Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Big Perch Picture

This is one of four 15 inch yellow perch that we've moved by angling from the biggest pond on the property to a smaller pond where they can recover on a heavy diet of fatheads before being seined up to sell to Bass Pro Shops for their aquariums. In one day we've moved 38 perch from about 13 inches to 15 1/4 inches. Fish are reeled in quickly, put into a five gallon bucket and carried back one at a time as fast as possible to the other pond. We moved 70 perch this way last year with excellent success.

For you perch guys out there I have a question: How rare is a 15 inch perch in pretty much any body of water? I've only mounted one that big out of Lake Michigan in the 24 years I've been doing taxidermy. The reason I ask this is to get an idea of how rare a fish I am providing to Bass Pro Shops.

Pretty rare Cecil, I've personally never seen one that big in Texas!

Dang, look at the shoulders on that one. Awesome, Cecil. You lower Great Lakes, Midwesterners, have some good choices for stocking. You sure make the most of it.

Interestingly these fish although feed trained, and off to a good start when I purchased them at about 10 inches, go off the feed due to the aggressive bass in the same pond. I'm excited that this year finally I will have a pond were I can start 4 to 5 inch one year old feed trained perch in a cage, sort out the females a year later at 8 to 11 inches and keep them on feed in the same pond with no interference from the bass. I hope to do an article on it in the future if Bob is interested.

Conversely I'm convinced one of the reasons I've had such good luck with the perch is all the bass fry that are produced with up to 350 two to four lb. bass in a 3/4 acre pond. With little or no recruitment of these bass something must be eating them.

Cecil - wild 15 inch yellow perch are a rarity here. We only see them in the newly flooded, really productive lakes. It's the type of situation where if someone is fishing for a trophy of a lifetime, they want a 15 incher. You can catch those big perch, and when you actually put them on the board, they are 14.5, 14.75, etc. A 15 incher is rare. I wouldn't doubt that we only catch a few each winter in eastern SD.

...no doubt a Marine; note the sharp salute.
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Bill Cody has talked of the number of body bars. He has noted that certain strains derived from the Great Lakes will have 7 or more; this being a noteworthy indicator of good lineage. I count seven...correct?
(please bear with me as I bone up a little on YP; soon come)

Cecil, that is a huge perch. To answer your question, I have never seen a 15" perch up here. 10" perch are considered a good size keeper, 12"-13" are jumbos, any bigger are rare or good fish stories.

I don't know squat about YP, but the "perch" we have here ain't nothin like that! That is a beautiful fish! Forget Bass Pro Shops...mount that thing!

Yeah but for God's sake with the short growing season you have up there it's a wonder they get that big. :p

I've fished for jumbos in western Nebraska through the ice and people came unglued when I caught a 13.5 incher. I even won a master angler award for it. I've never seen a 15 incher in person.

Gail caught this pretty-boy last summer.

Cecil that is a beautiful jumbo YP. A corollary question to think about for pricing/value is how many YP over 8 in has anyone seen in a Bass Pro tank ? I have been to a few BP stores (some up north) and have not seen even a 10 in. YP. Have any of you guys seen a big YP in a BP tank ? So you are selling them something they don't have but obviously want.

It would depend on what type of deal they are offering also and your cost to raise them.

Cecil, BPS has lots of money. Read your own signature, then think about the time and $ spent to produce this monster. Hone your negotiating skills.

Couldn't agree more with burger.

Shhhh... don't tell them they were feeding on natural bass reproduction and I fed them virtually no feed!

Cecil, The 15"ers are pretty rare even in the better YP hand fed ponds in my area. The larger YP in the hand fed ponds seem to run about 2" larger than those in ponds where the YP are not fed.

I have been managing with a heavy hand for selective harvest in my main YP pond. After 6 yrs now YP over 14" are common in my pond. The 15" size group is strong. I now am seeing several fish in the 16" group. Hopefully I can get some of them to make my goal of 17" in a year or two. My ice fishing guests have a cow when I make them turn back the YP over 13". Some days we have to catch a fair number of fish before we get enough smaller ones to keep for a mess of perch for them to take home.

Bill,

Just wait until I have them in the pond I can regulate with the trout pond water for optimum temps in summer while yours are cooking! :p

Seriously, thanks for the information. Before meeting you I would never have thought growing perch this big was possible.

