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

Perch Pond,

How is the fishing for YP when you fish in some of the most popular public waters?

Is it great fishing only at certain times of the year?

Is it good fishing for the good YP anglers and tough for the general public?

(Thanks. We are planning some possible family RV trips since flying is so expensive.)

Fishinrod, I do have several acres above the pond. One of my goals is to build a small pond above I can raise forage and YP in to larger sizes and flush them into the big pond. It only takes money right?🤣 I’m hoping in the next two years I can get one built, but might have to wait until inflation is back under control. I know after 15 years or so with this pond how well I can effect fish populations by proper culling and feeding. You just have to keep after it or you’ll start to go backwards.

John, I hope your plan comes to fruition.

If you design the upper pond such that it also serves to trap sediments, you should extend the life of your main pond.

That way, you would actually be SAVING money in the long run. (Think your wife will believe that one?)

The Mississippi River pools between lock and dam 7 and dam 8 is the stretch I fished on and mainly referring to in having the trophy YP fishery. Whatever has happened with managing that fishery and the river itself, it

worked tremendously well. Some true giants in there and love the coloration on those healthy-looking fish. Makes you dream pretty big of creating your own mini opportunity at fish like that, at least it did me! I kind of

freelanced by myself for a few days and caught a few fish on the ice, then the last day I had an opportunity at an airboat ride out where the general public cannot reach on the river. That was a day I'll never forget perch

fishing. The morning at sunup was hottest bite, then slowly tapered off during day, but managed to pick them here and there and that is usually the common consensus on most public water perch fishing. There are a few

lakes in Iowa that have YP, but not much to show for actual trophy size YP however, at least on a semi consistent basis. Ice fishing Dec 15th- ice out would be a great time to target YP in public waters, because they're

more grouped together and more easily targeted I suppose. Don't have to be an expert fisherman by any means, just have to know where the perch are, and in unknown territories sometimes it pays to ask or even pay a

guide or someone that knows something, no shame in learning and spending a little bit in something I'm passionate about is how I justified anything when it came to finding the perch. Northeast Iowa, Decorah, Waukon,

and then just north of them into and near Lacrosse, Wisconsin and Minnesota is right there too! Beautiful bluff country and the streams are full of trout too near Decorah, IA! Hope this helps answer.

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showgallery&Number=554196

Here's some of the pumpkinseed sunfish I caught in the perch pond.

To my eye they look like pumpkinseed hybrids. At least the last picture has more darker banding and is hybrid with something else. What else in the pond or from the stocking source could have hybridized? GSF maybe?

GSF are in the pond, yes. I wonder how big they can get if they're hybridized.

Forage availability will dictate most of that growth, with length of growing season also a factor.
Forage in ample amounts at the right sizes means best growth will occur with less competition.
WR of fish caught is a snapshot in time, but if you do it throughout the season, you will see a pattern emerge.
Fast growing Sunfish are commonly 140%-up WR (weight ratio), others here refer to RW-Relative weight-same alpha and beta are used in the equations. If you are interested in this, I can look up the charts, They are in the archives here. I also have the values to plug in to spread sheet for grams and mm, which-to me-is more accurate than ounces and inches.

Perch Pond, I really hope you are successful in getting good numbers of nice sized YP in your pond. My pond is just south of you in NE Missouri. If I had to do it all over again, I’d just have YP, and not much else. We love to catch and eat them. I just can’t keep them going. Every year I have fewer and fewer egg ribbons. And fewer and fewer edible sized YP. Years ago I foolishly thought I was going to have a great YP pond. I kept and ate many. (Probably a few too many females were consumed.)
We don’t catch very many any more, and the ones we catch are pretty small.
I stocked a few HBG, they and my RES have really multiplied. I’m guessing they hurt the YP fry. I’ve got American Pond Weed coming on in the last few years. Maybe that’ll help my YP. I stocked more YP a few years ago. Still trying.

Jeff, make sure you have YP spawning habitat in the pond. Their egg skeins don't do so well if they are laying on the bottom. They need to be up off the bottom so water can circulate all around them. Then once the eggs hatch, the fry and fingerlings need dense cover to hide in to avoid predation.

Update on the perch pond. I was able to get on the ice for an evaluation. First fish was probably an 8-inch perch or so. Ended up catching 15-20 perch in all. I also caught a handful of little sized YP. This had me most excited. I think I have achieved some repopulation/recruitment. Seemed if I fished in the shallower water, I could get away from the GSF pretty well! I'm thinking that I have recruitment for sure, by the size of the little YP caught. Probably 3 or 4 inches. Haven't put any in that size on initial stocking two and 3 years ago. Let me know if the photos I have attached are available to preview.

Beautifully colored fish! Congrats on the reproduction.

B & W too.

Lots of branches and American Pond Weed around the edges. We just see fewer and fewer ribbons every year. I restocked some small YP a few years ago, we are catching a few of them. Not keeping any.

