Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Yellow Perch and LM Bass

I have stocked a small 1.5-2.0 acre pond about 15-20 ft deep in a quarter of the pond, the rest app. 6ft. I put in LM Bass. unknowingly yellow perch have also established. All the fish are about 6-8 inches long. I am catching more perch then LM Bass. Should I be concerned that the perch will take over the pond? If so how can I effectively thin them out. I know the perch will serve as a good forage fish when my bass get bigger but I am afraid that they will over populate and weed out the bass before that! Also with the perch established should I transplant flathead minnows also. Thanks

Welcome to PB...

How big are your LMB currently?

Generally, in smaller ponds LMB tend to keep YP under control. Unless you have thick aquatic vegetation, then the YP can find places to hide. It may take a few years for your LMB to get large enough to feed on the YP. Until then, you can utilize hook and line to remove as many YP as you can. In the early spring, you can place branches in 2-4 feet of water which the YP will spawn over. You can then remove the string eggs from the water to help keep the YP in line. An over abundance of YP can lead to a forage shortage and certainly affect your growing LMB who will be competing with the YP for food...

Hi Montana Red - welcome to the forum. I am pumped to see you're from Big Sky country - one of my favorite places in the world! We need more input from the Western US, glad you found us!

Travis provided some great advice - YP are a great fish many of us on the forum have established not only as a game fish but because they are incredible table fare.

It would be helpful if you could tell us about the goals for your pond. Do you want a trophy LMB fishery? A balanced fishery for panfish and LMB? Let us know and we can help direct your efforts.

BTW - I'll be up to Livingston August 5-12 for my annual fly fishing trip. Where in MT are you located?

Thanks to both of you for responding, my goals for this pond is to have decent sized bass 1-3lb range. Up here the growing season is short and without stocking forage fish their diet is mainly insects. I have another pond (its a little bit of a drive from the main place that why I am starting this pond close to home) that pond has 2 pounders and lots of them but I havnt caught anything bigger. I have been to other ponds in the area with both bass and perch and it seems all you can catch is little perch. The perch are kinda second on the list, I do enjoy them on the plate but it seems in the small ponds we have they never get very big. My LMB are 6-8 inches app. the same size as the YP. I do have lots of aquatic vegetation. Its actually a problem as it is effecting the fishablity of the pond. I think its either sago pondweed, or horned pond weed. Its so thick fishing from shore is impossible mid summer.
I live in southeast montana.

It sounds like you may have issues with the LMB not being able to effectively prey on the YP with the thick vegetation. Your shortened growing season may also adversely affect the ability of the LMB to keep up with the YP. YP are more of a cool water species and can grow well in cooler temps while LMB are more warm water fish. I would look strongly at utilizing the egg removal method and consider trapping some YP out along with removing all YP caught while fishing as well.

I plan on removing some of my pondweed problem, not all as I know its good to have some natural cover, if I do that is it worth trying to establish flathead minnows. If I get the FM large enough now I dont think either my YP or LMG will be able to feed on them for a little while. As I thin my YP and my LMB get larger they may have a better chance of sizing up and then being able to pray on the YP young. Of coarse, knowing I will thin the pondweed.

Welcome to the forum, Red! My thought on the FHM is that fish the size you currently have will have absolutely no problem dining on a full grown FHM, so they may be hard to get started as a forage source. I tried adding 3 pounds of them to a 1/2 acre pond of skinny LMB and a nice sized BG population. I think they were gone in about 10 minutes! Fish were hitting all over the place, much more than is typical for our pond. I also had a ton of vegetation at the time and had released the fish into a specific area with lots of growth and some rock structure I added for them. They swam right past it all and out into the open jaws of the other fish, which range from a bit smaller than your to a max (at least that I've caught) of about 17 inches.

I agree with Todd... Stocking FHM would be a waste of money. You may try stocking golden shiners(GSH), they will have a better change of establishing. Particularly if you can located some larger ones to stock. You can sometimes find one in the 5"+ range...