Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Feed Training Native Yellow Perch

Bill C and Others:

Is it worth while to try to feed train some native 4-7" yellow perch from my lake for growout into the fall for eating purposes. Would there be enough % to take too pellets for rapid growth during the next 6 months? I can easily catch 100-200 perch or more and put them into a cage within my lake off the dock to feed and monitor. I will be building the 4 x 4 x 4' and 8 x 4 x 4 cages in a week or two as I have all the PVC piping but need to get the 3 ways and 1/2" plastic mesh netting first. Should these perch be put into high densities to force them to eat or low densities per sq ft for greater success on converting them over the 6 month time frame? Thanks

Rowly

I feed a YP in a 20gal tank at work. It took to pellets very very quickly, but "perchy" is very skitish and dashes around the tank when you walk by.

Rowly -I currently have 41 perch in a 12.8 cu ft cage (3.2/cuft) from last years catch, feed training & cage rearing session. I started with around 70 fish (5.4/cuft). Expect similar results as far as survival. Some perch died, some did not learn to eat pellets and a few of the smallest perch may have been cannibalized. Current 41 fish were sorted and culled in October of last year from 50 living fish. 200-300 is a good number to begin with in a 4x4x4 cage without supplimental aeration. Try to minimize the length of time that the 1st fish are in the cage compared to the last fish going into the cage before you begin feed training. I think you will have better success if you begin training when final batch of fish are introduced into the cage.

I have successfully feed trained perch at as low of densities as 1 per cuft (12 perch /12 cuft). I will email you some feed training suggestions for perch. If most or if all of your current pond perch are truly wild and not from domestic stock then your survival rate and feed training success may be somewhat lower than mine.

For your growing zone and initial estimated starting sizes, expect growth increases of 1"to 2" on the fish by fall if you start in early to mid May. Females will grow faster than the male fish. Final sizes of most fish will fall in the mid to upper size ranges (1.3" to 1.7" increases). Worst case senario is you end up with only a few pellet eating perch and gain a lot of experience from this project.

Rowly - My Server did not like your email address that you used on your PBoss profile. Send me an email so I can send my pellet training information to you.

Bill:

My email address is . Thanks for the info., and yes I agree this will be a good learning experience. The perch in the lake were from wild stock Lake Erie some years ago but after 1988 when the pit was started. I will catch some 200-300 4-6" perch and put into the 4 x 4 x 4 cage over a week or so during April if I can get them to bite in large #'s, then start my feeding program as you suggested when all caught.

On another note, Sunday the weather was in the low 70's and I got the water bikes out of the shop and biked around the lake. I noticed many small schools of perch approx 1" in size near the shorelines in very shallow water.....could they be this years hatch already as the ice just melted on March 31, 2005? I didn't check the water temp but I bet it still is in the low 40 degree range.

Rowly

The small fish you are seeing have to be last years (2004)hatch. N.pike or walleye are the only likely or common pond type fish in your area that could have spawned by 44F-46F and then the fish would not have been able to grow to 1" sizes by this date. Are you sure these 1" fish are perch and not bgill?. The 2004 year class of perch in your pond should be larger than 1", stunted perch from 2004 should be around 1.7" to 2" at this time. See if you can either net out some of these small fish or catch them in a 1/4" wire mesh fish trap to verify their identity.

Rowly -- we have been monitoring the yellow perch spawn around here (east-central SD) this year. Yesterday, we found our first perch egg masses, but only in a small wetland. We have not yet found any egg masses in any of the larger lakes. So, I'm not sure how your climate relates to ours, but our ice was off at least a couple of weeks before yours, and the perch spawn is just about to start.

Dave

Rowly - Here in NW Ohio (southern Lake Erie latitude) and as of April 11 2005, we are in the mid to late phases of yellow perch spawn. Water temps have been running fairly steady at 54 to 58F for several days now. Our perch spawn is usually over about April 14. It may extend a few days later this year due to a slow cool spring. I always associate the end of perch spawn around here when the toads start laying eggs in the pond.

Some of the very first eggs laid (Mar29) are just begining to hatch. I have had perch eggs hatching in the lab for three days. Perch in my pond won't be 1" long until about May 20th.

Bill and Dave:

Thanks for the info., Bill these 1 " fingerlings are perch with their vertical markings and long slender bodies. The fingerling BG are much deeper thru their bodies and are larger in size. Interesting, I would of thought the perch spawned last year would have been larger????? Nice to know and track.

Rowly

My computer was down for a couple days thus the delay in this reply. The 1" size of 2004 perch is in the small category. I think this is due to either an excessive amount of hatchlings or a shortage of food (zooplankton and small inverts.) for their growth; maybe a combination of both reasons.

Bill:

Thanks for your input.....at the very least these small YP will be a good food source as there are many thousands in total along the shorelines of the lake. The boys fished yesterday as the water temps are rising and caught many 7-12" LMB on slow moving spinner baits from shore. Spring is now here in SW Ontario.

