I have a 1 acre pond (about 20 ft deep) in the St. Louis area. I was thinking about adding yellow perch and/or walleye. The pond is currently stocked with BG, RES, CC and LMB. None of the lakes around here have YP, so I was wondering if I was just too far south? We loved catching Yellow Perch and Walleye when we lived up north. Any thoughts?

I think the natural range of yellow perch extends down to South Carolina, so you should be okay.

Just be aware LMB will make it very hard for them to survive and do well. The shape of YP makes them easy for LMB to swallow and YP aren't real strong swimmers.

See FishBase

https://www.fishbase.se/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=359&AT=yellow+perch#


Distribution

North America: Atlantic, Arctic, Great Lakes, and Mississippi River basins from Nova Scotia to Mackenzie River drainage, Northwest Territories in Canada, and south to Ohio, Illinois and Nebraska in the USA; south in Atlantic drainages to Savannah River in Georgia, USA.

adge, you have self supporting walleye populations WAY south of you-straight south in fact.
But keep in mind that WAE, YP or most any species for that matter will do best if stock is obtained from a similar latitude and like climate. The YP of the SE part of the country are very different in tolerance compared to a more northern heritage.

Thanks to everyone!

Hello.
https://myfwc.com/research/freshwater/sport-fishes/yellow-perch/florida/

A+

My pond is just south of I-70 halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City.

I stocked YP last fall.

I'm hoping to see ribbons in the next few weeks...

Good luck Augie! Send some pics up here if you do, please.

ribbon countdown!! YES!!! my favorite part of year! There is a good thread where everyone reports their first ribbon sighting, along with date, time, portion of pond (S, SW, etc), and water temp if you can report that.

Based on my records in MI I'm about 4 weeks away, but we have had a mild winter, if that has anything to do with it. Photoperiod may have something to do with it since the first ribbon sighting has been so consistent for me over the past 5-6 years. It seems that ice out is also a trigger as it can move up the ribbon laying at our place.

Do you have any ice, Augie?? What's your current Water temp?

As others have said, you're not too far south. I'm in TN and have yp and we in a much smaller and shallower pond than yours and the yp have done well in the year that I've had them so far. I actually caught one that was full of eggs last weekend so we'll see if I'll have ribbons showing up soon. My we I just stocked this past fall so we'll see how they do through the summer

No ice right now. Air temps here bounced up and down all winter. We didn't have any sustained bitter cold. Three weeks of ice late Jan/early Feb was the longest period of coverage.

I busted about half-inch ice last Saturday morning so I could drop a minnow trap in but it was all melted by noon. Caught a couple hundred FHM and a dozen or three GSH that I transferred to a cage so I'm set for crappie fishing this weekend. Last two weeks there have been huge clouds of minnows cruising around in the shallow water near the bank. I've had the urge a few times to toss a line just to see if anybody's hungry, but so far have been able to resist.

Water temp this afternoon was 41.7F from the top down to ~4' off the deep end of the dock. I bought the parts to install shallow air around the dock but never got it done. I haven't started the deep air yet. Thinking it's still a couple or three weeks early to do that.

10-12 days I'll bet you've got a ribbon or 2 Augie. Our latitude is pretty close but you're east enough it'll be earlier than what I see.
Have you got some shallow limbs set out in 1-2' water?
I KNOW you have some females that are going to blow ribbons..

Edit: I think I'd wait until 55-60 before starting deep roll.. Maybe someone else will chime in on that.

I have a veritable mountain of cedar limbs for them to choose from. The whole north side is nothing but cedars, and there's a line of them standing up along a steep dropoff that extends from the north bank to the middle of the pond.

This weekend I may toss a few in along the east bank where it gets more sun. The minnows like the sunny side so that ought to be a good spot to make babies.