I don't get time to fish. My kids fish as soon as water warms up and since the YP are crazy about optimal pellets, they come to the area where the kids fish like a dinner bell going off. They hit worms, corn, snails, just about anything. We usually catch the most active and usually the larger size YP as they are most aggressive.
The kids will only catch a few (4-5) and then catch a few larger shiners and then lose interest. We have not intentionally jigged on the bottom from a boat or targeted all areas of the pond with angling as a way to sample the population.
The YP are always catch and release. My plan since we have seen some very large female (12-13" and chunky) was to see what the egg drop was like this spring and then have a group fishing event and try to keep enough YP to have a fish fry. I figured if I"m going to restock anyway I might as well at least enjoy one good YP meal for everyone.
The smallest YP we catch is about 5-6" so that one is probably at least 2 seasons old. At night I usually see a lot of 2-5" perch just laying in the sand in teh shallows using a flashlight. The last two years haven't seen any of that size class so I don't think we had good recruitment or survival. I know my shiners (GSH and SFS) are probably really eating a lot of the fry or really small YOY as their population is very much going up.
The only other predator I MIGHT have (not sure) is I stocked a few WE just to see if we could dispel the myth that they don't do well in shallow ponds. I never tried to catch them and outside of a big 'V' in the water streaking through the shallows I had no idea if they were there. Last fall we had a big temp drop and a big rain where the pond took on a bunch of runoff all at once and the next day we had a few of the largest YP and 2 Walleye floaters. The Walleye were stocked at around 5" long and both of the floater walleye were about 14" long. There could easily be a few more walleye left and maybe they are cleaning up on the smaller size class YP.
I think I would have no problems keeping the YP going with a little more management.
1. I would have another predator species to help reduce the burgeoning SFS and the left over large GSH. They are probably what is keeping YP from successfully bringing in new classes of recruits. I'm sure adding 5-6 SMB would get things back in balance. 2. Stocking YP once nearly 10 years ago is part of the issue. There comes a time where you need a new round of stocker fish of the 4-6" size class to get things going again. I probably don't have enough males to adequately fertilize either. I seem to have lost the entire 1 and 2 yo size class. This could be from WE predation as well, I truly don't know how many WE I have and my pond size is small. I may have a handful of WE left. 3. I can feed adequately but I don't have adequate vegetation to protect the YOY. I can't seem to get it started, possibly due to polymer seal on the bottom of my pond. I'm just now starting to get some vegetation starting on the edges that are 1-2" deep when full and exposed when the ground water drops. The goal was to replant some duck potato that is just starting to leaf out in the ditches around here. My sedges and bunches of swamp buttercup are doing better. 4. My winter time experiment of sprouting pickerelweed from seed failed. I got to see little green shoots come out of several seeds but when I transferred from water medium to light potting soil they never made it. I will be sourcing some online or some other way.
CC- Regarding your lack of cover issue (natural cover); have you consider using artificial structure? I have driven several short pipes in the bottom not too far from the edge, and then I use large zip ties to attach varies types of cover every few seasons. This year I was blessed with some free Christmas trees. That will be the dense stuff my fry can hide in. I also have some sticks and branches type cover (looser cover) for the fingerlings and larger classes to graduate into. And we've got a few bigger trees, with large trunks, for ambush hideouts for my bigger LMB. ( It also helps an amateur bass catcher, such as myself, raise his catch rates when fishing near the bigger structure). Last spring, after my shock survey, I was again reminded to shoot for 20% structure coverage in my pond. I've also read that number in a number of threads on the forum here.
It sounds like you have a great forage base, and have an established YP population. Maybe better and more structure is the key?
Maybe the Pros can chime in.
In the meantime, I'll wear my lucky socks for you....
"He who thinks he can and he thinks he can't, they're both usually right." - Wyatt Hendrickson, 2025 NCAA Hwt Champion
My YP are extremely late to the party.. Supposed to be doing night sampling for SMB but storms moved in so I tried to do some algaecide work this eve and low and behold I finally have my first visible ribbon of 2023. a big one but nearly a month later that what I expected.
