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

Hardwood branches aren't dense enough.

Here are some photos of what I laid on top of the ice for YP spawn structure, they have now fell through and sank into the shallows for the YP to spawn in and around. I was happy to have had easy access to the stick tree you see in a photo as well as the cedar trees. I will be looking for ribbons come early spring.

Those will be good egg hatching areas for YP ribbons. They will float to shore when the ice melts which is good because the water is warmer there during spring YP spawn. If fry have a good survival percentage you should have a good year class in 2023. If not, something ate the fry or zooplankton was not abundant enough to feed lots of fry. Ice and water clarity look good so suspended silt should not be a problem for egg hatching.

You have LMB in the pond? Since I see you have green sunfish in the pond, trap as many as possible as soon as the water gets above 40F. Even 1" GSF love eating YP fry.

I stocked 9 LMB last summer. I do have the pile weighted down with cinder block, but on a 5 ft rope, so they have a little play as to where they choose to stay for good. Some of the other pile is weighted down directly too, so should be a little variation. The ponds clarity is very good. Has always had been in the CRP program all around it since the build, so not much silting, and cloudiness as I've seen in other ponds in the area. Trapping and fishing will hopefully take care of more of the GSF. I will likely provide pictures in April if I can find some ribbons/spawning.

Your anchored brush for YP egg laying could easily be too far offshore for you to see the egg ribbons. My water is pretty clear and i place all my bush for ribbon collection with bottom butts on the bank so majority of the brush is in 6" to 2 ft of water depth so I can find and remove egg ribbons. YP will readily come into shoreline water to lay the eggs. IMO your brush will collect egg ribbons it is just you may not see very many of them due to depth and deeply placed ribbons.

After the LMB spawn in the pond the high numbers of fingerling and juvenile bass will eat very high numbers of the 1" to 4" YP before they grow to the 8" harvest size. Larger bass of 13"-15" will be eating 5"-7" YP. Young GSF will prey heavily on the YP fry. Don't be surprised if you don't catch very many 9"-10" YP in 4 years. Hopefully the amount of habitat as brush and some weed beds will provide enough refuge cover to grow you some YP for tasty fish fillet meals.

My hope was that I got lucky and put only 9 MALE LMB in, equalling no LMB spawn, but unfortunately I'm sure there are a few females in the mix of 9. At this point I will try and catch some of the 9 bass and relocate them elsewhere and out of this pond, and with any luck, it won't be too late after a bass spawn occurs. GSF are still a problem, so stocking HSB may be what I revert to, to try and skew the four year outlook. Going to be an uphill battle, but it was from the start, and I'm pretty happy with what I've been able to achieve with the YP so far. Thank you for the advice on the spawn structure, I have read many, if not all your posts about it. I will have structure just as you have mentioned with the butt ends at shore for good viewing of ribbons, if avaliable. I was pleasantly surprised in the recruitment achieved in last years spawn, despite the abundant gsf. What I believe helped, is the amount of weeds beds that are around the edges of the pond. I'm sure the YP last year were using mainly the year priors ledtover weed beds that were and are still present. You can see the weed beds through the ice this winter even. Another interesting part to the whole YP pond equation is that I have pumpkinseed sunfish, ans they have achieved recruitment as well. Will be curious to see what role they will play with the YP.

PS will have the same effect as BG (other than high recruitment numbers). That is PS will eat very small YP and YP will eat small PS.

Unless you used a catheter on the LMB during spawning season there is no way to positively tell if the LMB are male or female. (Well, a DNA test would tell you too, but that costs more $$) If they DO pull off a spawn in the pond, then all bets are off.

Trying to catch 9 previously angler jaw jerked LMB will TRULY TEST your angler ability. Do some serious intense finesse fishing before the LMB spawn. If you can manage to catch all 9 LMB you could be on the Bass Pro angler circuit. By all means return and let us know how the bass removal goes this spring. This will be educational. One remaining bass will be okay in the YP pond. I have one customer with all perch and he uses harvest and 1 LMB to help control numbers of YP. Works very good for him.

PS will eat some YP fry but NOT nearly as many of small YP as the GSF. Plus in my experience PS are not as prolific as GSF. GSF are truly a PEST for most pond fisheries. I would also remove small PS until you know you have good spawns of YP. Then use numerous PS to help control numbers of fry and small YP. Annual small fish trapping will be a primary management effort as long as you have GSF in the pond.

I'm laughing a little at this, but in all honesty, it will be difficult to catch the bass back out of the pond, no doubt, and I will probably go down swinging. However, I do believe they have helped in ridding of numerous GSF, which has enabled for some target fishing/samplng of the YP. Without the help of the LMB, I wouldn't be where I am at now in the pond. Just a double edge sword in this case with the LMB. I just wish HSB were known to successfully be able to control the high, nuisance population of GSF as well as the LMB do, but no one could 100% prove this. It's just we all known YP and LMB will not work, period. That was my thought too, exactly, Bill Cody on the pumpkinseeds within the pond. Removal of LMB and small PS, and of course the GSF. Anything for the YP...do the YP really deserve this much consideration and effort? Yes!

Also, that is quite interesting in the one LMB per pond and harvest method for the one customer. Customer? What do you sell/offer?

#1 would be knowledge. He has a doctorate in Algal Taxonomy. If you want to know what types of and how much algae is in your pond, send him a preserved water sample. He can tell you. I'll let him fill in the rest.

Since I have lots of education in aquatic biology, all the locals call me the Pond Doctor. Thus as a side business, I help lots of locals manage their ponds. I have a long resume of my main business. Currently I routinely in the summer usually weekly identify algae for numerous OH and IN municipal water reservoir treatment plants and companies doing environmental surveys. I currently work with the local university for their algae projects and studies. This past year the university had me identifying algae from Lake Victoria, Africa. Lake V is a big one and is larger than each of the Great Lakes except Lk Superior. Previously have helped several other universities and Academy of Natural Sciences Phila.PA for algae studies. Also presently I am doing a long term study involving identifications of zooplakton, phytoplankton and attached algae aka periphyton from the Kootenai River Idaho. Other projects have involved identifications of all the Orders of benthic invertebrates and larval fishes. I stay busy!

^^ In other words he spends a LOT of time looking at things in a microscope.

Very good, Bill. Thanks for explaining. Lucky to have you with the specializations in these departments.