Pond Boss
Posted By: bcraley Does this YP appear in good body shape? - 04/01/20 05:48 PM
Being new to this, I'm curious if any of you might be able to look at a YP and give me an idea if it appears to be in good relative weight. I need to get a scale for taking weights.

Thanks in advance!

Attached picture YP March2020.jpg
If that is a freshly caught perch it looks okay for this time of year (March) since the fish is probably a skinny spawning male. It does not look to me to have the features of a spawned out female from the current 2020 spawn. That fish body condition in mid summer or fall is too skinny and needs more food to eat.
Posted By: bcraley Re: Does this YP appear in good body shape? - 04/02/20 01:13 PM
Freshly caught as of Sunday of this week.


There appears to still be plenty of FHM available for both the YP and SMB. I also have 2-3 YP ribbons that I can see. Hopefully I'll be able to get some additional forage added in the next couple months.
It your yellow perch were pellet trained fish when you bought them, then consider trying to feed them some good quality high protein (40%+) pellets when the water reaches 55F-60F. I've seen some pellet trained perch not grow well and stay relatively skinny in ponds that have lots of minnows. IMO some but not all YP are often dumb about converting from pellets to natural foods. Consider trying first to buy a smaller amount of pellets from a fish farm to see if your YP will eat pellets before buying a 40 or 50 pound bag. This place in Ohio and others will sell you lesser amounts of high quality fish pellets. Shelby Fish Farm Anna Ohio.
Posted By: bcraley Re: Does this YP appear in good body shape? - 04/06/20 12:22 PM
They do take pellets. I don't have a feeder but we do feed by hand.

I didn't take a picture, but this weekend I caught a 10.5" SMB and his body shape was great (even for my untrained eye), with a deep and wide body. Especially when comparing to the look of the YP.
Posted By: bcraley Re: Does this YP appear in good body shape? - 05/07/20 01:36 AM
Updating, my original post. Since my original post, we've been feeding pellets daily, by hand and having good success with perch taking pellets.

Fished this afternoon with a small jig and caught these fish. They appear to my untrained eye to be in pretty good shape.

I'm assuming these are my original stockers that were stocked at 3-4" last spring.

I need to get better at taking pictures,tape measure doesn't do much good if you can't see it.

Attached picture SMB May2020-1.jpg
Attached picture YP May2020-2.jpg
Attached picture YP May20--1.jpg
Posted By: Snipe Re: Does this YP appear in good body shape? - 05/07/20 04:04 AM
Perch look good to me, Bill is the official Gauge master on those. The SMB doesn't look bad either but it looks like it might be shy of 100 WR but that's not an issue. Things change throughout the year including body condition of fish.
Smallie and perch look in good body condition. Keep adding the pellets and watch to see what is feeding. SMB do learn from the other fish to eat pellets which would be good for your pond.
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