Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Picky perch

I recently stocked pellet trained yellow perch and I haven't seen them since I put them in. With an abundance of minnows to eat, will they ever eat pellets again?

Most likely they will not be interested in coming up this time of year (cold temps) for floating pellets, and as you say if they have minnows where they don't have to come up for pellets, they won't.

However if they ever deplete the minnows they would still go back on pellets.

What species of minnows do you have in the pond and what size is the pond?

Thanks Cecil, I have Bluntnose Minnows and Spotfin Shinners, pond is 1/4 SA.

Well that's better than fatheads as the fatheads in that small of a pond would eventually be wiped out. Your species are more likely to keep a population going if they have a place to hide according to our resident expert Bill Cody.

At one time I planted fatheads in a .62 acre pond and in a couple of months had thousands of them. I was surprised to see when I replanted the mostly female yellow perch up to 13 inches, and the large male bluegill, they did not wipe them out as bass would. Of course I was also feeding them pellets.

From my experiences, and those I've talked to regarding yellow perch, natural forage as in minnows and pellets are a good combination. I know one perch producer that does not feed his broodfish perch pellets at all. They subsist on fatheads and crayfish in that particular pond. He says he gets a better quality broodfish vs. just pellets.

BTW I would seriously consider doing two things this spring to enchance your perch fishery if you have no other predators:

(You probably already know this but just in case you don't)

1.) Do some fishing in early spring and remove as many males as you can to eat. The males don't grow as fast as the females and don't get as large. Additionally you can keep your reproduction down a little to keep your perch from stunting if you have no other predators.

They are easy to sex in early spring. Some pressure in front of the vent for males will expel milt. The female (even YOY) will have some egg development and will have a spongy full abdomen.

2.) Place some bushy branches in the waters's edge down to a couple of feed weighted down with something. When you see perch eggs on them remove the branch and eggs and discard the eggs. An average egg ribbon has about 128,000 eggs.

CB1 provided good info which agrees with my experiences. Additionally, how long and how well the YP were habituated to pellets has a lot to do with how soon they will return to eating pellets. I have seen YP that have eaten pellets for two years become thin bodied when pellets were withheld despite a pond full of minnows. This suprised me and it was hard to believe.

Doesn't surprise me Bill. No absolutes in nature right?