Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Any Yellow Perch Eggs Yet?

Too overcast and windy at he pond today. I could not see any of the little fish today.

Fishing has shifted to mainly bluegills today. One perch I caught looked like a deflated football. LOL The wind really beats on you standing on a pier with it coming out of A 400 acre open field at 20 to 30 mph. But I don't mind when I catch a fish worth $50.00. Cha Ching!

Saw 3 more skeins today, one right next to the water line in some dead grass.

Several new ones here too.

Perch fishing was almost nonexistent today with 4 yellow perch vs. about 20 bluegill. Only three of the bluegills were large enough to sell though. One bluegill was loaded with surface parasites, which makes it unsellable. I can still mount it up and the parasites won't be an issue on the dried skin. Hang it in a baitstore or sell the mount on Ebay.

All perch have no parasite issues. It's just the bluegills.

Two of the four perch had dropped their eggs like this one:

Cecil, I thought you said in an earlier post that your YP had no problems with parasites in that pond? What changed??

Still no problems with YP and parasites. All perch are clean as a whistle. I clarified that in my above post.

As far as the bluegills, the first ones were clean and it was hoped they all were. However I am catching a few with some parasite issues. A couple have lympocystis which is a virus. The growths can just fall off at any time like warts, but on the other hand it can be contagious. So all fish with lympocystis are removed.

I have another issue with my trout. I removed one with the net that was having swim bladder issues and swimming head down with it's tail out of the water. I have another one I need to remove today. I had one last fall I had to remove too for the same reason. Probably due to overfeeding or fatty livers according to my research. I've backed off on the feed and didn't feed last night. Could also be due to parasites on the swim bladder. Who knows?

I'm going to feed only 1 percent of body weight per day from now on and divide that into 2 times per day vs. on time per day to satiation. That will be about 2.5 pounds per day as there are about 100 trout in the pond that average about 2.5 lbs.

At least I can freeze up the fish and sell them and if it's 2 or 3 out of 120 I can live with it.

If you can still sell them, then it's not THAT big of a loss, but I'd be very tempted to cut one open to see if it was a parasite or fatty tissue just to verify my assumptions. If the cut was done right, could that fish still be sold, but at a reduced price?

Nope any cuts, even the smallest flaw, and they are not interested in the fish.

One thing I'm running into more and more are taxidermist customers that are buying them to mold - not skin mounts. Some of the younger and newer taxidermists don't even do skin mounts and don't have any experience in doing skin mounts. I guess it goes along with the "keeping any fish is sin" mentality that has caught on. Some anglers would rather order a mold of a similar size fish that they didn't catch. OTH that's good for me as there are less and less skilled skin mount taxidermists.

My 3/4 acre pond is 65 miles south of Buffalo, NY.Yesterday I was there, and noticed hundreds of 3/4 - 1 1/4" fingerlings. I couldn`t catch any need to get a different net. I`m not sure what they are? Definitely not fatheads,catfish, or bass. I have WE, BCP, YP, and various sunfish. Water temperature in 18" of water was 58 degrees. The pond does have springs. Surprised me with all the cold, and ice this year. If they are not from this year what would have spawned in the fall?

Happy Easter.

If people are wondering what YP egg strands look like, here's some that I saw in my pond today in <12" of water.

19Dave the small fish you are seeing are likely small sunfishes.

I never saw the sunfish spawn last year. Strange because I saw them guarding the nests for years. Do they sometimes spawn real late in the summer, or fall? Have not seen any YP strands yet.

They spawn up to 4 X per year although the main spawn is in late spring.

I have had fry produced in Aug/September.

I find it interesting that our yellow perch made their annual spawning run up the rivers and creeks over a month ago. And we had a very cold winter, but nothing like you guys up in the frozen tundra.

Thanks Cecil didn`t know they spawned more than once. Lake Erie is still covered in ice. Was on the waterfront yesterday, and saw chunks 2 - 3 feet thick floating around. Won`t be gone until May for sure.

I saw my first yellow egg strand today in the spawning cage. Need to get out there and start fertilizing the pond. Had the darndest time getting the fertilizer I prefer locally -- 10-34-0 they use in corn planters. Finally went with a pond fertilizer 10-52-4 that produces to much FA IMH0 but will have to do with what I could get. Thank you to Scott for coming up with it for me!

Will also be using an organic as in alfalfa meal if I have any left.

Last time I tried to get some from a local Helena supplier he told me I was crazy to put that in a pond. He didn't know the first thing about ponds and refused to sell me any. I send a scathing letter to his regional headquarters. No response. Send another to the national headquarters and asked them if they even cared about customer service. He finally called me and apologized. Now way I will do business with him though. If I'm treated poorly as a customer I never come back.

Cecil, shoot me the specs (if you have them) on the other fertilizer. I can check with my supplier. Was it a powder or granular? How much of that will you need? I can find out tomorrow.

Thanks Scott but I'll use this this year and see if i can get some from a supplier when they start planting corn next month for next year. Just know it's liquid and is put in a corn planter along with corn. And it's 10 34 0. I only apply fertilizer about three times and it's sekf sustaining with the fish feed.