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Has anyone experienced yellow perch with a very large minnow population leave pellets?

It seems now that I have had to turn our feeder back to one 3 second feed. The perch do not take the feed at all. In the spring we were up to six five second feeds and the perch were all over the feed, but now they only want to eat the minnows that are feeding.

Has anyone encountered pellet trained perch leave pellets because the natural feed is over abundant?

We started the pond so the forage base had a year head start and the perch were pellet trained leaving the minnow base and crayfish alone for a second year.

Cheers Don.


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I don't have many minnows (if any) in the pond, but I notice that the YP really, really slow down on eating pellets when the water warms up in the summer.


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I have no forage fish in my female only perch pond and they also back off on the pellets -- especially the larger ones. So I wouldn't be too concerned if you have plenty of forage fish.

The bright side is less money spent on feed right?

Come spring my 13 to 14 inch female yellow perch look healthy with large ovaries so apparently they are feeding in something. My guess is the abundance snails and other invertebrates, although the .62 acre pond has around 300 large female yellow perch and about 100 large male bluegill.

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 08/02/14 09:27 AM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Yes it seems that we have to many minnows. We did catch some emerald shiners as well as common shiners in the minnow trap. There is a bunch of fatheads as well. The emerald shiner is much more bright and thinner of the shiners. Wow are they fast too.

Now when the feeder gos off the perch are there catching the minnows eating the feed. We can see a boil of the minnows trying to get away from the attacking perch. Its really neat. I hope to catch it on video and post it. The perch seem to just smash at the school of minnows.

I guess the good thing is that the number of perch and number of minnows should hold its ground for some time if the minnows keep populating this well.

Now thoughts are going to if the shiners would have eaten the perch eggs from this springs spawn or if the perch could spawn late still. Can't seem to catch or see any young perch. Our lights could be in to deep of water. They are off the dock in 12 feet of water. If we put a hot dog bun in the minnow trap its gone in ten minutes or one beer and we have easy four dozen minnows in the trap. No perch minnows.

Cheers Don.


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Cecil, is that pond aerated? Good ta hear ya chirpin in again.


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Originally Posted By: DonoBBD
Yes it seems that we have to many minnows. We did catch some emerald shiners as well as common shiners in the minnow trap. There is a bunch of fatheads as well. The emerald shiner is much more bright and thinner of the shiners. Wow are they fast too.

Now when the feeder gos off the perch are there catching the minnows eating the feed. We can see a boil of the minnows trying to get away from the attacking perch. Its really neat. I hope to catch it on video and post it. The perch seem to just smash at the school of minnows.

I guess the good thing is that the number of perch and number of minnows should hold its ground for some time if the minnows keep populating this well.

Now thoughts are going to if the shiners would have eaten the perch eggs from this springs spawn or if the perch could spawn late still. Can't seem to catch or see any young perch. Our lights could be in to deep of water. They are off the dock in 12 feet of water. If we put a hot dog bun in the minnow trap its gone in ten minutes or one beer and we have easy four dozen minnows in the trap. No perch minnows.

Cheers Don.


I would never be too concerned about too much forage. And as prolific as yellow perch are I wouldn't be worried they are being eaten up.

How long have the lights been up? It may take a while to see many perch.

Keep in mind once perch get to a certain size they are no longer phototactic. I believe it's about 3 to 4 inches.


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Originally Posted By: Bob-O
Cecil, is that pond aerated? Good ta hear ya chirpin in again.


Two diffusers set equidistance apart in the center of the pond. 1/4 hp rotary vane compressors to two membrane diffusers. About 4 cfm. Runs only at night if I remember to turn it off during the day! blush

Had a snapping turtle slurping up pellets the other night. I fired a cb round at him and he made a dive like I had dropped a depth charge on him. Don't know if it was lethal but I haven't seen him since.


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Originally Posted By: Cecil Baird1
Originally Posted By: DonoBBD
Yes it seems that we have to many minnows. We did catch some emerald shiners as well as common shiners in the minnow trap. There is a bunch of fatheads as well. The emerald shiner is much more bright and thinner of the shiners. Wow are they fast too.

Now when the feeder gos off the perch are there catching the minnows eating the feed. We can see a boil of the minnows trying to get away from the attacking perch. Its really neat. I hope to catch it on video and post it. The perch seem to just smash at the school of minnows.

I guess the good thing is that the number of perch and number of minnows should hold its ground for some time if the minnows keep populating this well.

Now thoughts are going to if the shiners would have eaten the perch eggs from this springs spawn or if the perch could spawn late still. Can't seem to catch or see any young perch. Our lights could be in to deep of water. They are off the dock in 12 feet of water. If we put a hot dog bun in the minnow trap its gone in ten minutes or one beer and we have easy four dozen minnows in the trap. No perch minnows.

Cheers Don.


I would never be too concerned about too much forage. And as prolific as yellow perch are I wouldn't be worried they are being eaten up.

How long have the lights been up? It may take a while to see many perch.

Keep in mind once perch get to a certain size they are no longer phototactic. I believe it's about 3 to 4 inches.


The lights have been up for about a year now. They are LED and are very bright. I think the problem with these lights are the location, depth of water, and they bring in the bugs so the 3-4" perch are all around them at night. Have to try something different in the shallows. Maybe one of our 3 watt ones.

Cheers Don.


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Originally Posted By: Cecil Baird1


Had a snapping turtle slurping up pellets the other night. I fired a cb round at him and he made a dive like I had dropped a depth charge on him. Don't know if it was lethal but I haven't seen him since.


Snapper is now toast. A 12 gauge firing number 2 shot from a 3 1/2 shell will do that at close enough range it got me wet. I feel bad as I hate killing things but can't afford to feed a turtle along with all the fish in the pond. And it's ilegal to relocate turtles here which I would have preferred.

Donobbd,

Best time to check out your perch population will be fishing through the ice close to the bottom, while the other fish are less active, unless you have trout in the pond. If you have several age classes represented you should be good to go.

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 08/03/14 12:47 PM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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You could have caught it and had it for dinner Cecil! wink


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Originally Posted By: esshup
You could have caught it and had it for dinner Cecil! wink


Got really bad food poisoning once. I read somewhere they are carriers of salmonella. I think I'll pass. smile


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Turtles in confinement that are kept in dirty water, yes, (like the small turtles kids keep as pets) but I've never heard of anybody getting sick from eating one from the wild. I've had many over the years and never had any problems.


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Still won't convice me to eat one. They smell too bad! LOL


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Originally Posted By: Cecil Baird1
Still won't convice me to eat one. They smell too bad! LOL


Your not wrong there. As a kid we learned that you had to hold them by their tails and out far enough that they will not grab yours side and they cant get you. Your hand would smell for months after. You would have to use lime or lemon juice concentrate to get it off.


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Months?


I believe in catch and release. I catch then release to the grease..

BG. CSBG. LMB. HSB. RES.

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Originally Posted By: Bluegillerkiller
Months?


The ones in Ontario here. They don't get too big but live long up here.


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