Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Putting yellow perch in a pond ? Central Illinois

Would you recommend adding a few yellow perch to as pond tha has BG LMB and CC already in place. The pond is two years old. Will Yellow perch survive or mess up the program ?

The largemouth should keep them in check even though they are a prolific species. You may not see many perch unless you have significant weeds.

The only downside to yellow perch in ponds is if they get out of control and you end up with a lot of annoying stunted bait stealers.

You shouldn't ever get overabundant YP, IF you have average to good numbers of LMB in the 10"-13" size range. With BG in the pond you will most often first see over abundant BG before over abundant YP. Actually the LMB may eat more YP if there are present the same numbers and lengths (ages) of BG and YP. In your case, that could be a slight negative to using YP. Don't forget that if you stock YP, make sure they are at least 40% to 50% the length of the average sized larger bass you have or you are just adding expensive forage fish. If you have non-pellet feeding CC expect them to eat a good percentage of YP. Both species inhabit the same areas esp during late dusk and dark. Prey size will depend on predator size.

Bills point about CC being a heavy predator on YP is very true. YP are not active at night. They lay on the bottom motionless. That is why walleye are nasty predators on them as well.

Thats a nice little piece of information!!! Thanks.