Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New pond---is LMB and YP a good combo?

Thanks for the update. So you are pulling the LMB out in order to help the YP get to the 10" range then?

My goal is not really to have a YP fishery, I would rather have a few BIG LMB and some decent BG and YP on occasion. I kow I will have to stock FH's twice a year probably along with some feeding, though I dont know how much yet.

I also would like to know how your experience was with Imlay City FF. Where are you located Chuck?

JMAC - They were very nice to deal with. Everything worked out fine. Fish were in good shape and mortality after delivery was what I would say as normal i.e. very few.

Chuck

Rex - I have the luxury of working with 3 ponds. One pond is more of my YP fishery experiment. I figured by keeping a few smaller LMB in the pond they would help keep the BG under control if the YP couldn't keep up with them. I went with the Regular BG for their higher spawning numbers(fecundity). At some point some of the BG will get too big for the YP to eat hence the LMB to clean up the table. Some culling on my part of the BG will become necessary too.

I went with the regular BG for the ponds since I am at them daily and actively manage them. I weighed the pros and cons of going with Hybrid and Regular BG prior to purchase. With the use of Regular BG, I won't have to add any more FH minnows this year. I feed once a day by hand. I make visual notes at feeding time on the ratio of LMB vs BG vs YP to know who's doing their job and who isn't.

As mentioned in the other post, my experience was just fine with Imlay City. The only trouble I had was getting the Regular BG. I kept trying to get some in '06 right after the ponds were renovated but they were unavailable. Finally got them in the spring of '07. Delivered by Imlay City. The YP should be no problem but demand for the Regular BG is pretty high from my experience. Everybody else sells Hybrid BG because they know you'll be back to buy more in a few years.

The ponds are in the Whitmore Lake area.

Anxiously waiting for ice-out.................

Chuck

Hey Theo, where are you getting your fish, SMB seem hard to locate from NE In.I'll have to drive 130 miles. Rex, I'm very inexperienced at this growin fish challenge and I'm only guessing on the #s. I hope the FH spawn a couple of times and that I can get a YP spawn, that should put lots of forage in this small pond. Also the RES I'm putting in are 5-6" fish and hopefully they will fill my beach with craters. I also will be hand feeding 5 times per week. I want the kind of growth Chuck C has accomplished. Nice job considering the short growing summers of mid-upper Mich. Which demands the ?, how much of what are you feeding em Chuck? Bob-O

ChuckC.
YP will spawn this year. I am very interested in how the YP do in the YP experiment pond. I am very curious if you can remove enough LMB to maintain a long term YP population (5-8yrs) in the presence of LMB and few if any submerged weeds. Please keep us advised. Oh yes, if it isn't too much trouble, would keep track of how many AND what size LMB you remove each year from this pond? Thanks.

Bob-O:

There are two places in Ohio that I know of that should have SMB this year: Jones Fish and Fender's. Cody may know 1-2 more.

Brettski has had trouble coming up with them in Illinois.

Bob-O

I use a mix of Aquamax600 and Gamefish chow. Everybody in the pond seems to like it. Most of the LMB have joined in the feeding too.

I typically fill a yogurt container(32oz) for feeding. Just toss it out by the handful....wait for it to be eaten....then toss some more out. They usually let me know when they're done. Keeps the waste to a minimum. The 32oz container is sometimes emptied in the small pond but more often times a little is left for moving on to the larger pond. I guess its ends up averaging about 20-25oz on a daily basis for +/- 125 YP, 100 BG and 5 or so LMB.

I don't know if the feed amount is all that much in the scheme of things. I'd like to think the use of Regular BG and their higher fecundity has provided the YP with full stomachs too. The FH and shiners don't hurt either.

I was pretty surprised by the growth between April '07(3-4") and when I got the floaters(6-8") in Aug.

Chuck

ETA: Feed 5 days a week

Bill

After all my reading here for the past couple years, I'm totally aware of the fine line I'm walking . I know it's gonna take constant effort but I'm up for the challenge. After you sent me your YP articles back in March of '06, I knew I wanted them. I figure a little bit of knowledge is fun AND dangerous.

The pond does have 4-5 X-mas trees. I float 4-5 pallets also. It does get some submerged weeds around the edges but not anything that can't be managed. It was dug at 1 on 4 so the weeds don't go out very far. I figure about 10-15 % coverage in the height of the summer. Snorkeling in it last summer showed plenty of BG fry all summer long hiding in the weeds.

I did keep records(date/numbers/size) last summer of my LMB control program. I fully intend to do it again this year and in the future. Will be happy to keep you and anyone else interested up to date.

Thanks for the encouraging words on the chances of a YP spawn this year. I have my spawning material ready to put in.

Chuck

ChuckC I think we could all benefit from your journey. If possible if you would write up the history and the data/results and post them in one location it would be great.

