Don, how can you tell if the perch can live on shiners alone? I agree, my shiners are doing better than the FHM but it was my hope to keep both populations going, maybe now with adult perch reaching the 9" range that there is no hope of getting FHM back on track, even if I stock the larger 2" or bigger FHM?
I don't know if the perch can live on shiners alone. Right now it is very rare to catch a fat head minnow in our minnow trap but are right full of shiners. This year we do have some emerald shiner recruitment again. Andrew netted some 1.5" ones the other day.
Originally Posted By: Bill D.
Originally Posted By: DonoBBD
..... The shiners are much faster and populate well.
Cheers Don.
Dono,
Are the shiners you're referring to Emeralds or do you have another species of shiner as well?
The Emerald shiners are doing well but nothing like the common shiners. This year there are minnows all around the pond but have had luck netting a few emeralds but expect most of them are common shiners.
There is very little places for minnows to hind in our pond. Just rocks all around and a small branch pile. Our crayfish and common shiners are doing the best then the emerald shiners next. FHM are few and far between with young perch numbering in the 1-5 or the original stocked perch. We have never been able to trap young perch in the minnow trap over night ever yet. We are going to make a bigger trap are go at it a bit different this year.
The visibility never gets better than 24"s ever. I expect the young hatched in our pond perch are the ones picking off the FHM. We still pellet feed about 100#'s per year and do see some small perch feeding on the pellets as well as the shiners.
With the perch spawning the spring of 2013 in our pond (thought it was toilet paper in the pond) I expect they have spawned every year since too. I wonder if the large shiners are putting pressure on the young perch limiting the young?
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