I knew it was getting close to that time of the year for YP to spawn but didn't realize just how close until I looked up the thread from last year. I stocked some last spring and hope they will spawn this year. I want to start putting in some branches for them to spawn in and was wondering if they would be more likely to spawn on the warmer side or cooler side of the pond first? How deep do you want to put them ect.... I have LMB in the pond so I know they can use all the help they can get.

For YP spawning on what shoreline is unpredictable. It is IMO pretty much pond specific. Put a couple branches on each shoreline and the YP will tell you which shore they prefer in your pond as the eggs will show up there first. Once the YP tell you which shore they like best, it will be consistent going forward. My YP prefer the east shore and somewhat use the south and west shore, and avoid the north shore. Branches that I use are saplings around 5ft to 7ft long. Some guys place whole tree tops in the pond and let them in place year round. Place the branch butts on the shore with the other twiggy ends in the water 12" - 2ft deep depending on the shore slope. I usually place a piece of thin concrete or clay tile on the branch butt to hold it securely in place. To get recruitment with LMB in the pond you will need lots or even extensive amounts of habitat structure cover. LMbass will eat slender bodied YP until they are 8"-9" long which may take 2 to 3 years depending on how fast you can get your perch to grow. Remember male YP grow slower than females. Two to 4 years is a long time to avoid getting eaten by an aggressive BIG MOUTHED predator. Good luck.

Thanks for the info Bill. I knew when I stocked them that the original stockers might be the only ones to have a chance. I stocked them at the same time as the LMB and I think most of them was as big or bigger than the LMB, so I think at least some of them have a good chance. I figure this year will probably be the best chance of any recruitment since I still had a fair amount of FHM last fall and before the LMB start growing in numbers.

Would cedar branches be good?

Does anyone have a guess when we'll start seeing ribbons in mid east Missouri?

Start looking for YP eggs when the water stays 48F during the day. As far as my experience any type of branch like material will work. I use a few evergreen branches that get egg ribbons, although most of my branches are twiggy small dogwood trees. Some members have seen the ribbons inside fish traps. I am not sure of the laying process but I surmise the ribbon as it works its way out of the vent, dangling, as it is fertilized, then as it is fully extruded, it is draped over some structure or it falls to the bottom in a clump. The ribbon is pretty elastic but can be torn especially as it is lifted from the water.

To get decent YP recruitment with LMB, I think one should remove all the bass possible. Some ponds I deal with that remove lots of bass have success. Then when you see numerous small perch showing up in catches or traps then reduce the number of bass annually being removed. This means you should be keeping a record of how many LMB are removed each year. Also noting the sizes removed will eventually be helpful.

The other option for helping YP survive to harvestable sizes is to have a lot of pond area (25%-30%) or more of weedy habitat. Most pond owners will not tolerate this many pond weeds. You might be fortunate enough to combine some forms of the two above methods and remove just fair numbers of bass but not all you catch combined with having some lesser amount of weed cover. Numbers of bass to be removed will be dependent on each different conditions in each pond and amount of cover. YP need good cover with BIG mouthed bass are present. You can't put a mouse in a bathtub with a cat and expect the mouse to survive. In the correct combination the two bass removal and weed methods could work. Small YP are also very vulnerable to predation by catfish who eat YP at night when YP rest on the bottom.

YP populations with males present are prolific. If you have egg laying and are not regularly seeing young or juvenile YP each fall or spring then you need to remove more predators or have more weeds / cover if the goal is to have decent numbers of YP as panfish.

Bill, thanks again for all the information! My main goal with the YP was just to have something different to catch now and then. I've never had YP before so not sure how much I'll like having them, but I thought the pictures of them I was seeing on here looked cool and they sounded good. Lol! If I like them then I'll try harder to keep them.

Bobbss - as those YP age keep us updated as to how well they are doing. I think you will really like how they perform as a dandy panfish. If they are pellet eaters expect them to in 3 yrs after stocking the larger stocked ones to grow to 13" and maybe some 14" -15"long.

Thanks Bill, I will. I do see several of them come up to feed on the pellets. Some of them don't look like they grown a lot (probably the males) and some look like they're doing real well ( probably the females). I think some of them might of been well over 8" last fall.

With so many sporting events being disrupted during 2020, I have now found myself rooting strongly for people's projects on Pond Boss.

Reading Bob's spawning post made me think of 1950's football cheerleaders yelling for his Yellow Perch:

Two, four, six, eight;
Get out there and procreate!

Off topic - do you guys think "cabin fever" is a real malady?

Best wishes,
Rod

3/1/21 45° F surface temps in my pond. I expect that your pond is pretty close to the same.
Another week of mild weather should have them blowing ribbons.

