Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Perch ribbons, mid March and cold!

Our water temp is at 35. The ice just left last night with the warm rain. No ribbons yet today.

First small YP ribbon this morning. Also saw a 10-11" bleached-out dead fish across the pond from the ribbon that looked like it might be a YP but could have been a LCS. Was too far out to fetch in with the sticks I found nearby, so I could not get a close look at it.

Kind of late reporting. Been too busy to get up to the pond. Work still getting in the way. We did have a .6� rain the other night (March 30th). I finally got back up here. And, yes I found two ribbons.

I�m hoping there�s more down below the debris along the bank. I walked it twice before dark, and only for under two.

I can�t remember, if there isn�t much white, is that good or bad? The two I found didn�t look all that healthy. Visibility in the pond, after this last rain is down to 12�. I was in such a hurry, I forgot my thermometer.

One ribbon..

Those ribbons look okay. I would rather see the ribbon stretched out rather than bunched-up together. Bunching reduces water flow/movement around and through the ribbon. If all fry that hatch survive you will have too many perch.

Ok, hopefully I�ll just get a reasonable, normal survival, and have just the right amount of fry.
Thx Bill

My water temp was 51 this am just about 30 min after sunrise and other than the first 2 ribbons last week, I have yet to see another.
I have about 50 tree limbs from shore out to 2.5'..
Concerned at this point knowing what I have for females.

Went to pond yesterday to look things over after the last couple of rains, and took a few pics to compare how much the pond had filled. I saw some whitish spots near the shore in the pics, so I enlarged it. Could these be YP ribbons? Water is muddy, but the shore area is where it would receive the most sun and is probably the shallowest part of the pond. When I stocked YP last fall there were several 6 to 8-inch individuals. Am I just seeing what I want to see or could they have spawned?

Those are probably YP ribbons but they may not hatch very well due to too much silt settling on covering the ribbons minimizing oxygenation of the developing embryos. You should try to drag one or two of those white things out for a closer look to verify perch eggs. Your pond water is so muddy that there might not be enough plankton for the fry to survive?

My pond has about another 3 or 4 feet to go to be at normal pool. Exposed clay should be covered then. I had extensive dirt work done last fall to get more runoff into pond, it is filling fine now. The downside is starting over on grass cover, hopefully in a couple months ground cover should be good and maybe pond will clear. Other ponds and creeks in area are clear with a very noticeable green tint now.

First Perch ribbons of the year for us. April 10th water temp 42*F.
We have one of the best blooms yet with some fall tree fertilizer that has made it into the pond.

I'm afraid my perch blew ribbons maybe in the tops of some brushpiles I have in 3-4ft of water. I found 2 ribbons early on a tree limb but that was it. My water temp was 61 degs before our snow storm the last few days so I believe it's quite possible I missed the majority that were laid somewhere I was unable to see them. Quite frustrating..
I had 3 smb spotted 4 days ago working what appeared to be potential spawning locations, I believe. in 2-3 weeks I'll be netting hard to see if I can obtain yoy YP to see if that is what happened.

Guess I'll quit wondering about ribbons... Pulled a bag seine around a bit today and discovered a very high number of YP fry nearly 1/2-5/8" long!! Hope some become food because it looks like they out number my fatheads by 2 to 1...

Interesting. I just saw the two ribbons myself, but suspect there were more I couldn�t see. I did a test run on the feeder mid afternoon the other day, and there were 100s of 1.5� fry hitting at pellets close to the bank. I was assuming they were GS. I�ll get my new trap out and see if I can catch a few. Hopefully some are YP. Plan is to use a few for HSB bait. Still trying to catch my first one. (HSB)

Great new S-G, Your trap should give an eye opener on what is lurking in the shallows. Let us know what you have and post pictures. Your perch fry should be further along in growth compared to mine depending of they can escape the predation of the GSH and that there is ample 'green water' for them to find micro-critters to eat.

I heard mallard ducks will eat YP eggs, I have a pair that has been at the pond the last week. I watched my perch ribbons and they did not eat one of them, but they have been tail up much of the day eating something else that is down in between the oak leaves in the shallows. I would hope they are ghost shrimp but I doubt there are any anymore.

I hope the mallard pair doesn't displace any wood ducks. I have some taj mahal wood duck houses up and really hoping we can entice a pair to nest there. Last year my camera put a date stamp of April 13 and 14 on the day where a pair of wood ducks made an overnight stopover at our pond.

We had 3" of snow yesterday as a freak snow event, hoping the woodies find our puddle and think it looks inviting

anyone know if mallards and wood ducks would get along?

Compared to previous years, we have very few perch ribbons. I have only seen 4 compared to 20-30 before. We have clear water, so I can usually see them down deep.

They showed up about March 15th with a late ice-out.

The interesting part is this year, they placed them in the tangle of cattails, where before they were on clumps of Chara out in the open. Probably the water was a tad warmer in the vegetation.

My theory is this year is I didn't plow off the pond at all, and the ice was pretty thick compared to usual. It was low O2 down there, and I lost a bunch of small crappie. The fish were more stressed this year, and mad at me. Thus the low ribbons. I still have plenty of large perch as evidenced by feeding them, but they are getting old.

I pulled out a perch ribbon today that was over 4 feet long. I have never seen a ribbon this big in our pond ever. I thought it was two but nope... there was a good male there too because it was over 90%.

I have laid branches in our pond two years in a row all around the pond. The perch only lay on the north and west sides and every thing in between. Nothing on the east or south side of the pond.

Today we had another 5 new ribbons. We remove most all of them and it is working at keeping the numbers down, but last year was different. Now I have implemented a 8-10"s slot size for the perch.

P.S. we have not cut our lawn yet this year and have not heard or seen any spring peepers. Really early here still.

Well, I had time yesterday to put the trap out for about 30 min. Threw in dog food and Optima. No YP, no GS. Just these.. I guess the HBG have already spawned? More swimmer biters in the making. Biggest mistake I�ve made yet with the pond is stocking 200 HBG. They reproduce much more than I ever thought they would or could.

It will be interesting to see what these same fish look like in 2-3 years. To me they have more BG influence than HBG features - coloration; especially the two uppermost fish. Keep us updated with pictures as they grow older. They look like early to mid season hatch from last year 2018.