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#542157 12/11/21 05:26 PM
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I've been in the shadows of this forum for a couple years now trying to gain knowledge and experience with what I have going on. I'm located in southeast Iowa and long story short, I am trying to accomplish/establish a yellow perch pond for strictly fun fishing. Yellow perch isn't a huge fish species for southern IA, although a few lakes do have them within an hour of home here, so I knew it was possible. I have read everything on here about yellow perch that I could find, and re read again. I have a pond that I know has never been stocked with anything/anyone. (Excited for NO LMB) Finally a chance at successfully raising perch perhaps? Built roughly 10 years ago. I have checked depth and fish specie. Green sunfish is the only fish present in the pond, and that usually happens naturally, I understand. The pond is just an acre or better. Depth gets to 16 feet at deeper spots. Typical Iowa farm pond elsewise. It's also exciting me that this pond doesn't have trees by it yet,(maybe some shade trees would be beneficial) and also the farming practice around the perimeter , since it was built, has been CRP. With all these seemingly positive things, I decided, its time to try my yellow perch project. I obtained roughly 300 probably 5-8 inch perch and successfully released them last winter, and then this spring I released 100, 3-5 inchers.(Those may not make it?) I did go back after ice out and was able to catch a handful of the yellow perch, the 5-8 inchers, which I was excited about. Any discussion or professional help from here on out would be appreciated. I did try and supplemental feed once the summer warming took place, the feed that's recommended on here, but the feeder didn't work correctly. Need to invest more on that deal. Next I will put twiggy trees in before possible spawn this spring. I am so excited to drill some holes if we get good enough ice(we did last winter) and see what I have going on. Any guesses. Hopefully I've given enough info to trigger someone on this. I am beyond obsessed with this pond perch project, so anything would be appreciated. I've heard without predators they repopulate like crazy/stunt. If this predator-less pond has that go on, should I be ok with that?... as I would love to trap as many little ones as I could to stock another pond or two perhaps. I can also add predators at anytime. Hybrid striped bass I can get my hands on.

Appreciate it,

Brett

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OOOOOO! Sounds neat.

Lots of info here to search out on YP. Anything you read from Bill Cody, take to the bank.

You may be able to use large YP as your chief predator - Bill has done that IIRC.

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Welcome to the forum!

I would rotenone the pond to completely eliminate the GSF prior to stocking the YP. You have no idea just how many YOY fish the GSF can eat. Get the minnow forage base started, then stock the YP. No sense feeding the GSF if you want YP.


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I have always had trouble growing good eating size and later good numbers of YP with GSF. GSF are very predatory of all types of natural foods including small minnows needed by YP. GSF also eat lots of YP fry up to 1.2" long. YOY GSF seem to be good at avoiding predation from YP. They do not really live in the same areas or niches so they do not interact much,,,, so as a result YP do not eat lots of little GSF. Way too many GSF are able to survive with just YP as predators. I think the GSF will out compete the YP for foods and current YP will remain skinny. It is my experience GSF manage to eat lots of tiny and small YP. Your pond might be big enough and spacious enough for YP to manage to get decent annual recruitment that results in enough YP fry surviving to create a decent YP panfish pond. However I doubt that will happen because the GSF had a very high density head start before you added YP breeders. Now a mostly unknown fact....... GSF have the same mouth size as a LMB until the GSF is around 6" long. After 6" the LMB mouth starts growing more than that of the GSF. I did a GSF mouth size measurement study about this for a Pond Boss conference presentation topic. This means larger GSF of 3"-6" are aggressive and when abundant will eat a huge amount of perch fry until YP are 1.5" to maybe 2" long. GSF at all their body sizes will eat lots of little YP. In my ponds Little GSF 1"-3" decimate perch fry as they hatch from the egg up through swim-up sizes to 3/8" long. Larger GSF eat lots of 1/2"-3/4" YP plus lots of other invertebrate foods needed by small 1"-3" YP. Do you see the problems of your plan? The more GSF there are the worse this problem becomes.

