Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Bill Cody's Perch Pond

Hey Bill,

What ratios would you suggest for SMB,yellow perch, pumpkinseeds, & shinners.

I would like to feed as well. Do you feed the fish. I was hoping that the panfish will take food.

thanks

Flatlander - Stocking north of the Ohio River for SMB, perch, pumpkinseds, shiners.
Not a simple answer IF done correctly.
Firstly. Make a copy of this & use it as your guide. Don't use pumpkinseeds with SMB! They quickly get too big for them to eat and overpopulate. Bad. Bad. Pumpkinseeds don't feed train as easily as bgill. If you want pumpkinseeds use LMB. LMB don't work good with perch. LMB have too big of a mouth(at 13-16") and eat the larger perch that you want to eat. Restocking smaller perch is almost impossible w/ LMB in the pond. LMB and fishing pressure will over time probably eliminate the perch unless there is LOTS of cover. PICK A CORRECT COMBINATION AND STICK WITH IT. Mixing them will cause problems.
Secondly, you should consider the productivity of the body of water you plan to stock. Most all ponds have different fertility levels. Natural pond fertility is based on soil type and what gets in from the watershed. Since you're in Maine with hard bedrock, I assume the waters up there are soft & produce relatively few fish pounds per acre. Let's assume 50-100lbs/acre; 150 is probably a little high. Feeding high protein food in moderate amounts for a 1/3 acre will boost production; possibly to 200+lbs/ac.
Don't over stock too many "hogs" based on your
food base. Do some calculations on fish numbers and weights.
Thirdly, for SMB & yel. perch you have to feed them a trout chow ration 40% protein MINIMUM. If using catfish food or game chow; they WON'T eat and grow properly. Remember we are feeding canivorous fish not ominivours like catfish & bgills. Use Ziegler, Silver Cup or Purina AquaMax or equivalent. Talk to someone feeding trout in your neighborhood or check with the game warden about who feeds trout or where to get food. ALSO it is going to be pretty hard for YOU to train hatchery or wild stock to eat your food. Been there, done that before; don't repeat my mistakes. It's hard enough keeping them on feed let alone trying to feed train "wild" fish too. If at all possible (and try hard)to buy feed trained fingerlings or subadults. Makes life a whole lot easier.
Fourth. Be patient. Establish a good food base before adding a major predator, SMB. I prefer to stock minnows/shiners and perch first. Allow them to grow and reproduce until the perch spawn & young are numerous and need thinning. With perch on feed they won't prey on the minnows as hard and you should, with some "cover", have lots of minnows/shiners. If you don't, something is WRONG and needs fixing BEFORE you add SMB. Remember perch are also minnow eaters (esp those >5"), they will somewhat thin the young perch but not very well depending on the spawning success & recrutiment of young. Perch "rather" eat minnows than young perch. Get as many perch as possible on feed/welfare! so they don't eliminate the minnows.
Fifth. I would stock preferably two sizes of perch; but one size will work. MY best guess having not seen "your" pond.. Stock in 1/3 acre a total of 50-60 yel.perch (70% 2-3" & 30% 4-6")or if feed trained stock 100-120 (same ratio as above). NOTE you can stock a little heavier if farther south & feeding, up to 500/ac. This will insure a spawn the first spring. Study up on perch spawning and make it right for them. Perch are unique spawners; the only sportfish to spawn this way.
Sixth. Choose your shiner/minnow food base with knowledge of their spawning habits and requirements. Make sure they will spawn in your pond. 10-30% weed cover helps tremendously to maintain a minnow population. If you use golden shiners (aka bait stealers), they will quickly grow too big for the perch to eat. Thus I don't recommend them for perch ponds. Bluntnose minnows work good (native in the north) spawn like fatheads. Largest bluntnose adults are also too big (3-4") & fast for most perch to eat. Fatheads are easy prey for perch except for the largest ones (3"). Fatheads (not a good choice w/ SMB) will dissappear when SMB are added! I use spotfin shiners in my perch ponds.
Seventh. When you need a predator to "thin" the perch add about 10-15 (in 1/3ac) feed trained SMB (fingerlings or young adults). SMB can be trained to eat feed "relatively easily". Try Hicklings Hatchery in Edmeston NY for feed trained SMB. SMB will spawn esp with some golf-ball sized gravel beds at 2-3 yrs old and will add to the number of predators. Do not let SMB get too mumerous they will eliminate the minnows first and there goes your perch food AND good growth. Productivity will suffer.
Eighth. Since you are "up north" consider
using walleyes as a predator. They will work in the right conditions. Done it! They will be put and take; but now you can control how many are in the pond and how much prey presure they exert on the forage. Selectively harvest them when they get 16-20" (3-6 yr olds depending on prey abundance). Larger walleyes will be eating the larger perch> Bad . Try to keep the predation pressure on the smaller perch. Restock as needed with fingerlings or 5-7" yearlings. NOTE: it's very rare to find walleye on feed; let me know if you find some.
Ninth. Remember: ample forage and diversity of forage is KEY to growing all fish. A FISH WILL GROW AS LONG AS IT LIVES, IF IT HAS FOOD TO EXCESS.
Cut back on the feed and growth slows or stops.
Tenth. Keep us posted on your progress and you're welcome. B. Cody-The Pond doctor.