Augie I read your other post, I'm just a couple of days behind you as far as ice out so I should be close to the same. I went over yesterday and put in some branches and hope to do some more today. From what I can see it looks like the weather is going to be staying mild. My pond is pretty cloudy right now so I may not know if I get any ribbons.

I had cloudy water last spring. Never did see any ribbons, but I know they were there because I caught a few YoY YP in my traps late last summer.
My water looks a little better this spring, so if we don't get a toad strangler rain over the next week or so I should be able to see the ribbons.

So far I've had just enough rain to keep things cloudy but not enough to bring the pond up much. I plan on using my traps more this year to see what all is going on in the pond. Hopefully I'll find some little YP in a trap later in the year.

FishinRod

If you send any cheerleaders over to cheer my fish on, try not to send the same ones from the 1950's!

So far I've put in about 10 clumps of branches and hope to get a few more today or tomorrow.

Has anyone out there seen ribbons yet?

"If you send any cheerleaders over to cheer my fish on, try not to send the same ones from the 1950's!"

I am pretty sure I have the EXACT same level of influence over modern cheerleaders as I do over cheerleaders from the 1950's!

When you see ribbons, record the length of day along with temp. I think you'll find the photo period has more to do with timing than temp does.

I doubt that I will see any in the ponds around here. They are so low water level wise that all the spawning habitat is above the water line now.

I wasn't sure what my water level was going to be so I waited to put branches in. I hope they didn't need to be in longer for the fish to get to know them.

Due to the lack of rainfall and lack of snow this year, my pond is down between 6 and 7 vertical feet, as are most ponds around here. last year once June hit the rainfall faucet was shut off.

esshup,

With your "good" spawning habitat above the water line, will the YP not be able to have a successful spawn? Or will nature find a way, and they will utilize whatever they can find available at the existing pond level?

If they are not capable of pulling off a successful spawn, would deliberately drawing down a pond with a stunted YP population to skip one year class be another tool that we could employ in pond management?

My pond just before noon today: 47.7° F surface temp, 42.8° F @ 8'

Visibility is ~4', so I should be able to see ribbons when they start.

Thats great! I think I'm lucky if I have 12" right now.

Augie,

Do you like your thermometer?

If so, could you list your make & model?

Thanks,
Rod

I believe that it won't stop the YP from spawning, but their skeins will have to be laid on the pond bottom where they have a much higher chance of being covered with silt. Drawing down the pond will also concentrate the smaller fish in with the predator fish, and if there is no fish habitat for them to hide in, the predation rate will go up

esshup,

An interesting reply as regards ruining some eggs AND concentrating the small fish for a predator feeding frenzy.

Could that work on a diabolically difficult crappie pond? The usual drawback is too much fecundity and too many little fish.

I don't think it will work as well for crappie because of their spawning and YOY fish habits, but it would work for BG, not for the eggs, but for YOY fish.

Thanks esshup. One more potential tool to add to the pond management toolbox!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M9T7ZF8?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

The only complaint I have with it is that it's very slow to update the display.
I expected the probe wire wasn't going to last very long, but I treat it gently and after a year and a half of use it still works great.
Haven't even needed to change the battery.

That looks like it would be perfect.

Thanks for the thermometer link Augie!

I trust one person I "know" on Pond Boss more than I trust a thousand bots in a seller's reviews listings.

Water temps are rising very quickly with this warm weather we've been experiencing.

3/6/21: 47.7° F surface temp, 42.8° F @ 8'

3/8/21: 53.7° F surface temp, 43.9° F @ 8'

All species are now in full attack mode when the Optimal pellets hit water.

I still don't have full attack when I throw out the Optimal. I'm getting more and more takers but it usually takes a few minutes or more to get them going. My water is pretty cloudy so I'm not sure if the YP are coming up or not. I have seen a few LMB near the surface.

Augie, you're close...real close.

Yep, and naturally, there's a cold front moving in. We're about to drop 20° air temp and get a bunch of rain.

I'm hoping to do a bit of hook-n-line sampling after work today. I put a holding cage in the pond Sunday afternoon. Just in case...

Had a lot more activity when I fed today. Some of them hit immediately and then more kept joining in. Now we've got rain coming in so it will probably slow back down. My pond needs the water so I won't complain to much. Lol!
I still haven't seen any ribbons and the rain will probably make it harder to see them if I get some. If we get a lot of rain I may need to add more branches.

Sharing the link that was just like this from last year.
You will see what locations had ribbons on what date. When I review the reports it isn't clear to me if it is water temp or air temps, or date of ice out or location in the pond that controls it. It has been suggested that amount of sunlight per day (photoperiod) is the thing that determines it but we don't have data on that for each location.

