It will be hard to do enough swimming to keep 1.5 ac continually turbid. Typically right after ice out is when your water will be the clearest. As March winds, waves and rain runoff mix the pond, turbidity will increase and in your case your pond could quickly get fairly turbid. In fact you may have some trouble seeing the egg strands in 2-3 ft of water.
The critical time for turbidity or lack of it is when perch are laying eggs and those eggs are hatching. Y perch begin laying eggs when water gets close to 48F and spawning usually continues for about 3 weeks after that first egg strand is observed. Water temps around 50F are a little cold for comfortable swimming.
Egg strands will typically hatch in about 7-12 days after they are laid. Water temperature has a lot to do with rate of egg hatching. If the eggs don't hatch then there is little need to reduce phytoplankton & zooplankton communities as a way to limit food for hatchlings.
Removal of egg strands has been a very good way for me to keep numbers of young perch to a minimum in my pond. Each spring I typicaly remove about 50-75 egg strands per year from my pond. Since you are in SE MI, the common time for YP spawning in smaller ponds in our area is near April 1 to around Apr 20th. Occassionally very warm days in late March can result in the first egg strands to occur in the last few days of March. A cold April will result in spawning extending to the end of April when water tmeps can be 60F. Monitor the surface water temperatures and this will be a good indicator for when to look for eggs on brush.
BE sure to get the brush into the pond during early March 1-14. Lay brush with twigs sticking from water line to about 18"-24" deep. Often eggs are deposited very close to the water line in warmest water that has been warmed by the afternoon sun. Y perch will be more likely to use the brush for spawn sites when the perch have had time to get accustomed to the new brush additions. YP are somewhat hesitant to use new brush added during the active spawning period. In your new pond, YP should heavily utilize the tree branches for spawning because your pond currently has essentially no other spawning sites for them to use.
I suggest that you save my instructions and review them in late February or early March of 2008.
Keep us informed as to how the perch spawning and egg gathering is going for you next spring. I am interested in how accurate my predictions are for your situation. Since I am a little directly south (60mi) of you, keep in touch with me and I will let you know when I see the first YP egg strands in my pond. I have a few dependable early spawners.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 11/13/07 09:13 PM.
