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I know there is some great YP knowledge on this forum so here goes. This is the 3rd season for our pond. Originally stocked 100 6-8" YP from Jones Fish Hatchery. I don't believe we have caught any of the original stocked fish. All the YP we catch are between 4-6" using jigs or minnows. Is it to early in the process to be concerned? All other species are healthy and growing nicely. Thanks in advance guys.

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Can you provide the size , numbers and species of the other fish you see? If several sizes and ages that would be good info.
















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What else did you stock and at what sizes?
When the weather cools down a bit and the other typical midwestern gamefish start slowing down, try vertical jigging a small jig tipped with a minnow head. Or use a bobber with just a hook and a split shot! your original perch could be HUGE right now (or they could be the 4-6 inchers you are catching, did you watch the perch go in the pond?)

Do you feed your fish? if so the perch are probably HUGE, you just probably catch bluegills before the perch get a chance at your offering.

Good luck and be sure to post the pic of a huge perch you catch in the next couple weeks!


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Your larger perch will be close to the bottom in deeper water than your smaller perch.


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If you want to catch one of the larger perch use a bigger minnow rigged on a slip bobber so it goes down within 2 feet of the bottom. If you want the big fish you gotta use bait too big for the little fish to fit in their mouths. Where in Eastern OH are you located?? I live about 30 miles from Pymatuning Res. just curious BuckeyeWilly.

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BG, HBG, & BC are all doing great. Good numbers and size. We stocked bass 1 year later and they are all running 10 - 14". There are 1000's of tiny gills around the shore lines. I have also trapped young bass so I know they have successfully spawned. Cecil, I have fished every area of the pond , usually jig and minnow and only catch the little guys. Got to head to work, check in later.

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Might fishing be more likely to yield Perch than BG once the water cools off this Fall?


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I have fished the deeper waters with jig and bass minnows and all I end up catching is the small perch - 4 to 6 inches. Theo I thought the same thing last fall and we caught lots of perch but no size to them at all.

JoeG, we are located about 12 miles west of Wheeling, W. Va. Mt. Pleasant, Ohio is the town.

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Do you know if you have had YP reproduction in the pond? Have you seen the small yoy YP ?
















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Are the 4-6 inch yellow perch plump or thin? Do you have a sense of that??


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ewest, we have caught a ton of perch since last fall so I am assuming they have spawned successfully. I use minnow traps to check on yoy fish and have not seen any. Plenty of gills and bass.

Dave, they don't look thin to me, but will confess that i know the least about YP of all the fish in my pond. I did see the perch that were originally stocked and they were in the 6 - 8" range.

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Buckeye -- I thought it would be a tough question to answer, especially for the small fish. My thought was thin fish = too many, problem to manage. Plump fish = young fish that likely are still growing fast. If you had some way to get a weight on the fish, such as grams, I probably could give you some interpretation. You'd have to find a pretty good quality scale.


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I can't remember the size of your pond, Willy, but regardless, the 100 original stockers are undoubtedly far fewer in number than their first batch of offspring. Hence much less likely to be caught, at least by one statistical measure.

I don't know when the last time I saw one of my original 200 BG, but I know I haven't seen any of the 200 HBG I also stocked in May 2003 since late 2004 - and we only ever caught about 15 -20 of them. Different species, different ponds, but perhaps an illustration of how elusive the first few fish in a pond can be.

If I am in your shoes a couple of years from now with my about-to-be-stocked-with-YP new pond, I will try to be glad there has been a successful spawn.


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Bwilly - I think your 4"-6" YP are the result of the first YP hatch that occured which resulted a real strong year class of YP. My experience is if a small pond has a real strong yr class of YP then they are very easy to catch or are a nuisance as you mention and one can catch little else unless the tackle is adjusted for the larger fish. I think it is likely the strong Yr clsss of 4"-6" perch and this yrs LMB hatch probably consumed practically all of the perch fry from the 2008 hatch.

Are you sure all the LMB survived that were stocked. It sounds to me that all the bass did not survive. I very rarely see a real strong yr class of YP like you describe if the predator population is in correct balance in regards to sizes and numbers.

Have you been removing the 4"-6" YP that you catch or returning them to the pond?
Also how big is the pond and how many and what size bass did you stock?. When the bass fingerlings (1st hatch) this year become more established next year and their parents are a little larger (13"-15") you could start to see a forage fish shortage. I predict you will see some big changes in your fish community over the next 3 yrs.

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Dave, I do have a scale I can use. I will do that this weekend along with a picture.

Bill, the strong year class really makes sense. We have been catching them and returning them to the pond. Have not kept anything out of the pond yet. Should I try to thin them down? I did start the bass stocking 1 year later than all the rest of the fish but they do seem to be doing great.

I guess my concern is that I have to many predators in the pond. LMB, a few SMB, BC, YP & HBG. I cannot establish fathead minnows. I have stocked pounds and pounds of fatheads, plenty of cover on shorelines, skids placed for spawning and yet I can trap no fatheads. Are you guys able to establish a fathead population?

