Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose How many YP should I add?

I wouldn't add any perch to the until mid to late February since you caught gravid ones in early March last year. If you catch some now you could add some to the pond where you intend to grow them. You should get some natural spawning in that pond. Several thousand should survive with 10-16 adults in the pond. A fish farm near me harvested around 20,000 fingerlings in a smaller pond using 6-8 breeders.

That's really good to know. I will probably take these to the pond then.

The early catches will allow you to monitor the timing of the spawn.

I have gotten really curious about the southern strain now. I grew up thinking they were only in cold water lakes up north because no one fishes for them here. I found mention of them in the Dead Lakes in Florida and watched a youtube fishing video of a kid fishing in a cypress swamp catching Chain Pickerel, stump knockers, warmouth, and YP. Im going to get enough for 2 ponds and the pool so I can watch them. I will keep everyone updated on them.

The main concern is to monitor the adults when the water temperatures go above 85F toward 90F when they could be very inactive.

Im going to keep an eye on them best I can. The ones I keep in the pool will probably be the only ones effected by the heat. One of the ponds is 35' and the other is pumped from well and spring fed. How fast do the baby perch grow?

Well fed perch fry can grow 1mm per day. Growth rate slows as they get larger. Females grow faster than the males. Any entire year class of perch at 1 yr old can range in size from 2" to 8.5" often most of them will be in the 4"-6" range. Ample food is important for good growth. Usually the smaller ones will be a large percentage male and largest ones will be females. Expect variation.

LAT88, can you cut/paste the link into a post from the youtube video or other video where you watched someone catching the YP in a cypress swamp? I'd love to see it. Thanks

The Florida state record for YP is 1.47 lbs., it was caught in the dead lakes area cypress swamps NW FL

here are a couple I found on line, couple FL YP, you can see the cypress trees in the back
Florida YP

also some GA YP from the Savannah River
Georgia YP

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SbVdbz5SOqk

That's one I found. It's not the best quality video.

ole red fin pike....LOL
guess that's how local region names get started. YP have not traditionally been in this area so they have a new name in the panhandle of FL ////

Hey Lat88,

There was a good discussion on the forum a year or two ago on the differences between northern and southern strains of YP. I've looked for it without success but I think you would find it interesting. Maybe one of the other guys with a better memory than me can provide a link to that thread or remembers what the highlights were.

Here is one discussion of YP in South Carolina.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=320001&page=1

Keep an eye on water temps., do not go by the calendar alone. This year seems to be a much warmer winter at least up here than last year. Last year us up here were 3+ weeks later than 2015 in being able to start stocking fish in ponds. This year I think will be as or earlier than 2015.

Yup, loved to hear all the new names (something like a 'fleur'?), warmouth, 'brim' chain pickerel, redfin pike (perch) etc.

Near the end of the video he has them all in a pile on the grass. What makes the 'warmouth' so much darker colored than the bluegill? Are they part GSF since they have the bigger mouth and aggressive tendencies or a unique strain of sunfish?

The blackfish? a bowfin?

Fishing looks good in your neck of the woods.

Any luck getting a few YP before they drop eggs, or any at all ?

any updates on this project?