Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Yellow perch in cages

You can overwinter perch in cages with up to 16" of ice from late Dec to early-mid Mar. Ice at Wood's place gets 36"+ and winter is very, very long in his area. This overwinter cage thing would probably not work for Wood.

We have raised perch without stunting in small ponds in NW Ohio with out predators. The only predators in the pond are large perch. In fact our best perch ponds where we catch the most keeper perch per hour of fishing are from those ponds with out predators. Bob Lusk wants me to write an article for PBoss mag this winter / early spring about our experiences.

LM bass eliminate perch in our small ponds in OH. From our experience perch become stunted primarily when they do not get enough food (fish, "bugs" or pellets) and / or rooted weeds are too abundant and small perch have too many hiding places. Feeding perch pellets helps keep perch growing and minimizes stunting.