I encourage everyone to do so. Not only do we learn but it gives us a very valuable data base which can help others. For example we are now mining the data base for spawning info (temps etc) for Bill Dance's group.

I luuuuuvvv yellow perch fillets. You could always fish them out of the Great Lakes.

Yellow perch in Lk Michican has become a rare commodity. Poor spawns over the last 10 yrs has caused overall low numbers and concerns about the YP fishery. YP in Lk Erie have had a few poor spawns or year classes in the last few yrs. Ohio is about to implement a 25 perch catch limit for 2008. Currently the YP fishery in the Great Lakes is not tremendous.

ChuckC. I can basically guarantee a spawn of YP this spring in your pond providing they are there. I have had open water since Mar 16th. My spawning brush along shore has been in for a week waiting for the first eggs. Weather has struggled to hit 50F so water is still less that optimun of 50F for YP spawn thus no eggs yet. The Xmas tree brush in shallow water of your pond will provide ample spaces for YP egg laying. If weather is normal while eggs hatch then the eggs should have a good hatch. Abundant small BG from last year MAY over crop the YP fry - maybe not. I think if you can keep weeds at a low to moderate level your chances of succeeding are better. I an eager to hear updates of how things progress for you in this pond.
My main concern in your pond is the affects of the first and second LMB spawn on the YOY perch recruitment. You may not see real negative affects of LMB on YP recruitment until the pond is 5-7 yrs old when the first year classes of LMB are 13"-16" and original stocked YP numbers are low due to harvest and natural mortality. I will learn a good things from what goes on in your pond.

Bill if I want a YP spawn this year in my pond, what size perch do I need to get for my initial stocking? Would 100 be enough? I am thinking of going YP, regular BG, and LMB. I think I will keep my LMB numbers relatively low, 20 or so, to try and get fewer large fish.

I have lots of structure, three Xmas trees, four large rooty stumps, about 25 milk crates, some lawn furniture, about a half dozen tires.

Ewest - I will gladly put together some history/data for all to read. I need to go back and gather all my information then I will post in a new thread.

Ice is totally out of the small YP, LMB, and BG pond as of this weekend. This morning I grabbed a handful of food for giggles to see if anyone was home.............Yippee......Everyone was represented at the breakfast table. Even had a 8-9" LMB feeding with the YP and BG. Albeit they were all a little sluggish but they ate what I gave them. The YP, not surprisingly, were the most spunky.

Spring has sprung!!!

Chuck

Chuck I am surprised your ice is gone already, I still have quite a bit, but this week should get rid of most of it.

I may go to Imlay City tomorrow, so can anyone tell me what size YP and possibly reg BG I should get so I can possibly get a spawn this year?

Well I went to Imlay City Fish Farm today and they were good people to deal with. I ended up taking home 5# of Shiners, 5# of FH, 50 2-4"YP and 50 4-6" YP. I wanted to get YP big enough to spawn but 6" was the biggest YP he had right now. I am assuming those will be too small to spawn this year right?

I bought 50# of feed but will hold off on any feeding, as there are tons of FH and shiners in the pond for the YP to play with. The good news was than I will be able to get regular BG from him in about three weeks, so I will go get some and see if I can get a spawn out of the BG or two this year.

The 2"-4" and 4"-6" YP from Imlay Fish Farm were likely and hopefully all hatched in 2007. The 2"-4" will be mostly the males and the 4-6" will be mostly the females. However, If the 5"-6" YP were from the 2006 year class then they are IMO somewhat stunted and will spawn for you this April 2008.

I have seen fast growing one yr old perch occasionaly spawn. But this means those fish had to begin development of eggs at just 4 months old in August. Mature female YP have noticable egg development in August of each year. One yr old males will usually be fertile while females usually do not spawn until their 2nd birthday. Since the fish were from further north they will be latter in spawning than those near the OH line. One way to tell if you will get a spawn is to put out a few smaller brushy tree limbs along the shoreline in shallow water. In 1-3 weeks look for white-cream strands 12"-24" long about 1" dia hanging on the twigs, those would be perch eggs from YP 6" long. Another way is to in 10-24 days wks catch a couple of those larger 6" perch. If they are plump they are likely females full of eggs. Extreme way to tell is sacrifice one of the 6" females (fresh or one that died) cut it open and look for an obvious egg sac.

Thanks Bill for the reply.

I have three Christmas trees in about two feet of water near shore, so I will keep an eye out for any egg strands. The biggest 6" ones (only about 6) looked a little fat in the belly so maybe I will get lucky and have one or two spawn. They have plenty to eat for sure, with 10# of FH and 5# of shiners swimming around.

What water temp do YP usually spawn at? I still have ice in the middle of the pond, but that will be gone in a couple days. Andersons sent me big FH's too, so they will be spawning in a few weeks hopefully