BillD has a good question. YP stocker size? We assume this was a new pond with no fish. I assume you stocked fingerlings (2"-4")? You did not tell us what the sizes of the original YP were that you did manage to catch? Are they growing well? Evidently your fall stocked 2016 stocker YP spawned in 2018 since you caught some young ones in your cast net sample.
Your lack of now seeing little evidence of high numbers of catchable YP could be due to a couple of or combination of reasons. A. angling time of year, B. angling method occasionally they can be difficult to catch and appear low density, C. if they were not pellet trained when purchased, most are not eating pellets and you just are not seeing them, D. they grab pellets very quickly at the surface so you may not be seeing them actually eat the pellets, water clarity can affect this. E. IMO for a strong YP population for 2 ac, you stocked on the 'light' side. If they were pellet trained and in a mixed fish community you could have stocked 800 instead of 400 depending on sizes and if they were pellet trained - an important factor. 2"-4" YP are rarely well trained to pellets and many when stocked will resort to natural foods.
At this point I would not add more fingerling YP mainly because you do not have a good estimate of how much YP recruitment you had last year; a BIG important unknown. Normally after an initial spawn or two, the numbers of all fry species that survive is dependent on living space available. So I assume you had high numbers of 2018 fish spawn survival due to new pond conditions. Adding more YP, especially fingerlings now that are not pellet trained will likely overcrowd the pond's current 2 yr carrying capacity which could easily result in food shortages and slowed growth of most of the panfish who are eating what the new YP would be eating depending on their size/s. I would give the YP and yourself another year or two to better provide fish density estimates. By then(2020) the 2018 'strong' crop or year class of YP should be big enough to harvest. However if you can locate some 4"-6" pellet trained YP this spring you could add around 100-200 of those pellet eaters who would likely find and readily use the pellet buffet as supplemental food. If you do this,,, then plan to harvest 80-160 panfish (alltypes) in 2019 to reduce the chances of fish overcrowding because there will be ample spawns in 2019 to populate the pond that receives pellet feeding. With pellet feeding a pond can quickly and easily develop too many fish that are not growing optimally and who reduce water quality and increase plant-algae problems.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/06/19 07:10 PM.