Rowly

Hi Rowly: You may need a prime Canadian Northern Pike to keep your Perch under control :-).
On another note of mutual interest, the first batch of ducks hatched yesterday, the hen won't let me close though so I don't know how many she has. Good luck with the perch - I always loved to eat them!
Jim

Rowly - My personal experience is that the LMB in your pond will be much more efficient than the northern pike at controling the numbers of small perch. Two main reasons. LMB will be more prolific than the pike, thus you will have a more even constant supply of small predators to feed on perch. 2. I think pike tend to be slightly more selective than LMB at what size forage fish they eat. I think LMB will eat a more wide variety of perch sizes than pike.

I do not think the body metabolism of pike is greater than that of the LMB, thus I don't think the pike will eat more fish when comparing pound for pound of predator. As pike get large (greater than 32")in our system, I think the pike will "chose" to also eat LMB in addition to perch. And the percentage of LMB that are consumed by pike will increase as the pike grow larger (beyond 32") thus the numbers of valuable LMB (8"-13") that are eating small perch will then be decreased and lost to pike predation. As your system ages I think you may find that the bass are becoming too abundant and causing too much predation pressure on the perch. You will have to monitor this closely.

I think your initial idea of adding walleye to suppliment LMB & SMB as predators in your system is sound. Walleye have been found to tend to forage on relatively smaller food items compared to similar sized pike. Walleye, bass, and perch should help control the young LMB. Last night I caught a 9.2" and 9.8" perch on young perch as bait that were 4.1" & 4.3" respectively. So medium and larger perch should be able to easily eat small bass in the 1" to 3" range.

Plus walleye are better table fare than pike; at least as far as bones. Although walleye are not a "sporting" as pike.
Obviously all this is speculation because the fish in your gravel pit have not read the "book".

John\'s pike

Quinn\'s pike

Here's a couple for you Rowly

Wood, thx for the pics....so how's the ice fishing going this week??????? Bill.....right on...no pike for me....nice to catch in someone's elses lake....Jim... long time no hear.....glad to hear you are raising ducks again. I've got 40 eggs in my first incubator picked up last week to start. I will raise 100 or so and watch them grow.....great food for the coyoto's and fox. If I'm lucky I may get a few for the table.....Bill, the perch are really putting on size, I caught a 14-15" one last night on a large crankbait casting for LMB. My largest fish caught all night! Once these LMB were added 2 years ago, the perch population decreased in #'s a little but are the overall size are getting larger year after year. Just what the Doctor ordered!!!!!!!

Rowly

Rowly, I'm just letting nature take its' course - when a hen does the hatching there is no need to brood them - much easier all around.
Jim

Rowly - Glad to hear about perch of that size can be grown in your region.

Bill:

I guess we share the same Lake Erie genetics and now I'm establishing a more controlled environment for them to eat and grow? Time will tell if many become the 12-14" size range. In all my years fishing Lake Erie I have never seen YP go after a large crankbait just like LMB/SMB. That perch was big and full of eggs as you said before and near ready to spawn for my geographic region. Thx

Rowly

Rowly - If you can get a cage of young perch "on pellets" this summer and release most of them into the pond, you will be amazed at the type of yellow perch fishery you can develop in the next several years.

Thanks Bill, yes my goal is to build the cages ASAP....just waiting on the 3 way PVC corner fittings. The perch are easier to catch now with the water warming. I need to check my home PC for your pellet feeding info and get this experiment started so I can give feedback to this forum. My 9-10" LMB are numerous in the lake from previous spawns, they love those spinning baits and are becoming very aggressive in their attack...QUESTION are they the offspring from the few 20 spring adult bass I introduced to the lake in 2002 when propert was purchased or the 102 spring adult bass I caught and purchased in early May 2003? All these LMB are good relative weight with big bellies. My thinking is these bass are from the initial spawn in 2002 mostly but the #'s where much greater for 2003 spawn for SW Ontario in a lake that had a forage base of stunted YP and 2002 spring introduced adult BG. In either case these LMB are only 2nd or 3rd year bass with the entire growing season ahead of them????

Rowly

Since the bass of year class 2002 had lots of food, I think the 9"-10" LMB are from the 2002 hatch. The 102 individuals of 2003 spring stocking of larger LMB should be bigger than 9" by spring of 2005. Plus 102 bass spread out over 20 acres does not amount to very many bass per acre.

Bill:

Interesting but I concur.....approx. 3 out of 5 LMB are the 9-10", 1 is 12-15" and the last 16" or greater this spring. There are many 3-5" LMB swimming the shallows looking for food in small schools as well but too small to attack the larger lures yet. I remember the first spawn in 2002 was very good with large black schools of fry LMB fingerling circling around the lake protected by one adult for the first few weeks until they separated into small schools swimming the shoreline in search of small fish, etc. Thanks.

Rowly