I'm asking for other PB members to help me with an experiment.
all of you will have ice out at different dates next year and I wanted to start thinking and planning for this early. I'm still a big novice to how perch reproduce in a pond. I've read everything I can on this forum and we have very good YP experts to rely on.
My goal up to this point is to control my YP population by trying to remove eggs. I don't want predators yet as I still am enjoying the luxury of having the ability to introduce and establish several diverse strains of forage without predators. Once predators are in place I probably will let the eggs hatch at will and let populations be what nature wants them to be.
I'd told that perch like to lay eggs on branches and have put branches in my pond and they do help get the egg strands back out. But I also find that they like to lay eggs in the leaves in the shallows, next to the branches and even INSIDE my pyramid style minnow traps.
there have been several observations by folks about what side of the pond the eggs first show up on and where the majority of egg strands are left. For me it has been SW and S exclusively and I have to assume it has to do with sun exposure and thereby the water temps in the shallow but I'm not sure. My leaves fall mostly on the S, SW half of the pond so if they prefer a bed of leaves to lay eggs on that may be part of it too. Also the slope of the bottom is less gradual in those areas of the pond so they may like sneaking up out of the deep, laying eggs and sneaking back rather than the N side of pond where the slope is more like 5-6 to 1 for a ways.
So the suggestion:
1. Be ready at ice out to report where the perch first lay eggs and where the majority of the eggs are laid.
2. Record water temp when the first egg strand is laid. Perhaps water temp is not as important as weather, moonlight etc?
3. I'd really like some help trying different spawning structures to see what they like. I'd ask you try some branches with different configurations (branches with thick bloom of small twigs at end, vs a branch with only a few stout branches here and there and no smaller fill-in branches?)
4. I'll set my minnow traps out which have a set of 6" openings all around the base of the pyramid and is made of a soft mesh. They seemed to like that this spring. I also am thinking of trying some 5 gallon buckets with a 5 or 6" hole bored in the side of it to act like a 'cavity' YP are not thought to be a cavity spawner...but in the Great Lakes, how many branches can they find on the miles of sandy beach to lay their eggs in? Maybe in the Great Lakes they actually lay their eggs in the rivers that lead to the great lake and not in the lake itself? Maybe they get in a pond and get so confused that they do something completely different with their eggs anyway in a small pond like mine?
5. I'll try some buckets with a hole bored in the side of different widths and try the buckets with the top off (maybe they prefer to see the moon?) and some with closed tops (dark conditions). I'll see if a big section of PVC pipe, maybe 4-6" draws any eggs in it or on it.
If they happen to like a bucket, basket, PVC pipe etc we all learn about YP pond spawning activity AND for me, it makes it much easier to grab the bucket and remove the eggs
Thanks to all in advance!