Toss a bunch of Christmas trees in there so the tops of them (when they are laying over) are in 2'-5' of water. The American Pond Weed and regular tree branches won't do much for their success in spawning, they need denser material so the skein isn't all clumped up gets water movement around it.

I think I will try this too. Thank you esshup.

I was curious to after viewing the size of the YP in my above photos, what can I expect in size without supplemental

feeding for those females to get? Very open question I understand, but anyone with experience of YP growth rate in

their pond, I would be happy to hear what they found for growth and what I could possibly expect in the future. I would

love to supplemental feed, but it would be nonsense to do with the GSF still very present in the pond. Also, with the

size of the juvenile YP shown in above photos, would any of you be confident to say that is indeed recruited fish? The

smallest perch I stocked 2 years ago were 4-6 inch fish, so my thinking is these are proof of reproduction has taken

place. I'm surprised as I would think the GSF would've eaten any kind of perch fry. Can anyone enlighten me on what

Their thoughts are on this?

"...smallest perch I stocked 2 years ago were 4-6 inch fish, so my thinking is these are proof of reproduction has taken

place."

The YP in your pictures that are in your hand seem to be 4-5" max if my hand is similar in size, so I would guess you've pulled off a YP spawn with some recruitment.

Regarding the GSF potentially eating all the YP fry, I think you'd have to be way overpopulated with GSF to get no recruitment from other fish species. The better cover you have for YOY, the better recruitment you'll get.

Sunil, I have done some pretty intensive work in eliminating as many GSF as I can within my means. I just think there probably is an abundance in the pond still, and probably an over-population of them. Which is mostly how I am so surprised at the recruitment of YP present upon last fishing session. Potentially I eliminated enough to make just enough of a difference in last years YP spawn in there.

If we can agree that you're getting YP recruitment, then I'd keep doing what you're doing and try to intensify any aspects that you can. Maybe get more structure for YOY YP to hide in, increase GSF culling efforts, etc.

Larger YP in the pictures will be your original stockers and they are plump females carrying eggs. Smaller YP in pics are probably this year's crop or maybe males from 2021 hatch. Keep trapping the GSF especially prior to their onset of spawning of 59F. The more GSF females you can remove prior to spawning the better your chances of having better YP survival in 2023 and beyond.

Thanks guys. I will continue to remove GSF. I just got back from the "perch pond". I cut 4 good sized Eastern Red Cedars and placed them on the ice, ready to deploy and sink in around 2-5ft. Also, had a goofy looking tree that I think will be a great addition to the YP spawn habitat with my bundled and weighted cedars. It's approximately 5ft in diameter with twigs shooting up and sideways unlike you see most trees do. I do have photos of it. I will try and drop those in the photo gallery section as I'm not having luck doing here via cell phone. The brush is sitting ready for deployment as the ice melts later on and placed in the southeast corner of the pond as I've read on another thread others have had luck on this end of their water. Fun stuff. I also am going down the rabbit hole of tanking some YP egg ribbons, or at least reading up on old threads from some of you on here and thinking more seriously of the idea of trying.

"I also am going down the rabbit hole of tanking some YP egg ribbons..."

Nothing ventured, nothing gained!!

I can get my hands on a bunch of cedar trees before the end of March. Those should be ok, correct? Or, is cedar too dense? I’ve just thrown in oak and hickory branches in the past. Most ribbons are still being laid in the leaves and FA.

never hurts to try. My YP also prefer the layer of oak leaves in SUPER shallow water (8-10") perhaps due to it warming up the quickest there? The first strands are always on the leaf covered areas and in the shallow/warm corner. I then usually see them show up next around little snags sticking up, like stiff reeds or sedges, or will even find crannies or pockets in artificial structure that is left in the pond. IT seems they prefer to lay eggs in all these other places and conditions rather than drape them over the branches that I leave out. Some branches certainly attract egg strands. Maybe I need DENSE branches like Christmas trees?

For fun, maybe take 2 or 3 old 5 gallon buckets and bore various size holes (or square openings) in the sides (maybe a 3" 5" and then 8-10" hole) FWhen planning holes, figure on laying the buckets on their side so plan holes on opposite long sides at different heights in the water column. Throw a rock in there to hold the bucket in place, put them in different spots and depths and see how many of the openings end up with egg strand draped through it.

You could use a 'Christmas Tree Bit' to woller out the holes or use a battery powered angle grinder to make square or triangle shaped holes. For fun leave some saw tooth shapes on the bottom edge of the opening to see if having something for the YP to hook the egg strand on to help pull it out is really what draw them. See if the eggs are on the holes with the sawtooth edges vs the smooth edges.

My theory is that the brush helps them get some traction on the strand and get it elongated and draped out. It seems having a pivot or tether point on the egg strand is what I see as a common theme in my pond. I'm probably all wet, but it just an observation.