Originally posted by Dave Davidson:
Cecil, I've been following your quest to raise larger fish for some time. One giant of any species can be a freak and lucky catch. However, you are doing it consistently on various varieties. You mentioned the brook trout and now the yellow perch. Congratulations!
But how are you doing it? We are taught that it takes the right genes, the right environment and a plentiful food supply to grow giants of any species. Oh yeah, that specific fish with the right genes had to somehow be one of the very, very few fry that didn't get eaten or die of illness or(?). Thats usually luck. Wildlife breeders work very hard and keep careful, detailed records in their quest to grow big deer, bass, elk, etc. I even heard of one guy that is using selective breeding to grow the ultimate fighting chicken. Had you done it only once I would say you got lucky. But, a larger one may be in your ponds. You aren't a breeder or the fish wouldn't have gone on ice. Therefore you are doing the right things with food and/or environment. When you come back down to Earth would you please take a moment to reflect and tell us how you are doing what we can't do?
Again, Congratulations!
Dave
Dave,
Here are some factors that could be instrumental in the large size and apparently fast growth of these yellow perch in the pond. Please be aware I am in no way an expert, but I am learning and having fun in the process. These are my educated guesses.
1.) The fish planted are primarily females, therefore there is very limited reproduction that leads to intraspecies competition for a food source. With an extremely large bass population in the pond of feed trained bass( I harvested over 100 bass over 2 pounds up to 4 pounds last year from this .62 acre pond and i planted 300 8 to 10 inch bass this fall),and whatever bass offspring that survive that are not feed trained, whatever reproduction there is of yellow perch, is for the most part consumed. I'm sure the perch eat their fare share of whatever young are produced too. I do know my feed trained bass will eat live fish if given the chance although they are quite lazy. (Welfare cases
)
2.) Female fish grow faster and reach a ultimate larger size than males, and this is not entirely due to their egg mass which can be up to 20 percent of their body weight. However, this egg mass that develops in winter and peaks in weight just before spawning is obviously a factor in the ultimate weight of these large fish.
3.)The fish that I purchase already have an accelerated growth rate due to intensive feeding in an earthen pond. Fish I purchase now in spring are 8.5 to 9.5 inches in length at 2 years of age which is several years ahead of any of their wild counterparts. So these fish have a head start on growth which is something Bill Cody believes is important for the ultimate maximum size potential of a fish in it's life span. However, there could be a downside to this. The fish could have a shorter life span.
4.) This pond is quite fertile due to the feeding of my largemouth bass, and an overflow of nutrient rich water from my trout pond that typically has the equivilent of 5000 pounds per acre of trout upon harvest time (hook and line too). Seechi dish phytoplankton reading in summer is around 12 to 18 inches at times.
5.) This pond probably doesn't get as warm as it could in summer due to the overflow from the trout pond, which may be more conducive to growth of a coolwater fish such as a yellow perch. In the past I was under the impression that the cooling is insignificant but I'm not so sure now. Before the trout pond overflow I had ponds temps in the upper 80's briefly during really hot weather. I'm thinking ponds temps now peak in the upper 70's.
6.) I don't get a lot of survival of the YOY largemouths and bluegill due to a lack of structure and weedgrowth for them to hide in and some of these fish could be being cropped off by the perch.
7.) I think these perch may be occupying a niche that the other fish aren't utilizing as in the deepest water of the pond near bottom.
8.) I aerate and mix the pond well with four diffusers, two at equidistances in the center of the pond that producer a very good boil and two between four floating cages next to my 70 foot pier that send moving water through the cages but also help to mix the water column.I believe the entire water column is being utilized by fish as I have caught fish near bottom in the peak of the summer. One interesting quirk of this pond I believe due to a lack of structure is I have capture YOY perch and bluegills in the deepest water near bottom where there is some occasional Chara. This could obviously contribute to the diet of these bottom dwelling perch. On the other hand maybe the primarily pellet trained bass are not utilizing fish that much which leaves them to the perch?
9.) The strain of yellow perch that I plant are a Lake Erie strain which is a big lake perch that may have a propensity to reach large size.
10.) I am only now keeping perch that I harvest and have left them unexploited in the past.
11.) I have had a incredibly prolific amount of snails in the pond in the past although they seemed to have disappeared from shallow water this late summer. I do think the perch are utilizing the snails as the 2 lb. 1/2 ounce perch I caught recently passed a snail shell. I do recall the new world record redear from the canal that joins Santee Cooper reservoir may have gotten that big according to authorities by eating some kind of snail.
As far as growing big trout that's a no brainer compared to other species. As long as you can keep the environmental conditions optimal and you feed them what they want you can grow them to a larger size. and my trout are not in moving water so they expend less energy.
Also the brook trout I have now that I have no doubt will break the state record this fall, will do so because the state record is so small. A natural feed trout typicall can't compete with a hand fed trout. I have the added benefit in that the particular strain I have holds the world record and they have a longer lifespan then typical eastern brook trout.
Not sure if I can break the brown and rainbow state record though as I am competing with well fed Great Lakes fish although the world record out of the Red River in Arkansas has me wondering.
One more comment; I don't see many perch feeding on pellets when I feed my bass. The bass are very dominant and push any other fish out of the way. However there could be perch feeding on the outskirts and after the bass have had their fill.