The big unknown that I have is how well will HSB eat GSF. I don't think HSB will eat small GSF very well because GSF live mainly close to shore among rocks and cover and HSB live a lot in open water and will IMO eat many more small 2"-5" YP compared to them eating small GSF. If you add LMB they will eat lots of GSF and YP. When and if the GSF numbers get minimized the LMB will focus on eating YP and eventually keep them from recruiting new YP. The amount of habitat and type of habitat might be a variable in your favor and your goal for producing some decent YP - but I doubt it. When your stocked YP die of old age in several years the YP population will be basically done / gone unless you keep stocking more adult YP. I hope you can prove me wrong. I consider those damn green sunfish pests.

Since you have already twice stocked YP into the pond, your next management objective I think should be to use fish traps, or seining or frequent small bait angling to try and determine if the 2"-4" YP are becoming a noticeable part of the fishery. If yes This means YP are able to recruit YP with the current population structure of GSF in the pond. Whatever happens going forward,, PLEASE return to this thread and tell us how your pond fishery is progressing. We all can learn from your results regardless of the results. We are all here to learn.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/11/21 09:56 PM.

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I really appreciate the responses and taking your time to post on this. I'll dive right into the topic again. Im glad retenone was brought up. I consider myself a conservationists. My father is a conservationists, and technically was soil conservationists for the NRCS for 40 years. I Grew up trapping, hunting, and of course fishing...but I still was hesitant to talk about the usage of chemical with dad as well as you guys, but I guess its not that bad of thing, it's just the thought of it I wasnt used to. Dealing with solely green sunfish I get it and I know you guys do but still. Ultimately, I did use chemical to kill as many green sunfish as possible. I was thinking once I saw gsf surfacing and dieing, the whole pond would be wiped clean of gsf as the entire perimeter was coated with chem and amount was factored in. It didnt completely wipenthem out, but I'd say it ridded of a lot. Hard to give a percentage of how many, but after a couple weeks you couldn't see any gsf in the shallows anymore like you could. So im saying at least half were knocked out which will hopefully help. I was worried about them, little aggresive, big mouthed predators they are. I was surfing the internet for the best fish trap today actually, its always a popular item in question as to what's the best to use, and if anyone has had experience with a successful perch trap I'd love to hear. Also, all my perch were added to the pond well after chemical and all that. I also added many pounds of fhm before perch were added. Kind of all of the place here, but trying to get this response out. I know the gsf are still present because out of about 15 of the perch caught on rod and reel when I went back in early spring I caught 4 gsf, none big, all small.

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Appreciate it, Bill Cody. Fish trapping and inventory check to the best of my ability is next move as winter is setting in of course. Im hoping I knocked out enough of the gsf to see some results, but also know if nothings done about them, they're going to thrive again with just YP in with them. I'll be checking back in with the happenings.

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Here's the reason why I said Rotenone. I know it's only one pond, but that is one pond that I don't want to have a repeat of.

A absentee landowner customer had a pond dug in a damp area of the woods. 1 ac, supposed to be 12' deep. Wanted a SMB/YP/RES pond. Didn't want to stock a lot of fish, so he only OK'd stocking 50% of what I recommended (FHM, Golden Shiners, Yellow Perch and Redear Sunfish) Fast forward 2 years when it was time to stock the SMB, he noticed fish chasing other fish in the shallows. I got called, went there and caught two 14" LMB. I KNOW I didn't stock any LMB, and we couldn't tell if any more were in there so he said kill it and we will start over.

I drained about 50% of the pond, then applied the rotenone. There were 1,000's of GSF, no fatheads, only adult Golden Shiners, only adult YP, only adult RES. There was absolutely no surviving reproduction in the pond at all except for GSF. I figure that there were GSF in the puddle in the woods that they turned into the pond because the woods floods and the ditch nearby has GSF in it.

No other LMB were in the pond, and this state has a 14" minimum size for keeping LMB from public waters. I figure some were caught from a local lake and bucket stocked in there because there was no sign of ANY fish chasing forage fish in shallow water before.

When the pond was dug, the spoils were distributed around the pond so no surface water could run into the pond - it is a groundwater pond.

That's why I say kill all the GSF and then stock.


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Esshup, thank you for this. Retenone is what was used in attempts to kill this pond of gsf in my case here.
Your example shows just how easily gsf can come about. As for the LMB, it seems like the bucket stock bass is what went on perhaps. Kind of interesting to take this case and think about it like this too....say I had a 100 percent wipeout of the GSF, and you guys did too in the timber pond. What's to say, especially in my case with just YP in pond along with minnows and no other competition towards the GSF, that the GSF wouldnt just naturally come back. Afterall, they naturally got into the pond in the first place no matter how they were able to achieve it. I guess eliminate GSF at all costs for YP to be successful and regenerate is the bottom line.

