Has any one stocked yp in the midwest as a forage fish for lm in an established pond?
I have been playing around with different ideas on diversifying my forage base and wondered about the potential of yp.
Anyone have ideas on benefits and possible problems?
The pond, in west central Missouri, has well established lm up to 20 inches, good population of various sized bg, some re, a few gsf and lots mosquito fish that I know of. Pond is 4 acres with lots of submerged brush, a large log pile and some (5% maybe) submerged vegetation. FA has been been an issue in the past, but shore line and underwater vegetation may have helped that last year as well as some spot hydrated lime applications.
My goal with this pond is primarily healthy bass. I am seeing my very small bass (under 8 inches) to be extremely fat with wr's over 100, but all the bass over that length vary the wr's between 80 to over 100. Most are in the high 80's to mid 90's. I am not overly disappointed with that, but do not want the wr's to drop as the pond continues to age. Besides, perch taste good too
My current management is to weigh all bass, cull most fish under 15" or anything skinny or unhealthy. Most fish with wr's under 90% get culled. I cull larger bg (over 8") if the are NOT actively spawning. All gsf or apparent hbg's are culled. I have caught plenty of bg between 9 and 10 inches this year.
I am wondering if adding yp would assist in keeping the bass healthy and growing as well as adding another species to fish for. I do understand they can be nest robbers, but since bg's are such great guarders, that shouldn't be too much of an issue (right???) and if some lm nests got robbed, well, that shouldn't hurt too much (right???). Fewer young ones coming up to compete for the forage.
Would adding yp likely do any or all of the following:
1. Establish a successful long term breeding population
2. Increase wr on the larger size bass
3. Substantially effect the bg population.
What am I missing or not thinking of? If this is feasible, how many, what size and when do we do the yellow perch stocking?
Thanks!!
CMM
