Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Walleyes and Yellow Perch in a pond

Hello,
Just wondering if anyone has stocked walleyes or yellow perch in their ponds, and if so how the fish have done? I am considering putting some in my pond, but I am not sure how cool water fish will handle the warm confines of my pond.
Thanks and good fishing,
Dan

Numerous members and non-members have done this stocking. With the proper conditions it works very good. Best conditons are new pond, lots of soft rayed forage, proper combination of fish species, proper stocking densities, good timing of the stockings, bottom aeration, decent water visibility 3-4ft. Forage fish species and diversity are important factors that determines the success. Both WE and YP are predators the thrive on AMPLE small fish. WE and YP do not do real well, maybe okay (?), but not well with LMB and BG. Does the pond have any existing fish in it??

Hi Bill,
We just spoke a while ago at the clinic put on by the Wood County Soil and Water near BG.

Yes, some LMB's (smaller from what I've caught so far) Fairly decent BG's, though I don't think there are too many of them in the pond, and a few yellow perch, already, though I don't think there are a lot of them either. One large grass carp, fathead minnows, and some LMB and BG fry.
Thanks for the reply,
Dan

Three years ago I added 200, 6-8 inch walleye to my pond as a bonus fish. The idea was to get them big enough that they would be good table fare and eat them. I would replace with more every few years. What I found was that I would catch a bass once in a while with a walleye tail sticking out of its gullet. Some did manage to survive the large mouth slaughter and were getting to be about 15-17 inches as of last summer. Then an unfortunate series of events happened, and for the first time in our ownership of the pond an O2 sag occurred. I collected 45 very dead 15-17 inch walleye, 30 4-6 lbs large mouth and a couple of hundred dead bluegill. Those are just the ones I found. Luckily, a lot of fish survived, but the walleye were hit especially hard.

What I am saying is that you need to make sure that you have good conditions for your walleye. They make great food for large mouth, and they are sensitive to their surroundings.

Nebucks provides great testimony to this topic. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Pay attention to the predatory power of LMB on YP and smaller 6"-8" and at times 10" WE. Those WE are not bigger around that a good sized cigar. Juvenile 6"-8" walleye cost about $12.60 to $19.00 per lb and make for expensive bass food. Adult WE will even prey on smaller supplementary stocked WE. IMO for WE and YP to work in a normal pond setting the LMB, whenever caught, should be harvested at anything greater than 12" maybe 14". LMB like to eat the slender bodies of YP and small WE compared to wider bodied BG and sunfish. Normal pond is one with minimal submerged weeds. Significant weed cover provides more refuge for the YP, small WE & BG too. Thus in this situation BG are likely to become overabundant, esp with fewer larger LMB of 12"-18".
Best success with WE & YP is without LMB. Other preferred predators with WE & YP are SMB and HSB.

The other part of this topic is cool water fish in a warm water pond of the Midwest. For YP and WE water temperature should be no problem. We've had YP & WE survive well in local NW Ohio ponds that have summer water temperatures of 90F. Resident WE live well in the Maumee River where summer water temps can get to the lower 90's. From my experience it is not so much the water temperature that is the problem for WE but the water quality. WE don't tolerate low dissolved oxygen levels very well. However YP will tolerate low DO quite well compared to LMB and BG.

As far as I know, walleye is a very close relative to European zander (also called pikeperch) and probably they have got a very similar behavior. I'll tell about zander and you might find my information useful. If their behaviors differ much then be so kind and tell me - I'll be grateful

What should you think about:

1)Both zander and perch can't feed on bluegills because of small mouth. They need some kind of minnows and you have to provide them;
2)Zander needs much more oxygen in water than perch. If a perch can survive winter in rather bad conditions then zander probably will die.;
3)Zander likes depths and large lakes/ponds. I'd say that your pond should be at least t's not natural for them.
Normally zanders prefer large lakes that have got area at least 100 hectares (250 acres). Some fishkeepers manage to keep them in ~10 acre ponds and probably in even smaller but you shouldn't think about keeping such fish in a 0,5 acre pond.