I guess pondmeisters this year could google their exact location and figure out the photoperiod on the days leading up to and on the day they see the first ribbon?

Looking at this link it appears that my first ribbon was on the 14th or 15th of march and I posted on the 16th. That means I could be 4 or 5 days away from ribbons? I would be shocked if that happens this year as we still have ice floating and water is so low that the usual beds of leaves that YP like to leave their eggs on are all high and dry. I probably should collect some dead fall branches and lay them in for them this year, or fire up my house well and try to pump the water levels up.

here was last year's post:
Yellow Perch ribbons 2020

Thanks for adding the link Canyoncreek. I've gone back and looked at that a few times so that will make it easier. Going by last year someone should be seeing some soon.

Last year we stocked our new pond on 3/26/20 with perch. On 4/5/20 we ribbons in the rocks around the edges. I didn’t think they was big enough to spawn but apparently there was a couple the right size.

Where there's a will, there's a way!

52.9° F surface temp, 45.3° F @ 8' in my pond this morning.

I haven't spotted any ribbons, but there's a lot of tangle in there that can't be seen without putting the boat in.

Augie, I don't know where you are in boone county, but picking Columbia as the middle of that county, your sunrise is 6:24am and sunset 6:13am so you are just under 12 hours photo period. It seemed to me that at least for us northern folk that we needed about 12 hours and 15 min or so to get egg strands. Someone with spare time could look at the 2020 thread and see what dates each person had and look up sunrise and sunset for that locale to double check if daylight hours is the real trigger.

Your water temps should be plenty warm

That extra hour of sunlight we are going to gain on Sunday should really get the YP spawn going.

That would be spot-on for my place. I'm five miles east of the US63/I-70 connector in Columbia.

I was at Wally World today so I picked up a very cheap pool thermometer. I don't know how accurate it is but it said the temp was 58° F at about 6". Way warmer than I thought.

We went from them saying Tuesday night 2"4" of rain by tonight to the last I heard last night was maybe another .15" tonight on top of the .60" I got yesterday. We still have some chances over the next few days but it doesn't look like I'll be seeing nearly as much as I thought a few days ago.

Daylight savings time doesn't affect how much sunlight we get per day, it'll just move the sunrise and sunset ahead by an hour.

I believe it was a joke. Lol!

Steve,

It is not just any day that a guy gets an opportunity to make a "photoperiod" joke.

Let's just say that my kids got me a daily "Dad Joke" calendar for Christmas.

(Obviously, they know me pretty well. However, they have decided that the jokes in the calendar are EVEN WORSE than my jokes!)

Interesting...
3/12am had this: 52.9° F surface temp, 45.3° F @ 8'
Then we got ~6/10" rainfaill.
3/13am had this: 51.8° F surface temp, 48.2° F @ 8'

The drop in surface temp I expected. +3° F @ 8' in 24hrs leaves me befuddled.

More rain and quite a bit of wind over the last two days. Water is fairly stained now.
Still have not seen any ribbons, but I haven't put the boat in to do a serious search.

I think the rain may have helped turn over your surface water with some of the deeper water. (Or the gusty winds during the storm did it?)

Either way, thanks for posting your data points. Very helpful.

Just went for a walk around my pond. I have the first YP ribbons on sunken Christmas trees. Today was the first day since Friday that I walked... so I'm guessing they dropped them either Saturday or Sunday. We had nice warm sunny weather in the low 50's the past two days. Central Ohio. Didn't get a water temp.

DING DING DING
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
the first PB YP Ribbon winner!!

Let the fun begin!

BCRaley - if you can, google your sunrise and sunset say for yesterday or today and calculate the total amount of time elapsed. We can see if those south of you also will get ribbons or if your momma perch are just anxious to let loose on those eggs early!

My photoperiod today is still 5 minutes shy of 12 hours.

Looks like your the winner with the first reported sighting! If your seeing them there, then I would think I could be seeing some or at least have some now. But it has been cloudy and rainy around here most of the time for 6 days or so. I thought I was going to see some good rain over that time but not so. I think I've had some sprinkles everyday but It don't even add up to 1".

PS
I had walked away from my computer while typing this and I didn't see that Canyoncreek had already RANG THE BELL! lol!

I still believe photo period at peak spawn will be 12+ 10-15. I also believe normal spawning begins at near 11;45+ 10-15.
With WAE (very close cousin) this is very predictable. Temp can cause the peak to vary a few days either way but generally temp only affects hatch time-in general-not saying this is absolute on YP.
Glad someone is seeing ribbons.. mine have been a few days earlier than today and my water temp is "normal".
11:55 today

This seems to be one of the PB threads that receives many, many data points every year!

