Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Trying to find YP

I know I'm further south than most people like to try to stock perch, I'm an hour(ish) northeast of Memphis, but I really want to try to start some YP in my pond. I have the depth, 10 to 12 feet and it is fed by a year round natural spring so that water stays at a pretty constant, low for the area, temperature. It's generally too cold to swim in for long even in the summer.

I thought I had some perch located but that seems to have fallen through and I know I'm running short on getting them in this spring so I'm trying to find somewhere I can get 50 to 100 3" to 4" YP just to see if I can get them to grow here. It's a test for a future, larger, pond. If it works, great! If it doesn't, no big deal, I can restock a different direction then.

I'm willing to make a drive to get them too. But I need to stay reasonably close because all I have for transport is a 65 gallon water tank and a 500GPH aerator (I may get a second one just to really make it bubbly in there). My best guess is no more than 6 hours one way without really putting stress on the fish.

Trying to find YP fisheries has been "entertaining" to say the least. So I thought I would put this out here and see if anyone has any ideas?

Only suggestion I have is to send a PM to Rainman here on the forum to see if he has a load going within 6 hours of you. I know he travels to lots of different states. He might be able to overnight ship some to you as well.

Yellow Perch are doing great in a Nashville pond. I am delivering more Tilapia this week to my YP source. I live in the St Louis Area, but am sure I get closer to you as well.

+1 for Tennessee YP. Ask him about walleye too, they can do well down here and would be good complements for your YP, if you're looking for something different.

One possibly useless observation--I didn't have any YP recruitment until my pond had a heavy growth of aquatic vegetation, they really love those weed beds.

Hey Guys, thanks- esshup had some perch and happened to be heading relatively close to me so we are going to meet up on the side of the road Monday for a 'fish deal'.

I'll post some pictures of them when I get them home and start releasing them.

And yes, the plan has always been walleye when I build the larger pond that pushes up against this feeder pond

Got my fish today. I love these side of the road fish transactions

esshup brought me just over 100 great looking perch that were simply huge. A couple of them looked about ready to be cut up for sandwiches.

I love the color. Reminds me of the "Men in Black" movies! Seriously dangerous! I suspect they will revert to traditional colors though. Rumor is Esshup has a magic elixir (tannins) in his ponds to get that dark and dangerous look!

That's why they are so dark. If the water they are going into is clearer, they will brighten up within a week or so. This Spring the runoff from the woods is really dark. Water clarity is about 18" or so just from the tannins.

Glad that they made the trip home safe!!!

They are a blast. I highly recommend. I'm very glad I put them in my pond. I'm running a feeder four seconds a day, and have 10" fish in one year. They are delicious, fun to catch, i believe I've had good recruitment. I'm hoping for years of YP fishing for the grandkids. Hopefully the few SMB and HSB that are in the pond will keep the YP numbers in check.

Just a quick update. Been feeding the fish on Optimal mixed with some stuff I picked up at TSC. The Creek chubs love the TSC stuff and save the Optimal for last. Anyway, I usually see just a few swirls of larger fish eating, nothing huge or exciting, so I decided to drop a line in to see what I could see. 4th cast with half a night crawler landed this little guy from the stocking a few weeks ago.

I fish barbless and put him back right away. Wifey took the pic real fast for me. I'm VERY happy to see the YP eating and looking forward to fall and them getting enough size to start eating a few.

Like saving dessert for last? LOL

Glad to see that it was a success!!!

FWIW, I made another run to Lonoke this past Tues/Wed. It was getting hot down that way when I left on Wed morning.