Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Little YP, look ok?

Netted this guy this morning. I guess from last year? Too big for this year, correct?
Does he look healthy to you all?
Thanks,

If he's from last year, he must be at least 1 year old. If so, I would say he's small for a year old yellow perch.

Now, if your hands are really large.....

Agreed. Skinny fish with big eyes. Not thriving I'd say.

That’s why I posted the pic. I thought it looked too small. Head looked big, and eyes larger than they should. Hmmm.. The adult YP are all healthy. I quit running the feeder last year due to a weird algae outbreak. Hopefully running it daily this year will help.
Thx

Well, he looks better than the year old YP I caught last night.

That’s good to hear, I guess. The feeder goes off just once a day. Feed is cleaned up in no time.
We had a 2+” rain yesterday in about 45 min. Water is half way up the drain pipe. So lots of fresh new water for the pond. I don’t aerate, so I hope these rain events help.

That perch don't look bad to me.. not everything grows at mach 8.
Happens in every species. His/her body condition suggests growth now to me, maybe there was a slow stage earlier and it couldn't jump the gap but looks like it has now.

Provided you're sampling some better WR YP you're fine - I've had really poor growth rates on some YP also - I don't lose any sleep provided I'm still sampling solid YP. Start keeping WR records on fish you sample so you understand your fishery dynamics which in turn dictates management strategy. Do you witness YP feeding?

TJ, I’m not very good at tracking or even getting WR on my fish. My scale is out of batteries again. I don’t think we take enough fish out to make much of an impact. I’ve added cover recently to help fry survival.
The feed is cleaned up very quickly. They hit it so fast, I can’t tell what’s taking the feed. Polarized sunglasses and watching closely. It’s still a blur.
I did clean several YP last weekend. All had stomachs with lots of Optima feed.

If SetterGuy is eating Yellow Perch, he's doing pretty good probably.

SG, what kind of fillet size were you getting from the perch? Sandwiches? Breading?

I cleaned six more yesterday. So, about 25 so far this spring. The fillets are six or seven inches long.
My wife fries them up. Dipped in buttermilk, then crusted in cornmeal. I’m sure not the healthiest way to cook them, but they are so good.
Trying to keep only males, but the later into spring we get, the more difficult it is to tell them apart.

As a side note, if you like Perch and Walleye, there's a restaurant called "The Boardwalk" on Put-In Bay, OH. and they have best hot sauce, IMO.

It's got a zesty flavor and is not too hot.

It can be ordered online if you're interested ( the-boardwalk.com )

YP gender is easy - flip them over and look at the urogenital opening. Males have round pores, females have crescents. There are a lot of photos on PB posted on this, many of which are mine IIRC.

If you are serious about managing your fishery and achieving your goals, whatever they are, you need to be on top of WR measurements. When you catch a fish weigh and measure it, write it down, release the fish.
When you're done for the day get online and download WR tables per your species. Do the math. When you've done this a few times you'll be able to hold a fish and come within 5-10% accuracy of it's WR, no more need for charts - you'll become attuned to how a WR 100 BG should feel and appear - same for all other species. You won't need to rely on measurements and charts for long.

Of course this means keeping spare batteries on hand for your scale and a measuring board on the dock. If we don't interpret the data the fishery provides there's no way to manage it correctly. I assume you've invested a lot of time and money on your pond build and development of your fishery, it's worth the effort to learn how to manage it well. WR measurements are an important management tool to help you get there.

I won't go to those Russian dictator towns, even for walleye.

TJ, our fishing is too close to chaos to do this. My daughter, her husband, three little ones, and two labs have been doing most of the fishing. I don’t go over and inspect each catch. It’s easy when it’s just me, or a friend and myself, but with the whole crew there, as they have been most of the last two months, it’s not going to happen. I guess you can put me in the category of “not serious” about managing my fishery.
Ordered more optimal feed yesterday. I’ll keep the feeder running.
I’m hoping I have enough YP to keep them sustainable. I can’t tell by watching them feed.
The little guy pictured above is hopefully one of many. I only found two ribbons this spring, but we released what I thought were several females, when caught. Hopefully there were more ribbons present that I just didn’t see. (Maybe too deep).
Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. I just doubt I can get it done. Since I’m not running aeration, I probably won’t have optimally managed fishery anyway.

Come on, Comrade!!!