Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Still seeing fresh Yellow Perch egg ribbons

Anybody else?

This is the latest I've ever seen them if my memory serves me correctly. No doubt due to below average water temps.

I have not seen any at my place.

What kind of water temps do you have? Mine are still in the 50's.

Water temps should be in the upper 40's or lower 50's, it's been pretty cool here this week. I suspect any YP ribbons I might have are deeper than I can see. I never saw any last year but did rake some out when raking some aquatic vegetation out that was in a little deeper water.

Water temps at the lake I fished on Saturday were 55 degrees early in the morning. I did catch two skinny YP last night that looked very spawned out, until last night I have not seen any of my YP since ice fishing back in December.

I hope my YP spawned. I saw no ribbons, but I only have 25 fish in an acre pond.

I'm still seeing new ribbons as of today May 6th.

I haven't seen any more for about 5 days now.

Have not seen any as of 5/4 though might be deeper.

We have not seen any this year at all. Water temp is only 42 in the north here. Perch just started to hit a worm on the hook.

Hope to see more action in the pond the end of the week and this weekend expecting warmer temps and sun.

Cheers Don.

I haven't seen any ribbons yet and my water temperature at the surface was 62 yesterday, it was a nice day for a change. We have had a few warm days this spring but generally I think it's been cooler than normal and we're still getting some 30's at night. Is it too late to get eggs now? My daffodils just started blooming a few days ago if there is any correlation (Bill?)

I put some branches in last fall because I didn't get a spawn the previous spring . The branches were 2-3' deep and I moved them shallower to around 1' deep yesterday along with starting up my aerator.

I'm thinking my fish didn't make it through winter. My minnows are doing fine, bluntnose and spotfin shiners and I haven't seen any dead fish but I did find 3 dead frogs at ice out. I originally stocked 30 YP (5-7"), 20 RES (4-6") and 5 WE (7-9") in the fall of 2012. Last summer we caught and released numerous YP and one RES, all original stockers. I would like to remove a couple of WE if they are still in there especially since I'm not getting any spawning. Today I added 25 more YP (5-7").

All of the perch were pellet trained but I never could get them to eat pellets, I think because I have so many minnows. I won't know what survived the winter until I go fishing.

My perch only seem to feed on pellets in the early evening, near 6:30pm or so. Otherwise it is rare they eat the pellets.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Ditto my perch only come up for pellets just before sunset.

Cecil, do you think I might still get some ribbons?

Yes. If I'm still seeing them.

Hopefully you don't have too many males. I got perch from a Michigan supplier once and they were mostly males. I was able to easily sex them as it was early spring.

His wholesale supplier was puzzled by that as he said it should have been 50/50. Hmm...

I fished in my pond for about 15 minutes today right before dark. Caught a few YP, no females with eggs, but 2 that I thought were females were actually males with a bit of milt left.

LMB look like they are ready to pop any day now. No signs of nesting yet due to cold temps. Will check water temp tomorrow if I remember and get home before o dark thirty.

Thanks, I will still have some hope then.

I wondered about the sex ratio too. There was a range of sizes (both times) so I don't know. It's spring and the YP that I got today were 5-7" (a few were 4") so maybe they were mostly males sorted out from the producer. None of them looked like they had eggs. I was told they are having trouble getting fish this year because of the weather. I mentioned to my supplier that I haven't seen a spawn since I initially stocked, they weren't much help. I did see one ribbon last year but that's it, no babies.

How do I fish for the WE? They didn't hit on red-worms last summer fishing off the bottom. Do they like lures better or should I try fishing at a certain time of the day?

I would use minnows fished near the bottom.

I was getting my WE with artificial bait, they don't seem to like worms much as they are primarily fish predators. I was just using one of those small ~1" bright rubber wrigglers with the lead head.

I removed more egg ribbons today than ever before.

Yes! I loved hearing this. TY