Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Yellow Perch Spawn 2020

Please report here when you first see YP ribbons in 2020. Give location (state or applicable area of state) and date and any surrounding circumstance you think helpful.

With the mild winter and warming March temperatures the yellow perch will spawn early this year. Ice cover has been off more than on all winter for those ponds in NW Ohio. With some warm weather there could be YP eggs in central and southern Ohio the second or third week of March this year.

Hello.

March 7, it starts to warm up, but I still have 90% of the pond under the ice, but it is melting quickly.
Near the edge I can see a lots of small (3-5 inches) Yellow Perch.

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1st ribbon today, 3/7/2020. Setting in the top of some branches I almost missed it.
My WT at 6" depth is 48 degs, strong warming trend the last week.
Photo period 11:36 today. 39.3508 N, 101.7102 W. 3600ft elevation.
This is on south side of pond as well.

I saw the first perch ribbon of 2020 this morning here in Central Indiana. It was on the west side of the pond on some branches I set out for them earlier this year.

Did not see any yesterday but will check again today. Hope you are doing well Gary!

wow, exciting! thanks to all taking the time to record and share this data. I am thinking we will be about exactly 2 weeks early here in MI. If that is the case, then the photoperiod is NOT what triggers ribbons to appear? Is it strictly water temps then? Or is it the exact number of days (or nights since they lay eggs at night only) since ice out that controls it?

I saw a good number of ribbons yesterday mostly very shallow on south side.
Just stocked YP for the first time last fall. I stocked 300 8-11” fish but have only seen about 10 ribbons so far. Normal or will more be popping up soon?

Ice already coming off...... You lucky dogs!!!

Yes! we have 2 perch ribbons spotted! Saw them Sunday, they may have been there Saturday. South and South East corner of pond. One is deeper and draped in some branches, one is shallow, right on a bed of oak leaves. Due to having a few more predator mouths to feed this season I may keep all the egg ribbons in this year. Depends on how many I see.
It is interesting that not all female YP above 6" lay eggs every year. I wonder what controls that since they all produce the eggs every spring?

if we have ribbons and are almost the same day as those quite a bit south of us, I wonder what the trigger is? Water temp? Maybe just a certain number of days past ice out? Or first full moon after ice out?

I have had four ribbons thus far, on on gravel shallow. Two beneath willow trees. And one on a piece of brush about 2ft deep.

First ribbon last night 3-15-20 laid on south-east shore - northwest Ohio. Water temp 48F. Mar 13-14 water was 46F. The south east shore always gets the first perch ribbons in my pond. This year's 1st ribbon is around 3 to 7 days earlier than normal. The earliest that I have seen YP eggs in the last 19 years has been Mar 12 when the water temperature was 47.5F. .

Total perch ribbon count as of Friday Mar 20 is 12. Cooling temps will slow the spawn period.

One for me since the 7th Bill.. Same as last year which was 2 and then the warm up seems to bring the craws out and stirs the water enough I can't see the ends of my branches anymore. 4ft vis to 10-12" in about a week.

I have seen 8 ribbons since 3/13. Yesterday it was nice and warm here and I found 3 new ones this morning. I am wondering with the cold front that came through last night, will the Perch that have not laid their eggs hold off for a few days until it warms up again?

Spawning delay after a cold front will depend on how quickly and how much the water cools. If the water temp drops below 48F expect a noticeable delay. I have always noticed not all gravid females will release their eggs. Sometimes a significant number of females will reabsorb the eggs. Big females with large masses of eggs that do not release them will often die soon after the spawn period.

Saw my first ribbon yesterday. Had a bad angle with the glare. Spotted 3/21 in Northeast Missouri. It seems a bit wider than previous ribbons. Hope I haven’t misidentified it. Snowing right now. Low 30s the last few nights.

Perch ribbon is wider because it is from a large female.

First ribbons were noticed on 3/18/20. Do raccoons eat perch ribbons?

Thank you Bill. Hope to see a few others.

I haven't spotted a single ribbon so far. Water temp has been there for a couple weeks, but we have had ridiculous amounts of rainfall which has resulted in very limited visibility into the water. The ground is so muddy I can't get to my pond hopper boat without creating a landscaping project, so much of the submerged brush is unchecked.

I've pretty much resigned myself to sampling during the summer to determine if they managed a spawn this spring.

Muddy water soon post hatch will reduce the amount of zooplankton and number of fry that survive will be reduced. Fry need to eat tiny things besides clay and tiny silt particles.

I moved to Minnesota for a job, but I have my family checking on the perch and reporting back to me.

Our pond is in southcentral PA, and today Mom saw the first ribbons. She could make out 4 ribbons for sure: 2 big ones in the branches on the northeastern side of the dam (shown in attached picture), 1 in the branches on the north/northwest side of the dam, and 1 on the south side near the inlet (shallow end). There's a chance they were laid before today, but this is the first we've seen them.

