Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations what slot size YP to remove

YP will hammer age 0 SF, especially in the winter when vegetation diminishes - it's like hunting in bathtub for them. I don't have research to back this up, but I'd have to guess that at least 90 - 95% of my latest spawn BG and RES serve as forage for smaller SMB, HBCP, WE and YP during Winter and early Spring while vulnerable in size and reduced escape habitat exists. I have harvested some YP from the pond, and always find age 0 BG when filleting.

Lucky - another consideration is to reduce the amount of structure in your pond to help encourage SF predation. Eliminate dense cover and it makes a significant element of their population easy targets. I'm not suggesting you nuke the pond and make it vegetation free - rather, maybe think twice about adding a bunch of dense shallow cover if you were considering it. My pond is devoid of any structure except vegetation in order to help manage the BG population.

Lastly - if you experience SF population management issues, encourage SF predation by pellet feeding during periods of low light - predawn or dusk/twilight. These low light conditions favor ambush from SMB and YP, thus higher predation rates than feeding in bright conditions when predators are much more easily detected and avoided. Further, I've noted both my SMB and YP are far more active early and late during these low light conditions.

Hope some of this helps.