Greg: In my experience, small yellow perch do not "do well" with small bass. Even medium perch 4-6" are prime food for medium sized bass (13"-16"). Many pond owners in my area have a real tough time getting 4"-5" perch to survive in a LMB dominated pond that does not have submerged vegetation. For any decent survival percentages, without manipulating the bass population, they have to resort to stocking 7"-9" fish. I saw a 16" bass eat a 9" perch; that was an education.
Those with the best "luck" try to keep the LMB on the small range 10-14". It seems the smaller the bass the better the perch survivability.
Amount of submerged weed growth also plays a big part in suvivability. I don't offer much hope to my pond owners for good survival of smaller perch when mixed size classes of LMB are the major predator. Predator with a big mouth and a slender prey; not a "good" combination; at least as far as the prey is concerned.
Your pondowner's nice sized perch population probably developed as the LMB population was also developing; growing up together. Once the bass become established it is hard for the perch to maintain their numbers, which is obviously why he needs to restock. The perch population cannot withstand harvest from two fronts, angler & bass. This is why I prefer a different predator when perch are the preferred panfish.
Initially, without knowing details, I want to recommend a severe harvest of LMB before restocking perch; dramatically thin the predation pressure. However, you also have to consider the population structure of the other prey species present.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/12/11 07:08 PM.
