Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Yellow Perch Stocking

Here are a few photos of the YP going into the pond last Saturday. We put 300 into our 2 acre pond to go with the LMB, BG , HSB and 5 or 6 white amurs.Thanks to Bill Cody and Cecil Baird for their insight and help.
Thanks,
Chip


My fish arrive


Small area of structure


Looks like a little girl


Little Brother



Net full of YP


Their new home

Great photos! Thanks!

The one that you call the "little girl" looks exactly like my yellow perch females after they've dropped their ribbons. That sunk in belly will look great after a few meals.

Chip,

Very nice looking place!
Good luck with the "filet mignon" of small ponds. we are also trying to get YP established.

Ed

Thanks fellows,

I walked the pond again a few minutes ago and haven't found any floaters yet. I found 3 or 4 that looked a little worn out resting in the rocks along the edge.

I came across these eggs but they don't look like perch ribbons. Anybody got an I.D. for me?

Chip



and a little closer look;

In my experience, they look most like frog eggs (in a mass, not a string like toads). And frogs, of course, will stock themselves.

Very good pics of the eggs (and YP); someone should have a positive ID.

I agree, Looks like frog eggs to me as well. I saw them show up a bit ( about 2 weeks ) after the YP eggs. I havent seen any other eggs lately except the Fatheads guarding the nests.

Great looking pond and looks like some fun will be had with the YP. Let us know how things go and how they fit into the eco system.

Chip :

Great looking place and fish. But please tell us how you got those pics of underwater. I have not been able to do that with a digital camera.

Theo and Eric,
I hope they're frogs. Quite the cacophony we have here in late summer. I was afraid I'd be too late for the YP spawn but at least we'll have a year to get ready for the next one.

ewest,
I use a digital camera with a big Kodak Retinar optical glass lens; Kodak model Z740 - less than 275.00 now. 10x camera with 5Mp. The shot was set to AUTO and directly ABOVE the water with ambient light. The next thing I'm getting is an underwater camera and strobe, my big diversion in the winter is Riviera Maya,Mexico and snorkeling/fishing.

Chip

Chip - I am pretty familair with numerous types of frog eggs and I am pretty sure none of them have whitish centers. I think all frog eggs typically have dark or black centers (yolks). I cannot see the eggs in the photo real clearly but from what I see, I think they look similar to unfertilized perch eggs. A lot of your fish may have been females due to a sorting or grading of fish. You may have received a high percentage of females vs males. Thus quite a few of the eggs may not get fertilized when laid.

Chip,

Are these feed trained perch?

Bill,
At first glance I was afraid they were broken or left over strands.I'm pretty sure we were graded heavy towards females because of the size of fish we unloaded. We'll watch the structure and see what happens.

Cecil,
The supplier said they were pellet trained and I'm seeing feeding activity different than the HSB and BG's, plus they are hanging around the feeding area. I believe they are feeding; if I can get a few I'll put them in the pen and see if they eat.

Chip

Chip,

I wouldn't put any in a pen. It will only stress them and as the water warms up perch don't do that well in pens. You should be able to tell otherwise. Make sure you have pellets small enough for them.

Cecil,

I have them on 2.5mm Zeigler pellets.Thanks for the tip about the pen.

Chip

I should have just said "Bill Cody"

Updating; the perch are taking to their new surroundings pretty well.

Great pics Chip. I need a lens filter that will let me take pics of underwater objects. Those YP look like they are waiting on you for their dinner.

Chip,

Are your perch hanging in shallow water as in the pics? Mine go deep until feeding time. Just curious.

Cecil,
They did for the first few days. Now they've spread out to deeper water.Now they come to the edge when they see me coming.
Chip

Hey Chip...
Glad you pulled this thread back up to update...I think I missed it, along with the pics. I have no room to critique the fish stuff, but I WILL exercise some "poetic license" to tout the beauty of your pond/homesite layout. V Nice..v nice, indeed.
(who cuts the grass?)

Brettski,
Thanks, a neighbor and I share the pond and the grass; he runs a Yazoo and I run a Toro. My sons and I mow our part but if it looks really good it's probably on my neighbor's side.
Chip

Chip, what type of pond dye do you use and how much? That is a good looking tint.

burgermeister,
That's 2 gallons of Crystal Blue; from Sanco Industries,Ft.Wayne, IN. and thanks- how much to put in is a constant source of discussion for me and my neighbor.
Chip

This is a copy of my post that discusses YP from another thread. A reader wanted to know why the perch were harvested.

Today (Oct 18), I helped a pondowner harvest some YP from his 0.3 ac pond. We kept 30 YP 9.5"-14.5" long - 13of30 (43%)were greater then 13" long, 19of30(63%) were greater than 12" long and there were only 7 small throw backs - all from an amazing perch pond. We also caught 3 walleye that were also kept. All fish were caught in just 70 minutes of fishing (12:00-1:10pm).