I have a rookie question for the people that watch the YP spawn so closely. How much does severe, sustained cloudiness affect the spawn?

If photo period was the only controlling variable, then the YP spawn would occur on the same date every year. Let's call this the "astronomical photo period". For periods where clouds decrease the amount of sunlight perceived by the YP, let's call this the "effective photo period".

Do you experts think the controls on the YP spawn are:

Astronomical photo period > effective photo period > water temperature?

OR

Astronomical photo period > water temperature > effective photo period?

As of today I have 11 hours 57 minutes of sunlight from sunrise to sunset.

The ribbons are on the east bank near the southeast corner. We had a good north wind with sun yesterday so it would have been blowing warm water to that corner of the pond.

Attached a pic... not easy to see but best I could do given the cloud cover today.

I put some cedar branches in 2 weeks ago. Checked them
Every couple days. Yesterday they was loaded up with ribbons.

What does Ohio have that the rest of us don't? Besides YP ribbons. lol!

It might be the water quality? BCRaley has beautiful green/aqua water in his picture.
I need to put some structure out if there are no ribbons today. Had a cold wind last 2 days, but sunny again today so any place where there are oak leaves on the bottom in the shallows they tend to choose these spots. Probably having a warm bed to place the eggs gets them in the mood..

Didn't get a chance to walk around yesterday, but tonight, after supper took a look and, WE HAVE RIBBONS!!
last year ribbons spotted on 3-16 (probably were there on 3-15). Today spotted on 3-17 but probably happened last night so within a DAY of last year.

This year weather is a bit colder, water level is WAY down (3 feet by now), and I did an early rake of the shallows so very few leaves left on the bottom. I didn't have any branches in.

Also strange that this year they are on the east/SE side of the pond in 3 locations. Some very nice large strands probably from my larger size females.

I put a bunch of sticks out now on the south side, we'll see how many more we can get. We have a unusually cold and windy spell coming in the next 2 days but no more freezing planned. Maybe the wind will give some natural water flow over the eggs. Hopefully conditions will be good for a successful fry event. Would like to really boost the young perch population naturally. Many more SFS than last year, not sure if they will eat the swimming fry or not. My GSH seem to be gone, can't seem to catch any anymore (original stockers would have to be 7 years old by now!)

Wow, great! My pond is so cloudy I probably won't be able to see them if I get them.

Good to hear CC.. still nothing visible here.

Collected 7 yellow perch ribbons this afternoon Mar 17 in NW Ohio, 35 miles south of Michigan state line. I did not look yesterday but maybe I had a couple ribbons March 16.. Water temp was 51F 12" deep, temp on bottom 12" deep 52F. Temp 6ft deep 46.5F.

So, around 11:59 on photoperiod Bill?

Same here Bobbss. We've gotten a ridiculous amount of rain over the past week.

Missouri River at Jefferson City has risen from ~6' to just shy of 27' in the last six days.

Augie, all the bigger rain has missed me, I think it has rained a little everyday here for the last week but until yesterday morning it all added up to only about 1.25". Not enough to bring the pond up but enough to muddy things more. Since yesterday morning I've got about 1.85", that should bring things up a bit but it will make it even more muddy. I think we might get some sun tomorrow so maybe that will help with the spawn.

It is definitely going to be harder for me to see anything now. The pond came up about 20" since yesterday and still had water running in. So my branches I put in are under even more muddy water. Hopefully not too deep now. Since my pond was low, there is now a lot of grass/weeds under water that maybe they'll use?

Finally experienced some good things at the pond..perch ribbon sighting today! Our first ever!! And after a winter kill no less. Water temp is 46°.

I haven't seen a ribbon yet this spring, but from the looks of this little piggy it won't be long.

That might be the fattest little fish I've seen!

She's not going to release an egg ribbon.

Instead, it looks like she is ready to birth fifty 2" fingerlings directly into the pond!

I'd "like" to say that's great genetics Augie... :-))

And zero ribbons for Snipe so far..

Happy that some good news is coming from your pond Dr. Luke!
it amazes me that YP get a bad rap. 'they will only work in a sandy bottom pond', 'they will only work in a cold water pond', 'they will only work in a pond that is at least 16' deep', 'they will only feed in low light conditions' --- Hogwash!