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FHM are not a long-term forage prospect in ponds with LMB, or probably those other predators (HBG excepted perhaps), in significant numbers.

Last edited by Theo Gallus; 10/01/08 07:25 AM.

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Well was finally able to get a picture of a perch that we usually catch. This is generally the size we catch - few are smaller or larger. Shoot just remembered that I was supposed to get a weight on this guy. I will get that done on the next one.



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 Originally Posted By: BuckeyeWilly
Well was finally able to get a picture of a perch that we usually catch. This is generally the size we catch - few are smaller or larger. Shoot just remembered that I was supposed to get a weight on this guy. I will get that done on the next one.


Even if a female it looks like it could be eating better. Here's a well fed fish:



Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 10/10/08 08:50 PM.

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Bwilly - I think your perch are not getting enough to eat, thus their small size. It is possible that the larger bass are target eating the perch larger than the one photographed. The other option is these perch are your original stockers and are not growing due to lack of proper amounts and sizes of food. From your stocking notes (LMB, a few SMB, BC, YP & HBG) you have too many predators and not enough forage fish. Too much competition for the perch to do well. I suspect that some of your other predators are probably also not growing real fast either.

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What would you guys suggest? There seems to be plenty of tiny gills all round the pond. I have stocked fatheads a number of times but they sure don't last long. Should I remove some perch and BC?

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Thanks for posting a picture, BW. I think we all agree that your perch are thin (not enough food). First thing we think of is too many perch.

Bill has posed an intersting question, though. Could the perch be thin because of competition from other species instead of the simple situation of just too many perch. What do you think of the plumpness of your bass? Are they plump or thin?

Sorry to ask another question -- wish there was a simple answer. This is what keeps all of us coming back, though!


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Are the oldest or largest bass large enough to be eating the 7"-8" perch? Okay. I read earlier that the bass are 10-14". The bigger 13"-14" bass are near large enough to start eating the 6"-7" perch. Next year you should see the 7" perch numbers decrease.

What do you mean by lots of small bluegills? What sizes are they? Can you or have you trapped some of them and measured them. Are they this years BG or last years BG? I think this can be one of the problems in the NORTH of stocking BG one year before any predators. Too many BG result. This is why most of the standard literature suggests fewer and smaller numbers of BG be stocked in northern ponds. Stocking northern ponds can produce different results compared to stocking southern ponds to produce trophy LMB.

Considering all the predators that you listed I am wondering why you have a lot of small BG?

What is the rest of the perch population like? Do you have several sizes of perch or just one size the 7.5"ers? Evidently from your posts all you catch are those abt the size in the photo = 7.5". I suspect that with too many predators the perch you are catching could be those original stock of Jones. Perch could not be getting enough of the right foods to eat, plus all the bass competition and are not growing beyond the 7.5" size. Also or maybe Jones could have sold you a graded size of perch and most of them were males, thus the slow growth and lack of reproduction?

Are you using Aquashade in the pond?

Do you have reproduction from the LMB, SMB and Crappie?

Last edited by Bill Cody; 10/11/08 10:03 AM.

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Dave, I think Bill is right on about the competition from other species. It makes a lot of sense and I can see now where I stocked to many predators.
The bass all look healthy and chunky. Of course a lot of them are feeding on pellets.

Bill, the little BG are definitely this years hatch. Approx. 1" in size and you can see them all around the shoreline. Too many bluegill?? Now I am getting confused. Don't we need these guys to be prolific so all the predators have good forage. What else can you put in your pond to privde food? Fatheads don't last long and seem to be just a supplement.
Bill, I don't use aquashade. Reproduction is a yes on LMB and crappie. We do catch some nice crappies (12" +) but also catch lots of small ones (6"). I would say the crappie look thin also.

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If your too many BG, are primarily the 1" size then my comment about too many BG does not apply to your situation. BG will be the main forage fish item for the predator base that you have. For good fish growth lots of 1" BG are beneficial to the YP crappie and smaller bass 4"-7"). You see lots of them around the edge probably because the predators keep them chased into shallow water. Without decent submerged weed growth there will be few places for 1" fish to seek refuge - shallow water is it for them. Numbers of 1" BG should be noticably fewer next spring. If your perch are not growing with lots of 1" BG, then I suspect a problem with the perch. I'm not sure or confident that YP and crappie will consistantly grow well on a constant diet of 1" BG.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 10/11/08 07:26 PM.

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Fellas,
There definitely is more going on with BW pond than just the simple state recommended stocking plan. Forage is definitely important for each species to thrive (which it is very hard to make a pond produce trophies of every single species) but I think BW, Bill might have nailed it right on the head with your 6-8 inch perch that were stocked? They could very easily be graded at that size as stunted or mostly male fish. (they could be a little fatter though even if that was the case?)

Perch will take pellets, just would be a challenge in your situation to feed them and not the bass.


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