are still less than 3".
They maybe COULD really put on a growth spurt later on,but I doubt it.

I'd LOVE to see a real 20" YP.

I'd like to see a real 20 inch perch too, I don't believe they exist. I have seen a couple fish 15 inches plus out of Lake Erie and Lake Simcoe in Ontario, but never seen one that broke the 16" mark, and obviously no 20+ fish. If they get that big in a lake, I don't think they are readily caught as they would feed on larger prey and most perch anglers don't sit around with larger bait waiting for one, that's just my opinion.

I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania and remember one spring fishing outing with my father where we were fishing in the Erie bay and caught huge yellow perch. We had fished many times and caught many perch, but this particular time they were gigantic and all were in the 14-15 inch range. We were approached by a fish commissioner officer (which are like state police in PA) that thought we were catching walleye out of season when he looked at our stringer. I recall his surprise when he realized they were perch. They were very brightly colored perch - more so than usual. We refer back to these perch as "lake run" perch, wondering if they came in from deep in lake Erie depths to spawn in the spring. Now as a Texas resident with a new lake I envy those of you in climates that can stock YP!

Captain1, it's funny you mention the PA Fish & Game Commission officers.

Former Pittsburgh Steeler Jack Lambert is a PA Fish & Game officer. While I've never met him, I've heard he's pretty hard core.

I've seen a 17" yellow perch caught in Lake Michigan during Salmon-A-Rama. It was over 20 years ago though. I couldn't believe it was a perch!!!!!! I thought the same thing that warden thought, walleye for sure but had never seen one that far south in Lake Michigan. Door County yes, but not off of Racine. I doubt a 20 incher exists any longer. The Wisconsin record is over 3 pounds and I'll bet that was over 20". The next closest YP I've seen at the contest was only 14 inches. Had a gullet full of smelt I'd bet. Miss the smelt fishing dang it. Go out at night, catch YP off the rocks and dip net for smelt while you're at it. At times you could get a 5 gallon bucket full in one pull!!! Salmon pretty much have eaten most of them.

Funny, I just reread the first page and see that quite possibly the perch I saw come out of Lake Michigan is the one that Bender wrote about. Small world! OK, so it wasn't 20 years ago, it was 13. I knew I was in my 20's. Man I'm getting old.

It had nowhere near the belly that the pictures show. This thing looked like a 3 pound walleye.

A 3 lb. perch doesn't have to be 20 inches. Mine was only 16 1/4 at 2 lbs. 13 oz. If I would have waited and caught her at peak spawning weight packed with eggs she would have easily gone 3 lbs. Here's a pic of her if you haven't seen it:

Cecil, that is an absolutely amazing looking fish. I could only dream of catching one like that. The bigun I saw was long and thick, not bottom heavy like that. The colors on your fish are much brighter too. Yours LOOKS like a perch. Congratulations bud, once in a lifetime.

You are looking at, without a doubt, one of the best yellow perch ever caught on film. Most experienced yellow perch fisherman will go to their graves without seeing something like that.

I've got a patient who fished for years and caught a true two-pounder which he promptly had mounted. He's so proud of it. Imagine this fish is forty percent bigger.

Thanks for the kind words Bruce. Wish there was some way I could fly it down with me to the convention in one piece. It's in a glass case. Shipping scares me with all that glass.

Cecil, I wouldn't EVER move that thing!!!!!! I agree with Bruce, simply awesome. And like I said, much more impressive looking than the one caught out of Lake Michigan. All the more reason to keep it safe!

Maybe, if you wanted to bring it to shows, have an exact replica made of it. Don't know the cost but it can definitely be done. When people ask if it's real, tell 'em you just wanted others to share it with without compromising the original.

Actually it's pretty much too late to make a replica. I could even do it myself but it would destroy the fish. I weighed the option of making a replica at first but didn't want to destroy the orginal fish.