YP are the energizer bunny and have many advantages
-apparently they can resist winter kill conditions better than your panfish
-they weren't fussy with the makeup of your pond bottom (or mine)
-they pellet train fairly easily
-they eat in any light condition in my pond
-they don't seem to get hook shy
-They eat snails and crayfish, both a plus for many people
-probably one of the better tasting fish in northern ponds!
-lay eggs faithfully regardless of whether the bottom structure, or temps, or daylight time, or whether the water levels are quite different from the year before

A great all around fish...

There's no escaping genetics, good or bad. I remind the wife of that every time she makes a comment about my gut.

One of the fingerlings from the 9/19 stocking, or one of the 6" size from the 11/19 stocking?

4"-11" in 18 months? I think that's likely. They are not suffering from a lack of groceries.

Saturday afternoon Z-trap dunk came up with half a dozen 4"-5" size. Had to be from last spring's spawn. ;-)

I still haven't seen any YP ribbons but I did see some type of small egg sacks in my sediment pond. Does anyone know what they might be, I thought it was early for frogs?

Could be peeper frogs. Had one drown in my Z-trap yesterday.

I've been seeing different types of frogs for a while so maybe it is. I just thought it was early for eggs but was just guessing. I seen my first snake of the year a few days ago so maybe it isn't as early as I keep thinking. Lol!

What a fatty! Beautiful fish there Augie.

I’m in NE Kansas on MO border. I stocked 300 YP last fall in the 5-9 inch range. My water surface temp today using an infrared thermometer is 54 degrees. Loads of brush in the water, but so far I haven’t found any ribbons. The crappie are currently spawning.

Yikes, I may have too MANY RIBBONS! I walked around today again and there must be 20-30 more. I bet there are 40 strands of all different sizes. I was planning to not artificially remove strands this year and see if i can restock but this might be interesting!

Can you have too many baby perch?

How can I tell how viable the eggs in the ribbons are? When they turn bright white does that mean the embryo is gone and now is a fry?

if my large spotfins eat YP fry then they will not be short of food in the coming weeks.

water has been pretty still with nice sunny days, but we have cold, high wind, cold rain and maybe a little snow flurries coming this weekend so I don't know if that helps the fry survive or not.

Water is very clear so I'm also not sure what the fry will live on.

Has this been a banner year of YP ribbons for anyone else?

Too many baby perch is the same as too many small BG. Over crowding, Food shortage and Poor growth.

Viable developing eggs will darken in color within a few days of hatching.

Bright white individual eggs means the egg was not fertilized and egg is in early stages of decomposition.

Don't count on the large spotfins to eat very many fry.

Research from South Dakota State Univ. Dr Willis indicated colder water temps after egg laying did not significantly reduce hatching.

Clear water, depends on how clear, means proportionally reduced zooplankton density and lack of fry food.

Your spawning results indicates you should be harvesting adult perch. A small pond really only needs one or two fully hatched egg ribbons to replace annual natural adult mortality.

Thanks for the reply Dr. Perca!

I'm very happy to harvest perch and enjoy a good Saturday afternoon fish fry some day soon.

I probably do have too many adult perch. I have no way of knowing for sure as I tend to catch a few of the largest female pellet hogs over and over. I stocked 100, 2 years ago I caught and gave away about 25 of the biggest perch to help another pondmeister stock his pond. The last 3 springs i have had maybe 10-12 ribbons, but I removed as many as I could easily get to. The ones in the deep I left alone.

I decided to see what would happen if I left all the ribbons in this time. I'm wondering if YP young can become forage for Walleye? Or will Walleye prefer the spotfins? I have no other panfish and few if any GSH left. I have zero FHM. I don't think any of the scuds or ghost shrimp survived. So when I establish my predator I have to think about whether they can live on YP and SFS as that is the only 2 species I seem to have left in the pond right now.

Can't catch crayfish in traps last fall or this spring so it seems there may be no crayfish left either.

Thinking of setting up underwater gopro or build a fyke net to better sample my population. With hook and corn or hook and worm I can only catch large YP, SFS, or one of the few fat and lazy goldfish left (down to about a small school of about 20)

WAE will HAMMER YP... they spend a lot of time in similar parts of the water column at the same time. Where both are present in number walleye are known heavy predators of YP.

Awesome snipe, that is good news. I look forward to my experiment. I don't mind if the result goes way wrong one way or the other. Even though it sounds like it will be tough for walleye to survive in my little puddle without all the proper depth, water flow and rocky bottom conditions, then at least they will have a huge supply of food to give them something to chase around. I have no idea how to sample them except to try to fish for them later this year.

