Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations RE: Small fry identification

Recently purchased a house with a 16 acre lake on it. The lake naturally has a large number of yellow perch and rock bass. I recently over the last month added some 100+ mature bluegill and yesterday while paddling around the lake edges I noticed a few large schools (100+)of 1/2" fry swimming around the weeds. Their silvery bodies with no visible marking were long and narrow with no deepenings of their bodies. Could these schooling fry be bluegill or are they the perch/rock bass that spawn early in the year after the ice melts . My feeling is these fry are too small for fry that would be hatched in early spring? How old would these 1/2" fry be? I added these mature prolific bluegill because I wanted a good forage base for my LM/SM bass introduction next spring. If these fry are bluegill when would their bodies start to deepen? Any help from you experienced pond owners would be greatly appreciated to identify these schooling 1/2" fry. The lake doesn't have any mature minnows in it due to the large numbers of perch/rock bass. Thanks in advance.

Sounds like schools of shiners to me...

Rowly - Can you catch any of the fry in any kind of fine mesh net (large aquarium net? I can identify ichthyoplankton (larval fish). Sometimes I can only get then to genus and not species due to their small size, age, and lack of identifying characters. However I can definately identify the groups you have in your pond. Bill Cody (use my email for personal contact and preservation & mailing instructions).