Supper response. I really appreciate your post and the time you took to write it.

My task looks to be difficult due to the fact it is illegal to bring in fish from out of state. Also, there are only trout and salmon hatcharies.

So I will be hooking wild fish for this pond.

thanks again

Flatlander - It's hard to believe that every hatchery in Maine has only salmon & trout. What do other small pond/lake owners do for fish? They all stock trout and salmon? I'd get tired eating those all the time. Trout are okay but I consider them "almost" junk fish. I can't figure out what all the fuss is about trout. I've raised both of them (trout and salmon) graduate school, in cages and caught them in the wild in MI. Supposedly they indicate "clean" water. But during cold temps in spring and fall in Michigan, I've seen them live in streams receiving city sewage effluent when there's enough oxygen. All they need is high DO and cold water. Not that great eating either.
I've read about the great SMB fishing in Maine. Can't believe no hatchery in ME produces them. Sounds like a good state not to raise fish in.
Anyway if you can get young yellow perch 3-5" and put them in a cage or net pen they can be trained to eat food fairly easily, however they are skitish & pretty stupid as fish go. You may have to feed them chopped worms to tame them down and get them eating something dropping in from above. Once you get them on feed or keep plenty of forage in front of them you should be able to grow them, even in ME's cool summer, to 5-7" or maybe a few to 8" in one summer (before freeze up). They feed well under the ice and even put on weight with egg development for the early spring spawn (when temp hits 50-52 deg). Those same fish will grow to 6-8" w/ few to 9" in the 2nd summer. females grow faster than males. We get faster growth with a longer growing season farther south.
I have two neighbors who raise perch only in their ponds (with my guidence); at least for the first 5-6yrs. Perch are on feed and up to 13-15" long. They have to always keep an eye on reproduction and prevent overpopulation w/ thining; using traps or fishing w/ selective harvest. They sell the surplus fish.
Come back if you have more questions.

I can only find Trout for sale in this state. The state of Maine has made it illegal to bring in live fish (of any type) from out of state. I have to catch the fish wild in Maine waters and stock the pond. Tedious process. It also requires the proper permitting from the state. Mainers seem to like to micromanage themselves.

I also don't get the trout thing. I hear over and over from locals that Brook Trout are the greatest eating fresh water fish around. I'd probably vote for Crappie.

The issues up here are that Bass, Pike, Perch, Crappie etc (these are called exotics here) are all non-native fish to Maine. The old Mainers will routinely throw all of above on the bank for the coons. The younger people are starting to fish for bass in greater numbers, however. The state is trying to stop introducing of exotics to area that does not have current populations of bass, perch etc. Anyway, I'm going to give the perch/SMB combo a try as these fish are in my watershed and I can be legal in the eyes of Maine's bureaucrats.

Last summer, I took a long lunch went 5 mins down the road to a Hydro dam. I stood on the bank next to an eddy right behind the dam and caught 36 SMB of various sizes in 45 mins. Great fun.

Thanks for your advice, it has been very helpful.