Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch More big perch pictures

I think it's time to shut down the yellow perch and bluegill harvest via hook and line until next spring.

18 perch were removed between 14 and 14 3/4 inches up to 2 lbs. 5 1/2 oz. And 8 bluegill 10 inches or over from about 1 lb. 4 oz. to 1 lb. 6 1/2 ounces.

Lots of female yellow perch in the 13 to just under 14 inch range were released along with a modest number of 9 to just under 10 inch bluegill.

Here is my latest round of helpers. Free labor!

L to R: Ben, Gauge, Hunter and Grant.





For those of you that don't know I sell these fish from my private male bluegill and female only pond to fellow taxidermists and replica makers. Fish are hatched and feed trained in different ponds. The YOY are brought indoors for the winter to grow a few inches before being planted into the ponds. I have some female YP that just turned 1 year old and are 11 inches.

I also had a group of adults friends over on other days. Total of four full fishing days to produce the above fish. Many more undersize fish were released.

Here are two caught by Hunter that were in the 14 inch range with the largest weighing in at 2 lbs. 5 1/2 oz. That's less than 3 ounces short of our state record!



Here's Grant's little brother Ben with a 14 incher.



A couple on the top of cooler. Fish were overdozed with a fish anesthetic and then catalogued and frozen to be later shrink wrapped and shipped.

Very nice YP!!!

Thanks. It's great getting paid for them too. $50.00 each which includes shipping. These fish will take care of the property taxes this year. Many that were in the 13 inch range this year will be harvestable at 14 or better next year. At least 150 fish.

My goal is to harvest 100 YP 14 inches or larger per year and plant 100 yellow perch per year. Same goes for bluegills of 10 inches or larger and plant 100 BG per year.

They almost don't look real... When you are used to catching 10"-12" egg laden females and thinking they are big, then you see your fish, it just blows my mind.

Thanks Travis. That means a lot coming from you.

Couldn't have done any of this without ideas from Dr. Perca (Bill Cody) and the website. And of course not without the great fish that originally came from Dr. Dave Smith and Bill Lynch of Ohio.

Dr. Smith was the first one open to selling me female only perch. Bill Lynch not only sold me shooter perch at a great price, but also provided lots of advice on spawning them.

I'd love to see you break the 3 pound mark.

Man I wish I live closer we could trade some hogs..

If I can grow another 16 inch fish and harvest her at max ovary size she would definitely be over 3lbs. I think the 15 inch fish next spring will be at least close. It will be interesting to see what happens if I get a thriving fathead minnow population going along with the pellets.

If I didn't have to destroy 60 of them for VHS testing I'd probably give you some.

The largest YP you harvested, say 14"+, how old would you say they are? If left in the pond, would you believe they would survive another year or more?

Appreciate that but I would make it worth while I can't just take a hand out.. I'd atleast try to give you some of these BG genes I got..

Them bottom YP look so fat their eyeballs want too leave their head..

Cecil I am dumbfounded...those are amazing. I hope to follow in your footsteps - I think it's time for I get another pep talk!

My guess is the stress of the size of the ovaries but I'm not sure. Those eggs are up to 30 percent of their body weight.

Unfortunately killing 60 fish like that would be at least
$3000.00 in profits out of my pocket not to mention the cost of testing. So it's not an option.

I think the 14 plus are four to five years old, but the ones I started last year in the indoor tanks for the winter will probably reach that size in three years as many are in the 10 to 11 inch range at one year old.

The late great Dr. Willis aged with an otolith bone my 16 1/4 inch 2 lb. 13 oz. female at 6 years of age. I caught her through the ice in February, and if I had waited and caught her just before she dropped her eggs I have no doubt she would have been at least 3 lbs.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=6608&Number=64372#Post64372

Any data on maximum age for YP. I suspect it is shorter for pellet fed fish and those kept indoors in warmer temps.

Cecil, your fish are just amazing. If I can grow a couple dozen females to 12" to use as bonus fish in the HBG pond I will be thrilled....seeing yours just blows me away.

As you probably have, I've read about 11 years max for wild perch, but I'm sure it's dependent on latitude and water temps.

No idea how long my feed trained perch would live. They have seemed to max out the 15 inch range which is in the 4 to 6 year old range. But in all fairness I sold them in that size range to Bass Pro Shops, so that may not be an accurate observation.

I think Bill Cody says about 15 inches for him. Bill? Now that I'm bringing them in for the winter I guess I'll find out in a few years if it just shortens their life span or gives them a jump start.

Life span does seen to be dependent on rate of growth. Cecil's work with fast growing YP will provide lots of good information about this topic for perch. It is pretty easy to get a YP stocked as 4"-6" to 12" in 3-4yrs if they have enough food.

It will be interesting to see what my tank jump starts that get to put on several inches in the winter will do in a few years. They definitely will be keyed in on pellet feeding as that is all they get in the tanks.

I'm going to try and tag some of them after all to keep a record of overall growth rates.

Wow Cecil.

I have been fishing for yellow perch here all my life. I think they are one of the best tasting fish I've seen long ones and I've seen fat ones.

But those are the longest and fattest YP ever. Congrats.

I'll be sending one out your way to a taxidermist in Mechanicsville, Maryland on Monday.

Not fat however, eggs.

9 custom insulated boxes on their way to the UPS shipper to 7 different states with frozen yellow perch and bluegills. I shipped 8 Boxes last Monday. Considering I should have 100 or more in the 14 inch range with some 15 next year, i hope to start building up an inventory for year around sales.

No more fish to ship for now. All sold.

As you can see I ran out of packing tape and I had to buy some on the way to UPS.

man you get a standing ovation for this as far as i'm concerned. i don't know anything about perch, but the proportions on those fish are just ridiculous (in a good way). and you get paid for it too? man you really are livin' the dream. hats off to ya.