Dono, I find it hard to understand why in your cold climate with late ice out and late warmup that the NW side of pond would have ribbons. Do you have more 'beach area' there, less shade trees, or maybe if more trees you have more brown leaves that would make the ground heat up faster on the NW side?

I have checked surface water temps and found it matched other ponds but I'll try to sample temp at the exact point the eggs are on the bottom. I expected my egg ribbons to show up on the branches in 20-24" of water but found that the branches were ignored and the eggs strands actually went very shallow, maybe 10-12" of water or less on the bed of leaves. In fact where I had a few stands of 'sedges' and the eggs were intertwined in the spikes the water was very shallow, maybe 8" and they didn't mind going there to lay eggs.


I'm curious as to why I don't have more YP young since I've had had 2 spawns, the first a very limited spawn due to just stocking and the stockers had a few large female YP egg laden at the time of stocking. I saw no ribbons that year. The 2nd year I removed all ribbons but had plenty that must have made it. I too wonder if my GSH are helping keep things in check as they are biting hooks at about 4-5" size.

To me that would be ideal since my GSH (and maybe RES) are controlling YP YOY, and hopefully I can grow out a generation or 2 of adults without a predator. Keep diversifying forage, then when I have plenty of egg laying adult YP and a few other sizes in the 'ladder' I can introduce the predator that will take out the GSH of all sizes except the adults maybe and help control YP.


SetterGuy, I think there will be a bigger market in the future for YP in the states in the middle of the North/south extreme and then more call for them even in the southern states. If you get good at YP and can help source them to others south of you that may be a great thing. Who knows perhaps northern perch can learn to adapt to warmer water temps over successive generations just like saltwater adapt to fresh, etc. They are a great fish to start with in your pond as they are hardy, prolific reproducers, able to be pellet trained when young, fun/easy for kids to catch, help control crayfish populations, and are one of the more sought after fish to eat even in the Great Lake states where they are readily available in restaurants during the 'in season'.

I'm not sure why they haven't caught on as a fish farm target as they bring a hefty price when on the menu in our local restaurants.