If they don't do well or are dead already then I'll have boatloads of YP and by summer I'll see shallows full of 2-3" yearling perch. I'll know it is time to harvest many adult perch and then consider a new apex predator (my next choice would be SMB as they would also likely be a non-reproducing apex predator)

I'm hoping I don't have a over-capacity crash, but if it did happen, I would probably pump down, let it dry out and properly excavate to a proper depth and attempt a better seal on the groundwater veins in the bottom and then enjoy the process of rebuilding the forage base from scratch.

Good population control of small YP has happened in our local NW Ohio ponds using WE, SMB and or HSB. One has to remember to use the right size predator(mouth gape) when stocking predators post YP hatch success. Predation or manual thinning for yellow perch should really be in place when the spawn happens or shortly thereafter.

Five years ago, I had many many ribbons. I see fewer and fewer every year. I think I saw two last year. I’m not sure what has happened to all my YP. No ribbons this year. My SMB have hit the 19” range, and seem to go after anything. Plus my HBG are pretty much out of control, with lots of every size in my BOW. I wish I’d never stocked them. I think both are hammering my YP, but I’m sure not certain. I added 20 HSB last fall to help with HBG, but they will take some YP also, I would guess.
Good to check in here again. CC, I’m glad you are seeing some ribbons!

SetterGuy I think your lack of seeing fewer ribbons indicates proportionally fewer and fewer female perch. If you want more perch you could stock more adult perch that avoid predation. The current fish community is likely limiting recruitment of YP. An option is to aggressively remove HBG and replace them with a ratio of 1 YP to every 2 HBG removed. I am concluding that adult stocked feed trained YP do live much longer than 4 to 6 years due to the nutrition of pellets - maybe too much carbohydrates.

Hello.

I have no more ice, the water is at 38F.
I started to put the branches, the big Yellow-perch come closer to the edge.

I tried different colors to look at the Yellow-perch without scaring them away.
Red, green and blue, but it is the green color which give me the best results, with the green color I see better and further.

A+

SetterGuy great to hear an update from you too! So you did restock the HSB!! Great. Now hopefully this year they will put on a couple of pounds and start hitting your lures like a freightliner..

I agree with you, the HBG that goes in every northern pond package is really a bad deal for most pond owners. Nearly impossible to keep them balanced, they revert to GSF and then everything goes askew. Not sure you can catch them all out either. Maybe there is a way to disrupt their spawning beds?

I'd have to believe your large adult YP that are 5-6 years old are safe from being eaten. But if they are somehow aged out due to nutrition or something then you would be best to find some adult replacement ones if you can.

Do you still have your feeder going during the warm months?

12:26 daylight 47 degs and nothing to report here. Kinda blows my 12+10-15 out of the water..lol.
I might add that we started WAE Egg-take on the 17th and it's winding down, as-in 20-30 males and mostly spent females in the 70-100 range. Usually the males start to disappear right at the end and this am's catch was a big drop.

I do have the feeder running just for a few seconds in the afternoon now. Will switch to morning and longer when it gets warmer. Grandkids at the pond this week for spring break. They caught about 40 HBG RES crosses. None returned to pond. One SMB, returned. And one YP adult female, returned. And I spoke too early in regards to YP ribbons. Found two yesterday. Ha! Always find them on the dam which is the north end of our pond and gets the most direct sun.

I’m really hoping the HSB survived. I stocked 40 YP also. One of the ribbons from yesterday is very tiny. It may have been from one of the recent stockers.
My son in law may have trained our SMB to quit going after a hooked and struggling GSH. He could t get a bite on a SMB all week.

Snipe, I bet you will see skeins when water temp hits 50-51 degrees.

I hope you're right, esshup.. Had a buddy I let fish today that caught a 12" YP, he said looked like something was wrong with it.. I asked why and he said it looked like it was about to explode for some reason. At least I know it should be close.. Maybe tonight under the moon. surface was 52 when feeder went off tonight after a full day of 77 degs.
I was tossing some Jr. to the shinners at the edge of dock when a SMB came out from under and blew up.. needless to say it warranted a panty change for me.

Still haven't seen any ribbons in my pond. A new batch of muskrats moved in so the water is a bit on the muddy side right now.

Yep, it's about time that Momma kicks the teenagers out of the house.

She should have chosen a better neighborhood. This one is about to experience a Friday night in Detroit level of violence. lol

Yellow perch eggs spotted today. 12 hours 29 minutes of daylight.
Heppy

https://imgur.com/gallery/wQwVREV

On the topic of last year's spawn, I've noticed something over the past week that has my curiosity up.

I've been catching two sizes of YP in the mini Z trap. One size is ranging 4"-5", and I assume is from 2020 spring spawn.
I'm catching another size that are cookie cutter 3".

Is it possible for YP to have a 2nd spawn in the fall?

