Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Placing branches down for YP spawn

I strongly doubt you have experienced 90% mortality - I'm unclear on the reasons/details that lead you to this assumption. On my ponds, YP angling is most successful when they are shallow in Spring and Fall - but evening bite is also fairly reliable throughout the year including Summer and Winter. 1/32 oz jighead and small/medium FHM or crawler fished slowly on on or near bottom is a great method, as is a split shot 18" up from a octopus hook and FHM nose hooked if they are finicky. If your pond is full of forage, the YP are well fed and angling won't be as hot, but if you keep the bait in their zone, you should be catching YP this Spring.

I can go months without seeing YP hitting floating feed from June through September, then they're back at it in October like crazy. I can also go the same amount of time without catching a single YP. I've run the spectrum from assuming their population was wiped out due to poaching, GBH, Mink, predator fish, etc. - and they always reappear when I'm ready to give up. Once I bought my AquaVu mini cameras a couple years back it helped ease my concerns as I could see big YP routinely swimming around the dock - even though they weren't feeding on pellets and I wasn't sampling them through angling.

My advice is to take it easy - this is only year two since stocking, fisheries take time to establish and it takes patience and diligence to learn how to read your pond and fishery. Over the next few weekends try angling for YP using the tactics above or try something on your own - I would be very surprised if you start don't popping YP.