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Perch Pond, it all depends on how many YP are in the pond, and what size they are. In my case I don't think the GSF would have been a problem if SMB would have been stocked after year 1. If there are predators in the pond that are able to eat the GSF, then no worries.

It also depends on how the pond was constructed. In my case, there was no water that could flow over the ground to bring GSF into the pond, so that hasn't been an issue since I killed it.

In your case, if water can flow into the pond that may be contaminated with GSF, then they could be reintroduced to the pond.


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PerchPond said
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Im glad retenone was brought up. I consider myself a conservationists. My father is a conservationists, and technically was soil conservationists for the NRCS for 40 years. I Grew up trapping, hunting, and of course fishing...but I still was hesitant to talk about the usage of chemical with dad as well as you guys, but I guess its not that bad of thing, it's just the thought of it I wasnt used to. Dealing with solely green sunfish I get it and I know you guys do but still. Ultimately, I did use chemical to kill as many green sunfish as possible. I was thinking once I saw gsf surfacing and dieing, the whole pond would be wiped clean of gsf as the entire perimeter was coated with chem and amount was factored in. It didn't completely wipe them out,

Firstly - IMO rotenone is a tool just as doctors use antibiotic as a tool, both are specialized tools to eliminate specific life forms. IMO GSF are not much more important than bacteria that can be controlled with antibiotics.
Second - " It didnt completely wipe them out"
Perch Pond you are LEARNING. Learning can be expensive in one way or another. GSF are tuffies and hard to kill which is one big reason they tend to be problematic.
Things I've learned with GSF. Whenever I use rotenone to kill GSF you have to use a high dosage of the chemical at least 3ppm to get good, reliable results. One ppm rotenone in good conditions will kill BG-LMB but not GSF. Under CERTAIN conditions and resistant species 3-5ppm is needed for some species such as greenies. Knowing the certain conditions and certain species is a big part of ones education. ALSO it is always best to drain down the pond to low or lower pool and force greenies out of protective cover situations and habitat if you want guaranteed results. Lower water level also allows the need for less chemical. Rotenone is expensive at least IMO, especially if it has to be done twice due to 1st time failure. When not getting it done correctly the first time wastes lots of time and money if fish are restocked into the unsuccessfully renovated pond. Time, as in several years to determine success, is often valuable when trying to achieve ones goals. I learned both of them the hard way.

Thirdly - Since you partially renovated the pond with subsequent YP stockings, you MIGHT achieve some form of success of getting YP to populate to long term recruitment toward harvestable perch. I assume your goal is harvestable perch.

At this point this is my suggestion. Stock an appropriate predator to greenies. I would use LMB or maybe SMB. NOTE SMB are not proven yet to target GSF as a commonly eaten food. I am working on that topic in 2022 and beyond. For your case I would use LMB to eat and crop the GSF. LMB are known to be efficient predators of GSF however LM bass also love, love to eat perch. You will have to live with and manage around or with this fact.
Try this: add as many LMB as you can afford toward the 100/ac or even higher density. This will not be cheap; neither was the rotenone. That is the problem with a larger pond - EVERYTHING COSTS MORE. IMPORTANT NOTE you should not use fingerling LMB because the existing populations of GSF and YP have significantly eaten all the foods needed by fingerling LMB to survive and grow. Been there done that in my learning curve.

My experience strongly shows you should use the size of LMB that can quickly and readily eat the most abundant size of GSF in the pond. 2"-3" greenies are easily eaten by 5"-7" bass. Before and After adding the LMB remove as many as possible GSF by whatever means possible to you. As a reference I have GSF in a pond with adult perch for a pellet feeding trial. YP have proven to me to not eat very many gsf if minnows are present. In my 0.18ac pond last year I trap removed 4,678 greenies and in 2021 I removed 3,103 greenies. Damn things are prolific. If you extrapolate my numbers by your 1 acre size pond expect the need to remove 15,500 to 23,000 greenies per year. See my concern with having greenies??
After a couple years post bass and once you see noticeably fewer GSF,,,,,, then start removing largest LMB so their density is fewer and exert less predation on the small YP to allow some YP to recruit and be guests to your dinner table. I would gradually remove LMB,,,, IMO especially the larger bass until you start seeing acceptable recruitment of YP toward your goals. These larger LMB 12"-13"+ will be eating or often targeting the larger (4"-6") YP. Whereas the smaller year classes of 6"-10" LMB should eat significant numbers of small GSF plus we assume LMB are removing some annual numbers of small YP. All this will take several years time,,,,,, and to some - time is money. See the required time delay of not killing all the greenies in the first attempt?

