https://youtu.be/umlQdd1LUIoHungry little guys. This was the third shot and they are still at it.
This year I am really pooring the food to them.
Cheers Don.
I love watching them eat. Mine are finally coming to the feeder, after a year. Now I've got lots of YP tearing up the water as soon as the feeder goes off. Last year I had a handful, and mostly FYM. Now lots of YP, and I figure the HBG also.
Can either of you pick out which splashes are the perch based on how they come to the surface? I have goldfish that take most of the pellets but I think some YP are coming, they just might be too quick for me to see? The gold fish come in slow/steady, slurp, then turn away. I get some aggressive splashes with my eye not able to spot what it is and it seems to match what Dono's video shows. I wonder if that is how YP come in, barrel in at high velocity, slap at it and disappear quickly?
My YP come about straight up to grab a pellet and roll straight down. Pretty quick about it too. I can sometimes tell them by their light colored bellies when they roll. I do have some that will come up 5 feet from me that I can clearly see. The larger ones seem to be more cautious and come up out in deeper water. A lot of mine are feeding now but I expect them to slack off once the water temp gets high enough.
Video by Dono and description by poppy65 are representative of how YP normally feed at the surface. However I have seen (rare) larger YP (9"-11") that are fed 3/16" pellets will resort to slower feeding at the surface and slurp pellets as they pick up several pellets before returning to the bottom. With this slower feeding style, you can distinctly see it is a perch. I have never seen the slow feeding when larger pellets (1/4"-5/16") are used.
Yes there is only yellow perch in our pond. There is 2.5mm mixed with 6mm feed and when there is a bundle of feed stuck together the large guys will just roll at it with no tail flick. The little guys think they need to beat the next to it so they do a good tail flick.
Our perch come up from below in a straight line, almost single-mindedly for surface food. Then they hit the food and dart off in a random direction. usually a tail-fin splash to do this. Sunken pellets are handled whichever way is fastest to get there.
They prefer not to hit the surface in bright light, but prefer sinking pellets. Best time to feed them is just after sundown, or early dawn. Also if you have a dock, they will hit the surface under it where they feel safer.