Is it possible the 4"-5" are female and the 3" male?

Greg, I went through something similar at my initial stocking and we proved by otolith the age was indeed such that it was a very "odd" reproductive time, but I believe ewest was right when he said mother nature is trying to fill a void..
I would say the 3" is in large portion, 2020 hatch. Cody might be able to better determine that.

I suppose it's possible, but there is a dramatic difference in overall size between the two.

The 3" size are about the same bulk as a fathead minnow. They aren't skinny and poor like you see the YoY looking in August. They are nicely filled out.
The 4"-5" size are thick like a $20 cigar. I'll get some pics and report back.

52°F water temp here. That will drop later this week, predicted high Thursday of 36, low of 20.

55 this am after a whopping 86 degs yesterday... 43 right now outside headed down to teens so I feel your pain sir.

Hate posting with iPhone but first ribbon (s).. At pond now, 53 surface temp and I can verify 2 fairly large ribbons strung out through my tumble weed structures.
About 12:27 photo period if I use yesterday’s data.

in the early spring if you are seeing 3" to 5" small yellow perch those are almost always YP from the prior year spawn. A lot of those 2.7"- 3" are likely males although some could be slower growing females. The 4"-5" could be mixed males and females; that year class could easily have some larger individuals 6"-7". I've seen some 4" YP with eggs at one year old.

I took a couple ribbons and put them in a fish tank with a bubble stone back on 3/19/21 just to see if anything would come of it since there seemed to be a quite a few ribbons in the pond.











Something seemed to happen along the way.

Finally spotted a ribbon.
Photo period for 3/29 was 12:32:13.
57.2° F surface temp, 47.3° F @ 8'.

Here's an example of what I've been trapping this spring.

WOW WOW!!! JIMS SVT that is so awesome to see. What clear pictures and the blue background really helps.

Bill C, or someone else can you explain what we are seeing in those pictures? The black spots in the 3rd picture are all eyes forming? I can't see I can see that in my pond but the water clarity isn't that great. I need to study my egg strands and see if I can expect swimming YOY yet!!

Jim what day would you say you saw the formed fish in the eggs yet? 3-19 they went in the aquarium so was it a week later you think?

Looking back we reported ribbons on the same day so then in theory my eggs should have hatched and little YP should be swimming all over in the pond right now !!

Canyoncreek...I was checking in them everyday and never noticed anything till yesterday. So I must’ve missed a day or two of checking on them. They must be in different stages a
Couple days apart but the looks of some in eggs with just eyes, some formed and some swimming. I looked back and they started laying ribbons on 3/16/21. I put them in the tank on 3/19.

These threads make me want to kill my pond off and do nothing but smb, yp, hsb and we lol

How cool, great pictures.

Yes, if I was a biologist and getting into pond management here in MI I would turn everything upside down and try to guide all my clients to never put LMB or Bluegill or any type in their pond. If they want to catch hundreds of stunted LMB and bluegill then there are dozens of lakes all around 'managed' by the DNR that offer that opportunity. Why would you build those some conditions on your own dime in your backyard? I read on the forum that the only way to really manage LMB in these circumstances is to cull LMB like mad until you are culling 15 and 16" sizes to really get trophy results. Here in MI you can't even cull a 12 or 13" bass in a public BOW without breaking the law. So lakes are full of skinny 11-12" LMB

There are plenty of cold water forage options and YP, WE, SMB, chain pickerel, NP make great cold water pond predators. Outside of the YP, the other predators all naturally control their own population by not finding it preferable to reproduce in the average size northern territory pond. The YP happily reproduce and the above mentioned predators are really fond of eating the young YP too.

RES don't overwinter well this far north but again, if I could be a pond manager/fish truck driver, I could replace the panfish void perhaps with a hearty hybrid of RES or could try to create my own sustaining population of pumpkinseed for stocking.

But yes YP are a very hearty, vigorous, pellet eating all purpose predator and forage type fish. They control my smaller snails and insects and are always ready to bite the kids hooks. This year we may have a real nice YP dinner too.

Jim I'll study my ribbons today. I thought you were doing these pictures over several days time but it makes sense that all the ribbons right now are in different phases of maturation.

Hello.

It would be fun between amateurs to exchange photos, videos an information on our breeding from eggs.

A=

There's LOTS of eyeballs in that skein!! Good work on taking the pictures and good work on getting them to spawn in the aquarium.

CC, Lord willing I will be spawning Pumpkinseeds this year.

