Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait How fast do yellow perch grow and spawn?

Well fed yellow perch at 2 months will range from most at 1"-1.3" to a few fastest growers at close to 2". FYI some of your YP from last year could now be after 14 months 6"-8". Smaller ones then would be mostly males and slower growers.

Thanks Bill! As usual, you provided exactly the info I was after!

Bill D. I did some looking for your requested info. There is info but it varies so much that its hard to give a cogent answer. Location , fertility ,type of plankton , other fish present , time of year/year class ,and others make a huge difference with YP. Most info is on YP at age 3+ and not on yoy/daily/monthly etc over year 1 and 2. Even the energetics models are different over time.

ewest, could you please provide the link to expected sizes for 3+ yr old YP. Mine have been in the pond a little over two years, and were mostly in the 2-4" range when stocked. It seems like they are pretty much the same size as last year. (Had very good growth the first 12 months). I'm thinking that maybe I'm looking at YP that are as big as they are going to get..
Sorry about the thread hijack..
thanks
Jeff

Length of yellow perch in the Red Lakes , MN
at first annulus ** in the calendar years 1952-
1957 and 1959-1967. One inch = 25.4 mm

Year ------------- Number of ------------Length
Class----------- I-annulus fish --------- mm
1952 ------------------ 25 -------------- 55.4
1953 ------------------ 14 ----------------72.1
1954 ------------------ 48-----------------72.5
1955 ------------------ 50-----------------77.3
1956 ------------------ 55---------------- 75.0
1957 ------------------ 29---------------- 77.2
1959------------------- 11-----------------77.9
1960------------------- 54 ----------------77.2
1961--------------------86-----------------73.4
1962-------------------- 8-----------------77.8
1963 ------------------- 9 ----------------87.8
1964--------------------64 --------------- 72.9
1965 --------------------8 --------------- 71.1
1966 -------------------96 --------------- 78.9
1967 ------------------- 9 --------------- 78.1

** first annulus was in the fall when growth slows (annulus formed) for YP in MN - that would be about 6 mths old.


See this page 5

http://www.ncrac.org/files/biblio/YellowPerchPub.pdf

Thanks ewest! Good article. Looks like my YP are about average. Good to know. 3-4 years of age to reach harvest size.. Must mean my supplemental feeding is helping. I've harvested well over 100 so far, almost all have had fish feed present when cleaning.
Looks like they will continue to get a little bigger, but not a whole lot.
Thanks again.

SG,

I don't know if this input is of value to you but, I stocked 5 to 7 inch YP (most closer to 5) fall of 2015. The average I catch today are 9 to 10. I haven't stocked any pellet trained fish of any species but I do feed pellets and do get fish coming to feed every night. Although I haven't caught any, the bigger YP look to be 12 or so.

Bill, I think that's about where mine are in length. I stocked my YP in the spring of 15, and have had the feeder running most of the time. I need to get a ruler down at the pond to get actual length measurements. I'll do that today, as we will be catching some more. Last night the 2 yr old twins (grandkids) were catching fish faster than I could bait hooks, and put the fish in the basket. Caught mostly HBG, but did manage to bring in six YP. I'd say they were all 8-9".
I've got to admit, the HBG have grown to twice the weight of the YP, and put up three times the fight, but the YP are easier to clean at 9:00 at night, and taste the best. If my HBG weren't half piranha, I'd be a bit happier with them.

Caught several more yesterday. Maybe it was juggling the 2 yr old twins, my daughter, my mother in law, and my crazy Drathaar. I didn't measure a single one. My water temps are still pretty cool, so the YP are still hitting.

It’s October 3rd and I just found schools of 1/2-3 inch yellow perch. Typically spawn late May in my location. Why do I have schools of 1/2 inchers? Is it possible they pulled off a late spawn as well?

Did the pond ice over and then thaw out again?

Theo, 🤣 no! Just trying to figure out how I have 1/2 inch yellow perch in October. I do have bottom diffused aeration and the water temp felt much colder than I expected in July, but I can’t see it being in perch spawn range. It did feel almost like ice water, but not quite. I honestly have no idea.

Are you absolutely positive that they are YP? It's not only water temp that influences their spawn, it's also photoperiod. I haven't heard of YP ever having a rolling spawn like BG.

I agre with esshup that a late spawn of YP in Sept is very uncommon with individuals being 1/2" long. I can believe some YP in early Oct are 2.5"-3". Nothing I know about has ever mentioned a late September spawn of YP. For me too believe it you will need to somehow capture one or a few and post a picture.

Bill, I’ll try to net some in the next few days. There’s no other fish in the pond that even closely resembles them.

Bill, I’m still not good with the picture posting thing on here. I’ll do my best.

Read this:

Posting pictures here on PB.

John - If you are fortunate to capture a few of these 1/2" long fish. You can go to my member page - left click on my name then click View Profile and use my email contact (lower left side) to email me a copy of the picture. A late spawn of YP is possible, very unlikely and a very rare occurrance. If the fish are really 1" and not 1/2" it is possible the hatch was late this Spring and growth has been unusually slow. 1.5"-2" YP can occur at one year old as noted in the 1 yr old YP growth table above. .

I got some decent ones tonight. I’ll try to do that now.

Bill, I just sent them. These are around 1/2 inch. No doubt in my mind they are yellow perch. I have bass, bluegill, golden shiners, yellow perch, black crappie, and grass carp.

Bill, I will add we had a messed up year with a fish kill in July. Pond surface has pretty much been covered by water meal and coontail most of the year.

I went ahead and sent you a pic of one about 3 inches as well.

Thes are approximately 1/2 - 1 inch. The green stuff on top is water meal not duckweed. https://i.imgur.com/IT0zIB1.jpeg

John, can you catch one and get a good clear picture of the fish from the side? Those do NOT look like Yellow Perch to me.

Take a picture of the fish like this picture that I posted below.

Top fish is a LMB, lower fish is a YP. See how the YP has the vertical bands? Those vertical bands are not apparent on your fish.

They are too fast for me to net them. Maybe I can net one tonight. I’ll try to upload a photo of a little bigger one.