Worst case condition the YP do not recruit very well and and not enough for you to get an acceptable crop of harvestable YP, then you will need to periodically supplement stock larger YP of 6"-8" so some avoid predation of 12"-13" bass and you get some YP spawns. I think you will need to learn how to specifically fish and remove the largest bass in the pond for best success of your stated goals. Using bigger baits such as 3"-5" live GSF should work good for catching larger bass. Good luck and please keep us advised of your pond's progress. We can all learn from your adventure with growing YP in the presence of green sunfish. I know I will look forward to your results.

Post script. It is very easy to grow numerous 10" to 14" YP in SE Iowa, IF and I emphasize IF it is done correctly. Very first rule - do not start with the pond having green sunfish! My methods can reliably get yellow perch to the size of 8" to 10" in one summer.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/12/21 04:26 PM.

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Very fortunate to have Pond Boss and these types of conversations, I by all means am so appreciative!

Great way to look at retenone. I personally am more ok with using the chemical than I led on through my earlier text, but it's also great for everyone else who is going to read this to see this. It is plant based chemical afterall! Fish are a natural resource.

I had a seemingly fresh pond, with no LMB and time went on and it was assumed the greenies were dead and gone. I will now know if I get another chance with another body of water, that LMB arent always the main culprit of a self sustaining YP pond, but indeed GSF play a huge factor as well. I do have another pond , which was built the same way in same area with similiar depths that I've stocked YP. This pond had existing populations of the default farm pond species that the Iowa Dnr recommends to only stock...BG, LMB, Crappie, channel cat. I have caught my stocker perch after placing them in the pond, but knew it wouldnt be self sustaining if you will.

The lengths I've gone thus far, I'm not about anything but to keep trying. I'm with you Bill Cody, LmB seem to be kind of the only option to rid and knock down the greenies at this point, because what other species is going to take care of them like they do? I cant think of any from experience anyway. SMB would cost me to purchase for stocking even if we were confident it was a pertinent player in what were trying to achieve. LMB, I can get free, any size, depends on amount a little bit however. I do not like the idea of putting LMB in at this point, but fully understand it is needed.

I also might try to heavily trap and see just how many are left in there(approx). Also, see where the YP population is at, then add some predators to hunt down the remaining, or help keep the greenies knocked down enough for some recruitment. I do worry that I wouldnt be able to fully clean out the pond of LMB if I put even a handful in. They seem do so well with recruitment.

Ultimate goal is a good perch fishery. The YP havent had a full year in the pond yet. If SMB was a go, theyd be swimming in there asap!

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All a pond needs without bass is one pair of GSF. After two spawns and no bass the Greenies capable of being a big threat of over abundant pests. I have pictures of GSF filled with eggs at 2.5" long! If posting pics were easier I would include the pic. Best of all luck trying to remove GSF with trapping or seining. GSF will eadily enter baited fish traps with some bread or pet food as bait inside. In the right conditions members here in the past have grown GSF to 10" long and as desired guests to dinner. Plan on each 10"-12" LMB eating 300 to 350 greenies per year. Greenies are not as wide body as BG so swallowing them for a bass is easy stuff.

As I recall no one here has posted about the success of using SMB as good predators of GSF. Smallies search the structure for foods especially crayfish/ So both GSF & SMB will live close to near shore habitat so they should frequently encounter each other. However in a side by side test I tend to doubt SMB would equal or exceed the consumption of GSF compared to LMB. In 2006 I did a study of LMB added to a small pond to control a dominant population of GSF. I should go back to that pond in 2022 and check how well the LMB have performed during the past 15 years. That same type of study should be done using SMB instead of LMB.

By all means keep us appraised about the progress of your YP fishery.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/12/21 07:45 PM.

