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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!


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

[Linked Image from hosting.photobucket.com]

What a fatty! Beautiful fish there Augie.


It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers


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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.


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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?

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Can you have too many baby perch?

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.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/25/21 07:43 PM.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/26/21 06:49 PM.

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Originally Posted by canyoncreek
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?

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!


9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
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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.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/27/21 09:57 AM.

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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+

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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?

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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.

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Originally Posted by canyoncreek
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?


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.

Last edited by SetterGuy; 03/28/21 10:09 AM.

9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
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Snipe, I bet you will see skeins when water temp hits 50-51 degrees.


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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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by Augie
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.


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).
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She should have chosen a better neighborhood. This one is about to experience a Friday night in Detroit level of violence. lol

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

https://imgur.com/gallery/wQwVREV

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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?

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


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Originally Posted by Augie
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?
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.

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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.

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