Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Fish Kill/ Yellow Perch Survival/

My pond is 2.5 acres in NE Kansas. We had our first fish kill 4 years ago or so and it was a bad one. Black crappie, Bluegill, and LMB bounced back. I have added around 1,000 6 inch plus YP over the last 4 years partly due to a fish kill 2 years ago July. Th I he perch successfully spawned each spring after. I have also added around 300lbs. of golden shiners breeding size during this same time period. This July we had another fish kill, but I know why this time. I was catching YP from all areas of the pond pretty easily and quickly up until this last fish kill. I haven't been able to catch a single one sense then. Out of the 30 buckets of dead fish I scooped out I probably found 6 dead YP and 4 dead BC. The majority was large BG, LMB, and some grass carp. I have read studies indicating YP can withstand lower DO and higher ammonia than most other freshwater fish. I'm just having trouble with constantly wondering if they are still there. I did manage to catch some small BC so I know they survived. Millions of BG in the 2-6 inch range all over the pond and varying sizes of LMB. After the kill Tilapia were added although not many survived. The pond is weed heavy with coontail and dense mats of FA blanketing the coontail on the bottom. The FA is loaded with millions of scuds I stocked from SD a couple years ago. Theres also abundant insect life throughout. Am I just not locating where the perch are hiding? I also haven't seen a single shiner. Are the Perch just full due to all the forage, or do they just shut down mid summer? Ive tried many locations in the pond with live minnows with no luck. Do you think the perch survived? I will also add the pond has 4 bottom diffusers added just over 1 year ago. Thanks!

John

Thirty buckets of dead fish sounds devastating. I'm sorry to hear that.

I have a 1.5 acre pond that had a very low density stocking of YP and SMB last Fall. I found one dead YP this Spring but have had no indication that there are any YP or SMB remaining and am worried that I may have had a winter kill and they mostly sunk to the bottom, therefore I didn't find floaters. Like you, I tried fishing at different times of the day, different weather, different bait presentations, etc without luck. If I could catch just one SMB and one YP, get a quick length and weight and release them, I'd be happy but so far no success. Given my very low density stocking and the prolific forage population, I expected that enticing something to bite may be difficult but I was hopeful that it was at least possible. They're either not there, or I'm a terrible fisherman. I hope its the latter.

The YP that were stocked would have been large enough to spawn this Spring but it's unlikely that the SMB were large enough to do so. Given this, I decided to try to trap YP YOY. Setting traps near structure, away from structure, varying the depth, time of day, bait, etc. led to traps full of forage and not a single YP or SMB.

Although both species are hardy, I've had no evidence that they are still in there so I'm moving forward with plans to restock (at a higher density this time and with twice the water volume).

Some things that are working against you is that the YP have plenty of places to evade you (your weed beds) and they have plenty of forage so enticing one to bite will likely take more effort than what it otherwise would. If you have a few minnow traps, give those a try. You should be able to get a survey of your shiners at the same time.

I tend to catch perch ice fishing in deeper parts of ponds, so sending a camera into the deepest part when ice fishing may reveal them if they are still there.

Depending on the sizes and numbers of your fish, carrying capacity of your pond may be a factor in your fish kill happening to begin with, but I'll leave that to the experts on here to comment on.

Keep us posted with your progress. I hope you find that they are just eating less this time of year, but a thriving population is still in there.

The weed beds can definitely be hiding them. I had some YP and shiners that would come to the feeder before. After the kill I haven't seen a one.The feeder was off for about 6 weeks so that might be a reason. Like you I wish I could catch just one or two to confirm. I will be stocking more if I cant confirm their presence. Good luck with your Perch!

In my experience, very few perch float when they die. I lost all but one 12”+ YP this year (about 20 of original stockers) due to them being really old. I only found one dead one. I still have a lot of smaller YP, but the old ones clearly died this year as they no longer came for food.

It is possible they died and floated to shore where something ate them in the night, as it is unlikely they died all at once.

John Kruid, do you know what caused the fish kill? Other than adding aeration last year, how has the pond changed since the fish kill 4 years ago?

Yes, not all fish float when they die. More float in summer months than when the water is cold. With the LMB in there, the YP are good prey for them, so even without a fish kill, periodic restocking is recommended, especially if you do not have the correct cover in the pond to facilitate high a high number of YP eggs to hatch when YP spawn. What cover do you have in the pond to help YP spawning success?

I recently did a restocking with 150 YP and about two weeks later, found 6 of them dead. This is well within the 10% mortality that seems to be the acceptable rate. As mentioned by others above, none of them were floating. I found them all in the shallows by walking the pond perimeter. The water has some turbidity and tannin staining, so I can't bottom past 18-24" deep. Because of this, I wonder how many YP actually died and are on the bottom in a depth that I can't see. Either way, none of them floated.

I'm hoping to get some confirmation that some are down there thriving by using an Aqua Vu camera through the ice. This might be an option for you to consider as well. For now, there isn't enough ice to safely get out there.

Any luck getting confirmation that some of your YP are still in there? I'm experiencing something very similar with my pond and just started a post about it.

As part of my effort to find proof of life, I bought an underwater camera. I'm still getting the hang of using it. If you still have enough ice on the pond and are interested in something like that, I could mail it to you to try out if you'd like.

If you are using the pond for closed loop heating and cooling, putting cold in during the Winter and heat during the Summer (presumably towards or at the bottom) from heat exchange through the coil, that will be doing some destratification by itself. Aeration may indeed be required to keep a good fish population - you may have to eat some resulting inefficiency in your HVAC as a consequence.

I personally doubt 6"-7" YP stocked in the Fall of 2024 pulled off a spawn last year. Males might have been big enough, but I doubt the females were. Dr. Perca (Bill Cody) can confirm or obliterate this opinion.