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Bill:

If LMB are added to the pond to control the GSF, could they be managed via slot culling like is done in ponds that are managed for large BG? Remove LMB that are over 14" long and you shouldn't have them eating the larger YP.

Just because I don't have a history with the ponds that I am asked to Rotenone, I always figure on using the .6 ac/ft per gallon dosage for an application rate. That will kill bullheads and common carp in an organic rich pond.

I too have seen GSF as small as 2.5" full of eggs.


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Originally Posted by Bill Cody
As I recall no one here has posted about the success of using SMB as good predators of GSF.
IME SMB are much better at eating small YP than they are at controlling my BGxRES (closest thing to SMB on GSF action I can relate to).

Cody Note - Yes I agree. GSF reduction via SMB could be somewhat successful due to the measurable more slender body shape of the GSF compared to HBG or BG. However I have no data to verify this. I think it will take some practical experience to enlighten us about this SMB eating GSF. . I will be working on this but it will take a couple years. Definitely the SMB will eat more YP compared to sunfish when those two prey items are equal density. YP might be more frequently consumed by SMB because small GSF are more structure affiliated compared to YP. Frequency of Encounters and definitely amount of cover or habitat I think have a lot to do with predation.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/13/21 05:12 PM. Reason: spell correct the to they and added postscript

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Update on the coveted perch pond. Fished the pond a quite a few times in the springtime. For a southeast IA pond I was surprised at the results I found. Along with some YP, I had stocked at the most, a handful of pumpkinseed sunfish as well. The growth of the pumpkinseeds was astonishing, but even more so, the growth they had achieved in such a small amount of time. Sure seems like I caught a lot more than I stocked, and they were mostly full grown seeming, which caught me off guard. Big hand sizers. We don't have them very regularly here in Southern IA in the lakes. Further north lakes, yes they're there. They were a blast plucking them out in the shallow moss and growth. As summer rolled in, their bite slowed. Onward with the green sunfish project. Trapped numerous out and caught a bunch as well. Took out a couple hundred easily. Was able to use a lot of them as flathead bait on the river nearby a few evenings. I did catch about a dozen YP. All were about 7 inches or so. I did select fish for male, arge mouth bass nearby, tried my best at picking out males only. I stocked 9 LMb with the sizes according to what I was told to stock above. Probably not near enough for the GSF population to get decimated by any means, but we will see. I will get on the ice there this winter to do some analyzing of what I have going on. A couple YP through the hole would have me smiling. I know they're in there still after my spring/summer analysis. I will build a pond one day, and YP will be the main theme!

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Thanks for taking time for returning with a pond update.

Are you able to post a nice close side picture of your pumpkinseed sunfish? Put the picture on a server and then just add the link to it here on a post.

Keep trapping the GSF on a weekly basis. They will readily enter wire mesh traps placed near shore with no bait. I like Gee Minnow traps best. I removed about 3000 small GSF in a small pond this open water season using 3 - 4 minnow traps with no bait. Trap openings can be enlarged for catching slightly larger GSF.

The 9 LMB will eat a lot of fish and a big percent of them will be GSF because the two species have similar niches. Your 9 LMB should be able to eat around 2500-3000 small fish per year. Hopefully most of them will be GSF.
To maintain decent numbers of YP with those bass you will have to regularly add some 7" long YP each year. The LMB will likely eat most all the yearling YP that are produced each year. The more 7" YP you can add the better the fishing for YP will be.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 11/30/22 09:28 PM.

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Ditto what Bill said about the update. Here's praying that you were successful in only stocking Male LMB. The only way I know to reliably figure out the sex of LMB is to use a catheter prior to them spawning.


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+1 on the sexing via the catheter tube. any other method is a 50/50 shot

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Thank you, Bill Cody, esshup, and Snipe.
I will try and get a photo or two up of the pumpkinseeds. I did purchase a fish trap that's quite large, and that was pretty successful in trapping all sizes of the GSF. I also used some of the budget friendly fish traps that

worked ok at catching them as well. Was able to catch 15+ at a time in the cheaper traps, and 30+ in the large trap. That's good information on about how much the 9 bass that were stocked will be able to eat in a years'

time. I do plan to do some more stocking of yellow perch and hoping I can get my hands on numerous 7+ inch YP in doing so. We will have to see what happens with the LMB introduction as far as sex. I knew it was a

50/50 chance. Bottom line, the pond needed LMB added, as they're the proven technique to get rid of GSF. Having the capability to accurately sex the LMB would've been very beneficial. I do plan to check ratio's and if I

can ever get those in check with YP as the end goal, I will then start trying to cull the bass if it makes sense to at that point, which I could foresee being the biggest challenge yet. I am aware of what the presence of LMB

does to a pond with YP in it, so the sooner I can limit the bass population, the better off I will be. I am understanding I am on a road, and a long one at that, most likely, in trying to turn this pond around for a trophy YP pond.

