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

Average hatch from a ribbon will depend primarily on where the ribbon is located, clarity of the water(silt), and of course size of the ribbon and how well it is fertilized. I've seen some ribbons with very few fertilized eggs. This occurs in populations where there is a skewed sex ratio of male to female that sometimes occurs when only one size of graded stocker perch was purchased.

Average eggs per 8"-10" YP is variable and in the range of 25,000-60,000. Some sources say there will be around 6500 eggs per inch of female perch. If you have kids, you can remove a piece of ribbon with eggs and hatch in inside in a big jar, bucket or aquarium. It helps to keep the eggs aerated. After 4-7 days inside and the ribbon starts breaking apart it is hatching. This will give an idea of the viablity that ribbon.

As a manual management, each spring I remove all the ribbons that I can find. I still have a fair number of small perch each year that likely hatch from fragmented ribbons or ribbons laid in deeper water. I have only a few walleye as predators(no bass) and some perch that do not eat pellets. My management philosophy is to produce lots of trophy size perch which means limited competition. Each year I buy some of the largest fastest growing perch from a producer to replace those harvested. This keeps my pellet eating YP population numerous and lots of large trophy size perch.