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

I wish I could help with the ID John. Those are some nice photographs though ... and they show a lot of detail. I don't recall ever seeing that yellow pattern before viewing fish from overhead around the bank. Will be interesting to see the final ID.

Given the sizes of the fish in your images ... I am reminded of a group of anglers who try to catch as many species as they can with angling techniques. Much of their angling time is spent using techniques they call "micro fishing". They use tiny hooks, like size 22 and 24 fly hooks and very minute baits.

I have found it tough to catch bluegill smaller than 2" by angling but using a small hook, (I keep a lot of size 12 dry fly hooks around) and just tipping only the very point of the hook with bait has helped me catch a few. I pull back the moment I see the bait disappear. If the point is also in the mouth, it will hook the tiny fish. I think I could improve the catch rate by going to a smaller hook. Might be vain for 1/2" fish however with a hook as large as size 12. I have never caught a 1/2" fish by angling. Whether it can be done will probably depend in part on mouth size the size of the hook one is fishing with.

A baited or even an un-baited minnow trap might also work.

John - Thanks for providing the pictures. As esshup says positive identification will be best with one out of the water. You will get an education for trying to capture one of these smaller fish. It's harder than it first appears. Try catching one or two in a minnow fish trap baited with bread or broken pieces of pet food. Another option is to use a decent sized fish net with small mesh 1/8", 3/16, or maybe 1/4" for larger ones of 1.5"-2". Lay net in the water and bait it with wet bread or pet food. Lift the net when fish are in the net.

From the overhead picture with fish in the water it is pretty hard to do a correct identification especially when they are smaller. However the fish in your pictures are too bulky on the front half of the fish for them to be yellow perch. YP are slender bodied fish when viewed from above. IMO from what I have seen so far,,, definately not yellow perch.

Jpsdad, I think the yellow just showed up more from the bright flashlight. Bill, I’ll try to blind them with the flashlight tonight and see if I can successfully net one. I forget to mention I did put adult tilapia in there this year, but not many made it. The majority are white with some being bluish.

This should be interesting!!!

John If you added tilapia (TP) this year, my money is on those small fish are young tilapia because as young TP they tend to be bulky on the front half of the fish and appear 'chunky' compared to Y perch. .

I was not successful with the net, but I just threw a trap in with bread.

John If you have a pet cat or dog or friend with one beg about a cup of pet food and put it in the trap if bread does not work. Inquiring minds are curious about your mysery late spawn perch. .

One of my favorite nets i bought when i was a kid is a 5’ x 5’ fold-up baitfish net. It has a cheesecloth like netting. You drop it into waters 5’ and under, and wait for the small fish to swim over. It comes up like the mouth of a whale when you pull hard, and invariably will catch something.

The darned thing is near 40 years old and still works great.

I doubt this would last as long, but this would work too: QualyQualy Foldable Fishing Net, Landing Fishing Pier Nets 31"/40" Hoop, Drop Net for Pulling Up Fish with Rope, Portable Bridge Fishing Net for Minnows, Crawfish, Shrimp https://a.co/d/fQzRKbL

I too am placing my bets on Tilapia fry, but the proof is in the pictures.

+1 to what esshup wrote

24hrs and nothing in the trap. I put dog food in and threw it back.

I have had the best results when using minnow traps if the openings to the trap is parallel to the shore. I have VERY poor success using the black nylon coated traps and the best success with the galvanized uncoated minnow traps.

Esshup, thanks for the tips. Mine is black nylon coated and pointing away from shore between the rocks. If no results tomorrow I’ll change its direction. If that don’t work I guess I need to visit Walmart or cabelas for the non black nylon coated type.

I have always used this one. Gee Original Minnow Trap

I see that there is a G-40 minnow trap but I have no idea what that one is like. I have never used it.

I finally netted one 1/2-1 inch. I couldn’t find any of the longer ones. They do have bars, but I don’t think they are perch.
https://imgur.com/a/6iV5xA9

That there is confirmation of Bill's, esshup's, and 4CP's thoughts on ID. Definitely TP.