I'd like to see more YP; I realize the LMB and GSF are probably hammering the young perch. Might the shiners help to take some pressure off young perch?
Interesting question for a small pond with a community fishery. I have had a similar problem twice with GSF in a yellow perch pond; my own. I tried to deal with maintaining YP with the GSF and after a couple years renovated the pond and started anew. Adding GSH to the pond could help relieve some of the predatory pressure on YP in the pond (see later). You will get more chance of success when using the shiners is if you make a concerted effort to put heavy harvest pressure on the existing GSF population. Concerted effort means having one or two fish traps in the pond almost all summer long so fewer GSF are present to eat the YOY perch when they hatch. With just YP in a 0.2 ac pond with GSF, I with traps removed in two summers 4000 and 3000 GSF each year respectively
Thus GSF in any pond can be prolific when the LMB are at a lower or no density in the pond. However higher density of LMB will also put high predatory pressure on the young perch when they grow longer than 2". A fish dilemma indeed.
IMO I would try this first for one year. Trap the pond for one full summer using fish traps of both a Gee Brand Minnow trap with an enlarged opening and maybe a Z-Trap - homemade or purchased. Most of the GSF that I caught in my pond were in unbaited traps. GSF seem to like the cavity refuge that a trap provides. Then in Fall add some (8-12) mixed sizes of larger YP to insure egg deposit for the following Spring. IN Spring continue trapping to remove more of the remaining GSF to give the YP hatchlings a change to grow. BE aware the LMB will also be a predator of the fingerling YP of 4"-6". Watch the results of YP survival at the end of 2026 to see it improved versus that of 2023 and 2024.
GSF could benefit YP survival, however adding GSH is a questionable benefit because when larger than 4"-5" GShiners with larger mouth gape size tend to be open water feeders and they IMO will eat and impact the YP fry survival when YP fry move into open water until they are about 1" long. Thus your pond will then have three fairly strong predators of the YP: 1. GSH eating YP fry during plankton stage, 2. GSF eating and sucking up very freshly hatched YP out of the egg cases and as weak swimming fry before they move planktonic and then again GSF eating small YP up to 1.5" when young YP move back toward or into shallow water habits where GSF call home, 3. LMB - when all YP are less than 5"-6" long.
Probably the simplest and quickest least labor way to get more YP in your current pond situation is to each year buy 8-10 larger YP (6"-8" long) and add them to the pond. Harvest all LMB larger than 12". Plus each year keep trapping out the GSF even if is is just on the weekends to mainly keep GSF predation to a lower level for eating the young hatchling YP.
Tilapia - Here in northern Ohio most of us wait to stock tilapia when the water temp is around 68F-70F and at a temp when TP can start spawning. TP are not very active and do not eat much when water drops below 55F and some TP species will begin dying at 50F.