That is awesome Drew! Glad you have them. You can see nice still water with good clarity. Hopefully you will have a good crop of young YP this season

Hello.

March 30, 40 kilometers south of Montréal.

This morning there is no more ice on the pond, the water is at 3c (38F).

I started to put branches in the water.
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12 1/2”

Downrigger Is that picture of a freshly caught perch? That is a dandy gravid female perch. You still have fishable ice?

Yes from Saturday. There was two feet of ice yet. And pickups were still driving on the lake next to it. In central Mn the ice fishing is done now with the warm temps and rain. In northern Mn you could go out yet this weekend if you have a plank to walk out on good ice ten feet from shore. Kids had a blast.

Hello.

My first ribbon, 3 April, 8c (47F).

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Stocked 40 yp that was 5-7” on 3/26/20 in a newly dug pond. 4/4/20 seen some ribbons payed in the rock. Was very surprised!

I can see Jim SVTs beautiful pictures just above and some dandy looking stocker YP, but Downriggers pictures I can't get to. Does he have to reload them? what was wrong with hosting pictures on the forum last week does any mod know and is it corrected? Thanks as I would like to post some pictures of perch eggs but having troubles uploading.

I can’t see anyone else’s pictures either if you have to click on the link. I went to imgbb to host my pictures.

Experimenting here...



This was actually from Saturday the 4th. Bill Cody made the comment to me that this was a very wide spread of time from when I seen my first ribbon around 7 March. This is a large span but this ribbon is different in that it's around 4" wide-maybe a little bigger. Interesting find.

test again... failure again. Can't get the attachment manager to upload pictures. Mods any idea how to get this to work?

Found a second ribbon the other day.
We also caught and released several YP (8 or 9) the females seem to “possibly” still have eggs. I added some cedar branches to the bank. Just in case there may be another ribbon or two to be laid.

SG, that girl looks "spent" to me..

Shoot. Ok. I only had the two ribbons, but I have a fair amount of algae in the water. So visibility is reduced. Maybe there are ribbons I just didn’t see. We caught 4 bigger YP, I assume all were female. I’ll be back in a few days. Maybe we will get another ribbon or two.
Thanks

SG how did you get that picture to load and embed? Are you using a 3rd party hosting site?

Yes. I’ve been with photo bucket for years. They started charging me $3/mo a few years ago. I have just stayed with them. I don’t know what would happen to all my old pics, if I quit paying. Ha

SG - I think your YP picture is of a spawned out female.

Hello.


Some pictures of my Yellow-perch ribbons.

I'm sorry but the pictures won't load. It is not your fault! Hopefully someone will have the forum picture problem fixed soon. We would love to see them

Hello.

Thank you Tim Stumbo for your site.
Some pictures from my Yellow-perch.
https://ibb.co/SdbJbWB
https://ibb.co/vXH2dh0
https://ibb.co/4W1HsYF
https://ibb.co/71JJjdj
https://ibb.co/vkM8R02

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azteca - Picture links show now. You have lots of perch ribbons now. Do you let all of them hatch for your small ponds? What is the water temperature?

Hello.

The temperature here plays at yo yo there was a warming period in early April, the laying started on April 3 at 47F.

I am preparing my small breeding pond, before I transferred the ribbons, this year I will try to pump the larvae with a small pump screwed on a piece of wood so the pump will floats, that's why this year I let the eggs hatch in the pond.

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Wow, lots of ribbons there. I'm amazed at how shallow the depth is where some of the ribbons are deposited. It is as if the perch is 'beaching' itself and then letting the strands of grass pull the eggs out!

Let us know azteca how the process of transferring larvae goes.

Azteca - How many ponds and their size do you have?? About how many YP and what sizes do you harvest each year from your perch project?

Hello.

I have a small pond 30'x50' for forage with Crayfish and Fathead minnow.

2 ponds with Yellow-perch Crayfish and Fathead minnow.
One 50'x80'
The main pond 150'x150', I would like to dig the main pond a little more to put Smallmouth bass, after my reading here on the forum I think I have found the ideal mix,
Crayfish
Fathead
Bluntnose
Spotfin shiner
Yellow-perch
Smallmouth bass

After the perch have finished spawning, I fish about 50 to 100 perch 8"to12" more or less if necessary.

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azteca Let me get this correct. From your 150x150ft pond you harvest around 50-100 perch a year? Also are bluntnose minnows and spotfin shiners native to your area in Quebec?

Hello.

I fish on both pond, last year I fish 62 Perch.

Yes we have Bluntnose minnows and Spotfin shiners.

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You will like spotfins for helping grow the perch. Once you add SMB then spotfins will significantly decrease numbers unless you keep SMB at low density so predation is not strong - intense. I would allow spotfins to become abundant before adding SMB. Then you get a good idea of the impact of the SMB on the SFS. Bluntnose numbers will also decrease based on number of SMB and amount of cover habitat as refuge for minnows-shiners. I would plan on each 7"+ SMB to eat around 200 small fish per year.