Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking rate for Yellow perch

CJ has the right idea. Perch of 1"-2" long for this fall fish sales are definitely stunted, graded fish and mostly males. Smallest perch for fall sales should be 2"-3" with numerous ones 4" long. Well feed YOY fall perch should be 4"-7" with 3.4"-5" mostly males and 5.5"-7" mostly females. I wouldn't buy YP in fall that were 1"-2" due to lack of good growth. Those fish were over crowded and surviving on mostly limited amounts of zooplankton. Obviously these fish are not pellet raised. I would look elsewhere for better 'raised' stockers.

Numbers for stocking are very dependent on fertility of the pond and food source for stocked fish. Why over crowd stocked fish which results in slow growth? If YP are the main panfish then IMO a good stocking range for the potential predators of SMB and WE would be 250-600 perch/ac (including your spring larger stockers). The 250-300 would be for lower pond productivity and 500-600 for higher pond fertilities.