Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Yellow Perch Spawn 2024

In Northwest Ohio I had two ribbons of yellow perch eggs on March 11 2024. Water temp was 47.5F. Last week during a few warm days of air temps of mid and high 60F, I had water at 51F. It probably took several additional days to finish developing the eggs for laying. Last year of 2023 first eggs were noticed on Mar 16 and water at 45F. I talked to a person today - in St. Louis MO area had YP eggs Mar 8-10.

Some Forum history of YP egg laying:
n 2020 it was a mild winter with early ice off. Snipe had the first eggs on March 7th quite early! Central Indiana it was March 13th

2020 YP Spawn site

In 2021 it was member bcraley in Ohio and the date was around March 12 or 13, Fayetville, OH had them on the 16th of March. Ohio led the way in 2021. My pond around March 16 or 17. Dr. Luke in Iowa, March 20.

2021 YP Spawn site

In 2022 I had several inches of ice yet on March 22, but Bill Cody had YP ribbons on March 17! JIMS SVT in Southern OH also had ribbons on the 17th. I finally spotted mine on March 24 in cold blustery conditions right after ice out.

2022 YP Spawn Site

Here's hoping many find YP egg strands soon, keep us posted!

Haven't seen any yet Bill, but I believe with pond down for maintenance and the delays I've encountered, I'm going to miss a year..
Makes me just a little sick..

Snipe,

Sorry to hear you may miss a year.

What does having a "pond down for maintenance" mean, and why did that inhibit your YP spawn?

Oops, saw in another thread that you drew the pond down by 6 feet. I assume the water level is now below your spawning structure.

Thanks for the update Dr. Perca and looks like you came out ahead of everyone this year! With the unusually warm weather, lack of snow and ice we did see a turtle come out of hibernation last week but then it got cold again and turtle disappeared. It is nice and warm today. I will look more carefully for ribbons. We have 3days of warm then temps heads cold again. Traditionally our pond sees ribbons after the 15th of March and usually closer to the last week of March. We have had an issue with ineffective ribbon fertilization so I may have ran out of fertile males (or Optimal fish food needs to produce specific feed for YP with testosterone supplementation?)


Fixing the links to the past YP Spawn threads for Bill:

2020 YP Spawn

2021 YP Spawn

2022 YP Spawn

2023 YP Spawn

I monitored fish in a customers pond yesterday in Rolling Prairie, IN and about 20% of the YP sampled had spawned already.

I see Ron C posted in another post that his YP have spawned about 2 weeks early. Exciting!

None in my pond yet (I'm only about 20 miles north of Ron)

I'm in Southern Ohio, I've not seen any ribbons, but I ran up north of Dayton on Friday (3/22/24) to pick up some more perch. I've had a female population of perch for the past year, but due to time constraints on Friday had them pre-bagged for me. Ended up getting 7 females and 9 males, no big deal as adding males is a decision I've been contemplating because I would enjoy fishing the pond more, and adding a few more meals out of it. Of the 7 females, 5 were still holding eggs and 2 had already dropped. All 9 males were ready to go and milt easily expressed with any pressure to the belly.

Yesterday, air temps neared 60, supposed to near 70 today for us. The previous week before yesterday though, air temps have been 30-40. I threw some floating feed out on Saturday (air temp of 41), just to see if the new perch would just so happen to find it yet. To my surprise, my Specklebellies were surface feeding maniacs! I got curious and checked surface water temp and it was 57.5. I didn't notice any perch feeding, but there were a few crash and dashes I didn't see that were very perch-like. I did fish the pond at the end of January with air temps in the 30s. Culled 10 perch to eat, of those 10, about half had fish food in their bellies. about 3-4 days before I fished it I threw some floating feed out because it had warmed up to air temps of 50s. I didn't observe any surface feeding at the time, but I guess they found it!

"Culled 10 perch to eat, of those 10, about half had fish food in their bellies. about 3-4 days before I fished it I threw some floating feed out because it had warmed up to air temps of 50s. I didn't observe any surface feeding at the time, but I guess they found it!"


Nice report!!

I wonder if that's normal for the fish to still have the feed in their bodies after 3-4 days, or maybe is that a result of reduced metabolism due to colder water temps?

The observation certainly peaked my interest! 2 of the perch were stuffed full of pellets, 3 others had some smaller clumps of them in their bellies. We caught them sllooooowwww jigging redworms across the bottom of my deep (~11ft) end. So those 2 that were stuffed with pellets were still after a redworm snack.

Hello.

It's coming, my water is at 40f.

On April 1, 2012 it was at 42f.
A+

Just spotted our first YP ribbons! Two different strands in about 3’ of water. Not sure what the water temp in but it seems cold.

Finally...
3/29/2024, WT 49 Photo period 12;29.

Snipe:

Interestingly enough yesterday Cecil said he saw a skein in the pond that has the YP that I got from you 2 years ago.

Suppose there's some telepathic behavior going on there??? :-))

I think that is spooky action at a distance. Clearly, those YP are experiencing quantum entanglement!

6 more ribbons today. WT 52, photo period 12:42.

usually we see ribbons the last week of March or right before we go on spring break (first week of April) This year we left last Thursday and saw no ribbons. Perhaps ribbons are there but we won't be back till end of this week so I will be eager to see if any exist (or remain)

It seems photoperiod if I recall from other years was somewhere between 12hrs 15 min to around 12 hrs 30 min. Todays daylight time between sunrise and sunset is 12 hrs 54 min but not sure if that is considered the true photoperiod or not.

Not just photoperiod but both that and water temperature. Those plus fish condition all effect the spawn.

Hello.

There will be no record this year.




Water 37f.
A+

Wow, azteca!

Is that middle ribbon in the top picture from a single fish?

If so, impressive lady!

Very interesting -- numerous YP egg ribbons with lots of snow on the ground. What was the water temperature??

Bill, asteca writes "37F" at the bottom of his post.

Cody note: Thanks for the temperature reference. This year my YP spawned at 47F; 10F warmer than azteca's 37F 2024 perch spawn. Very interesting new information for me.

I've got dozens now all over, hopefully they will hatch OK, don't know water temp but air temp has been in the low to mid 30's last few mornings.
Must have had some pull off a hatch last year, seeing some little perch around 3" long.

The surface of the water is diffusing and bending the light just a little bit.

Your photo looks just like the stuff AI is currently rendering!