Augie I just added 3 to 5" yellow perch a couple weeks ago and Curtis Harrison told me at the time that we were trying to get them in the pond in time to spawn yet this yr but hearing everybody else, and a lot of them farther North then us, seeing ribbons already for a week or two I figured we were too late but with you seeing some ribbons currently maybe we were able to get them in in time.
He told me the same thing about my bluegills 2 yrs ago in May, and I thought he may be full of it but by golly he was right on, in about three weeks those bluegills were spawning big time.

Good work, I love it when you are always just a little ahead of the curve! I see a great future for this endeavor of creating a good supply of pumpkinseeds for us northerner pondmiesters. We just need to get the education out there! Keep us posted please!

I pulled in a ribbon and inspected it closely, a few of the eggs have turned bright white (no fertilization per Dr. Perca/Bill C) but none of the other eggs have black spots for eyes or anything that looks like life in it. Just a blob of clear jelly yet. Maybe a little more time, the weather has been cold, the nights frosty, and more wind until Easter.

Put a short piece of ribbon in a glass jar, small tank or bucket with gentle aeration. In the house at 70F Eggs will develop dark eyes in 3-5 days.

If your fish don't pull off a spawn this spring they will be sized up and ready to rock-n-roll next year.

I saw one that was a hoss while I was feeding yesterday. It is testing my patience to keep from pulling a few out for the skillet.

Also managed to snap a 110 Conibear on my hand, not once, but twice, while I was trying to figure out how to set the doggone things. lol

Better to learn your lesson on the 110 vs the 330's. You will get the hang of it pretty quickly! It's much worse when your hands are freezing cold!! Trust me on that one. LOL

Hope your hand is OK!

We will start to get worried if we see that your screen name has been changed to "Lefty".

Fingers are a bit stiff and slightly swollen today, but I didn't lose any of them.

Easter morning ribbons. How do tell if they are fertilized or not? lots of white specs and others have none.



[img]https://imgur.com/9XJRrLR[/img]

I think I found a few ribbons today? What does everyone think?

Yup!!

Thanks Esshup! I was out of town for a few days so today was the first time I was at the pond in 3 days, not sure how long they've been there. If I zoom the picture up on my phone I can see little sets of eyes.

White eggs in the ribbons means dead eggs probably due to the ribbon not being well fertilized as the female released it. This could be and is probably due to not a high proportion of males in the pond. The initial stockings of perch are sometimes skewed toward mostly males or females. This should be not as big of a problem as the perch population in the future receives more naturalized recruitment.

Spotted a few more ribbons today. Does anyone have a guess how long it will take for them to get big enough for the LMB to get interested in them? I thought that might be a good time to add some FHM from my sediment pond to take some pressure off.

I placed a ribbon in a 10 gallon tank hanging from a stick. Fast forward to today and they are hatching like gang busters. I also treated the water with an anti fungal tablet after the eggs were put in. Now I’m setting up a 8 foot circular stock tank for them. The plan is to recirculate water from the pond through it. I will be using a 100 micron mesh at the outflow with a larger mesh in front of that to catch larger debris.

That sounds like a good plan.

You might also have the new record for the smallest micro grow-out pond. I calculate your YP fry pond at .00115 acres!

Good luck on your project.

It’ll be fun anyways. There’s at least a few hundred that have hatched in the 10 gallon now. Headed to purchase pump and other items for the stock tank. Been netting various sorts of plankton from the pond to feed them so far. Not hoping for much, but maybe 50 to survive and be feed trained before releasing. There’s still hundreds if not more trying to hatch from the ribbon.

Hello.

It is always fun to breed from eggs.

Me like last year I put my eggs in my small pond, and in addition this year I put eggs in a 300 gallons tank.

Good luck, have fun.
A+

Thanks, this tank should be 700 plus gallons. From the research I've done they say its easier to raise them in a circular tank so that's a plus. The fry are already attempting to eat krill powder. Too cool!

Fry pic

https://imgur.com/c4Mlx3D

Neat picture John!

Hello.

Beautiful pictures, lots of fry.

Me today I prepared my tank, tomorrow I will put the first eggs.
A+

Thank you, the cloud is building hour by hour. lol

It will probably be a Kansas tornado by the end of next week!

(Finally, a "tornado" that is a good thing.)

Hello.

Here is the beginning of my installation of my tank.
I should be finished within 1 to 2 days.

https://ibb.co/b2NT6mb
https://ibb.co/sKDxRzN
https://ibb.co/dBqz4Pd

How are you with your fry.
I hope you are fine.
A+

This picture gives people a very good perspective of how small and deep Azteca's yellow perch fry - fingerling pond (forage) pond is in relation to the 300 gallon tank. At lot can be accomplished with creativity.
https://ibb.co/sKDxRzN