I still have hope and will keep monitoring and trying. I'd be curious to hear about a fresh pond, fresh start, on a mostly successful YP pond, and what problems occurred that needed fixing within the fishery as time went on.

Someday I will start from scratch, with a fresh body of pond water!

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Great update, I'm still working on getting YP established in my pond. I believe this is year 3 since my first fall stocking. My pond is close to 3 acres. It has bluegill, LMB,BCP, and CC. I stocked 300 7-9 inch YP.The first spring I saw eggs everywhere. That summer I caught a few YP while crappie fishing. last year was a tough year so I didn't do much fishing in the pond and I never caught any. I also didn't notice any eggs this Spring. I stocked 300 more 7-9 inchers in October of this year. Over that time we have removed every bass caught over 7 inches and IM still working on removing all CC as I believe they are my main YP predators. I too am seeking a successful YP pond.


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Growing yellow perch in a pond with largemouth bass is a BIG CHALLENGE. With also channel catfish makes it an even bigger challenge.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/09/22 09:32 PM.

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It is, a challenge, a big one. I do have experience with trying to establish a perch pond with LMB and CC within the depths. That pond is about an acre in size. I did have some luck catching some yp ice fishing, but soon after I couldn't catch even one. I did find some strands of eggs after initial extensive stocking the following spring, but nothing to show for it as far as yp. Just too successful predation of the yp from the LMB and CC I assume. Thanks for weighing in here John and I hope you can turn things around to your favor! 3 acres of water sounds fun to be working with, but also challenging. I want to add, that in the same pond, I also had crappie in it as well. They could account for some of your loss of yp in my opinion. At this point, thats why I moved my focus to another 1 acre pond that was a fresh start, so I thought, but nope, green sunfish had naturally overtaken the pond. I wish there were a solution like barriers or grow out cages, or some alternative, believe me.

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I am confident if I try hard enough I can remove 99% of the CC. The LMB are another issue, but I’ve had this pond 15 years plus and I’ve seen what can be done by culling properly. When I first bought the place I could catch 100 in 30 minutes to an hour 12-14 inches. You could pretty much do that all day in the summer. After culling umpteen thousands I started noticing the size classes were much broader and as the years went by I started getting all size classes of bluegill and less lmb catches. However, some of the biggest lmb were caught during the years after that and one female that hit just over 10lbs. Lots of 3-4 pounders as well. A few years ago my interest and direction for the pond changed after YP fishing up in SD. Those were the best tasting fish I’ve ever had a notch above walleye in my opinion. Since YP can survive and thrive here in NE Kansas I figured why not?I may end up finding I need to restart the pond, but for now being early in the game I’m gonna keep trying it this way. I’m also hoping to build a smaller pond in an uphill area I can drain into the bigger pond when I want. I’d like to grow forage in it and possibly just fatten up some YP than can get away from predators in my pond.


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We have the same want it sounds like John, driven by the same force. I too, fish near Webster, SD as well as anywhere local I can catch YP. Last winter I traveled to Lacrosse, WI for giant perch on the Mississippi River. That was unreal. Those are the best looking YP in the country in my opinion, except maybe Cascade in Idaho! Keep striving for your goal. I do think there could be something to a fresh start, hard to justify that considering all things, I understand. Good luck.

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John,

That sounds like you had an awesome LMB pond by Kansas standards once you started managing your bass population.

However, I suspect it would be extremely difficult for YP that hatched in your pond to make it past the crappie and BG predation, and then to grow to any significant size through the LMB and CC predation.

Is there any place on your property that you could build a small grow-out pond?

If you had such a pond, you could put in YP forage and then add YP that you pellet feed. When they are large enough, drain and seine the pond and transfer your YP to the main pond. Hold back a few breeding pairs of YP, and let them fill your grow-out pond again for the next cycle.

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