Firstly, understand this is a mature YP fishery in a small 0.33 ac pond. Secondly note that I do not necessarily agree with this YP harvest philosophy. The owner, similar to numerous others in my area, almost always lose some of the largest and oldest YP during the hottest periods of the summer - depending on temperatures. Often this number can be as high as 20-30 individuals and it is mostly the biggest ones, depending on the situation. WE are not postive why these large 13"-15") perch die in the hottest part of summer. YP less than 10"-11" rarely die during the hot spells. This particular owner just HATES to discard these prime fish as waste, due to heat related deaths. His main philosphy was to harvest a significant number of the largest perch before they die next summer and then let the younger perch fill the void. This is a very common and usually the standard philosophy in fish management.

The owner thinks he has a real good number of smaller perch avalable to fill the void. I am not positive of this theory based on the number or percentage of small YP that we caught while fishing. Note that we also harvested 3 walleye (WE) 16"-21" along with the YP. There were originally 10 walleye in this 0.33 ac pond. I suspect the numbers of small YP are "down" in this pond due to predation factors from the walleye and high percentage of large YP. Removing the WE and larger YP should help increase the numbers of small YP and minnows. The owner and I discussed the ramifications of removing these larger fish which could help or hinder small fish recruitment. We will keep an eye on the results.

Note - I have been actively helping manage this small pond since its inception in 1994. It is one of the first exclusive YP ponds that we produced in NW Ohio. As far as I know and besides mine, it is one of the very best YP fisheries in the whole region. Those 30 YP keepers, 8 throwbacks and 3 WE were caught in 70 minutes which included monkeying around with regular fishing duties and getting nets, photos, rebaiting, retying hooks, etc. I may put a profile of this pond on my list of articles for Pboss Mag. I have numerous photos of its history.


The pond owner prefers a fall harvest instead of a harvest when eggs masses are large (winter-early Apr) or for a lengthy period after the spawn (Apr-Jun) when there seems to be less harvestable meat biomass per fish. Summer harvest of YP can result in off flavors &-or softer textured fillets.

Thank you Bill for this YP post. I am now curious - If I am not able to get my SMB this fall, do you think Walleye would be an "ok" alternative for now? This is in regards to my .7 ac pond with a few too many YP and no bass to date.

Just wondering if some walleye now (10 or 20?) would help keep the panfish and YP under control until I get a population of SMB established. And also wondering if any risk involved with the Walleye.

Two of my goals are great tasting fish (YP) and a good fighter (SMB) in a somewhat balanced pond to make managing easier for me.

Here is Bill's post on another thread wrt WE as predators.

Bill Cody
Moderator
Member # 24

Member Rated:
posted October 19, 2006 01:30 PM

We have used walleye as a non-reproducing predator in some YPerch ponds in my area. In mid-Oct we removed 3 of 10 walleye from a 0.33 acre pond that is primarily a Yperch pond. I have copied my post here from another thread since it also dealt with walleye in small ponds.

Firstly, understand this is a mature YP fishery in a small pond. Secondly note that I do not necessarily agree with this harvest philosophy. The owner, similar to some others, in my area almost always lose some of the largest and oldest YP during the hottest periods of the summer - depending on weather. Often this number can be as high as 20-30 individuals and always the biggest ones, depending on the situation. This particular owner just HATES to discard these prime fish as waste, due to heat related deaths. His main philosphy was to harvest a significant number of the largest perch and then let the younger perch fill the void. This is a very common and usually the standard philosophy in fish management.

The owner thinks he has a real good number of smaller perch avalable to fill the void. I am not positive of this theory based on the number or percentage of small YP that we caught while fishing. Note that we also harvested 3 walleye (WE) 16"-21" along with the 30 large YP. These three WE were under standard weight, but not noticably thin. Largest ones (20",21" females with small egg sacs- Oct) were an ounce or two above 2 lbs. Smallest one at 16" was a male. In 1999, there were originally 10 walleye (8")originally placed in this in this 0.33 ac pond. Growth rate has slower than the optimum despite ample forage of YOY perch and bluntnose minnows. I suspect the numbers of small YP are "down" in this pond due to predation factors from the walleye and large number of YP. Removing the WE and larger YP should help increase the numbers of small YP and minnows. The owner and I discussed the ramifications of removing these larger fish which could help or hinder small fish recruitment. We will keep an eye on the impacts of the fish harvest.

Note - I have been actively helping the owner manage this small pond since its inception in 1994. It is one of the first exclusive YP ponds that we produced in NW Ohio. As far as I know and besides mine, it is one of the very best YP fisheries in the whole region. Those 30 YP and 3 WE were caught in 90 minutes which included monkeying around with regular fishing duties and getting nets, photos, rebaiting, retying hooks, etc. I may put a profile of this pond on my list of articles for Pboss Mag. I have numerous photos of its history.

The pond owner prefers a fall harvest instead of a harvest when eggs masses are large (winter) or for a lengthy period after the spawn (Apr-Jun) when there seems to be less harvestable meat biomass per fish. Summer harvest of YP can result in off flavors &-or softer textured fillets.

[ October 19, 2006, 01:49 PM: Message edited by: Bill Cody ]

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