Mr. Cody is the perch expert and can weigh in here. There is a urban legend that YP need large bodies of water and deep water similar to walleye, but they do just fine in small mudpuddle type ponds as long as they don't overheat in summer.
Bill can tell you that there are southern strain (or warmer water tolerant) YP but it doesn't seem to be easy to figure out how to get your hands on them. It would help if the YP had a cold water refuge in the summer. In heavily aerated southern ponds when it is 93 degrees from the top of the pond to the bottom that may not work so well for them to avoid heat stress.
Yet, I believe many myths persist only because no one tries it. It should be fairly easy to source pellet trained YP in the Midwest (say southern IN?) but you would have to arrange for a cool weather shipment or special packing and overnight shipping if it is hot during the shipping day(s)
I think if we could work out how to make YP work in the southern pond it would be a huge market as they are very good eating, they are good predators of crayfish which many southern pond owners struggle to keep in check. They also can help the RES eat snails and are prolific spawners (at least in northern ponds) They are one of the first to spawn at ice out as well. If the stocker fish were big enough to escape predation then it would be a cool experiment.
Last edited by canyoncreek; 09/04/18 04:15 PM.