Will yellow perch survive in North Texas ponds?

Pretty doubtful if your water temps get up into the 80's and stay there for awhile. The larger yellow perch have trouble at those temps. They also need a cold period of low enough temps and duration in winter to develop their eggs.

Oops, maybe not as big as Cecil's , but fun just the same.

How big are they Bruce? Look like a good 12 inches? Is this one of your ponds?

I'm in danger! Got to get that pond stocked with the feed trained perch! Got to keep my crown!

Those are 10-11 inchers from my Dad's pond!!!!

You will lose your crown!!!! (in about ten years. )

In a couple years, "THE CROWN" may need to get passed around similar to a traveling trophy. But so far, the crown is firmly located in Ligonier, Indiana.
Just so we all know the rules, is location of "THE CROWN" based on body length or body weight or some sort of weight/length combination?

Did those 11"ers go into the frying pan? I expect to see a photo like that this time next year with 13" YP, but I am not sure the smiles on the anglers can get any bigger.

Yes, we caught 25 of then, of which 17 were kept for frying pan. We ate them this afternoon and it was probably the best fish I've ever had. We also caught two smallies 12 and 15 inches and 5 bluegill between 7.75 and 9.5 inches. Four of the bluegill were in excellent condition, the other one was only fair, and I'm not sure why. All of this out of a .15 acre pond. Awesome fishing.

The BG in only fair condition had probably signed up for weight-watchers. Some of those BG will become back-sliders and fall off the high calorie diet wagon.

If you ate the smallies, I calling B.I.S.A to an alert & action status. Such a call will initiate a search & rescue mission to which violence is a strong possibility.

I swear that we didn't eat the smallies!

The YP Grand Perca Crown may be in Ind. now and may stay or move to Ohio but Bruce has the worlds only confirmed hot tub YP survivors. :p Now it looks like even they could not survive the hot grease.

Bruce, I'm sorry to say that the membership of B.I.S.A. cannot merely accept a public forum statement.

Please send us a notarized statement by 5PM, Monday, 4/16/07.

DISCLAIMER: The current membership of B.I.S.A. (Brothers-In-Smallmouth-Association) consists of myself, Cecil, Kopecky, NEDOC, Shorty, Eric, Cody, (Condello-Probationary Membership ONLY), Dr. D. Willis, and Daisy Fuentes. If you have been named as a B.I.S.A. member and wish to withdraw from membership, simply submit a 5,000,000 word statement on why you think you should not be a card-carrying member. If you wish to be a member of B.I.S.A., you must either love smallmouth bass, or have at least one smallmouth bass in your pond; there is also a small membership fee of $19,985.00, quarterly (sub-disclaimer: it is not relevant that as of yet, no one has of yet paid their membership dues).

Dues are made out to Lusk, right?

Uhh....let me get back to you on that after the next B.I.S.A. enclave/tribunal.

Can I join if I've never had any smallmouths or Daisy in my pond yet? I swear I'd love to.

Got another big perch today! Another one in the 14 inch range on a beemoth fishing for other species. She hadn't dropped her eggs yet. Didn't take a pic as I wanted to move her ASAP to the holding pond, and it was getting dark.

Wind was howling and it was a raw today even though temps have moderated slightly. Yesterday's 3 inches of snow melted quickly.

I have a vet coming out on the 25th to take fish and tissue samples to test for VHS and possibly heterosporis before I sell the big perch to BPS.

I need a minimum of 65 fish from the same pond of several species according to her.

Caught ten today in the awful weather; 2 smallmouth 12 to 14 inches, 5 yellow perch 6 to 10 inches, and 3 bluegill 5 to 8 1/2 inches. I wish all of you were here to help me meet the deadline! I love to fish but I also need to get my taxidermy work done.

They all went into a big 10 X 10 floating cage until she shows up. Hope the smaller fish don't get eaten! I'll have to catch extras just in case.

All the yellow perch I've eaten in Texas tasted just like embalming fluid!

Plain Preserved 5"- 7" Yellow Perch
Item Id: YP0507WP

I don't get it.

The only YP we see in Texas are biology dissection specimens preserved in formaldehyde. .