Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Yellow perch in Mississippi?

We are having a pond built (about a 1/2 acre) and thinking about what to stock it with. I really want to have yellow perch and try and grow them big but not sure if they'll survive. If anyone knows please respond.

Thanks y'all

Yellow Perch - Mississippi

Above is an older post from somebody else in Mississippi looking at YP. It may be possible. I would say trying to find a local distributor, water depth, habitat will all be important.

Are they the top predator in the pond?

What will be the top predator in the pond?

I hear YP have a tendancy to overpopulate if left unchecked. It's a delicate balancing act that I am trying to figure out for a pond in KS as well.

Good luck on the new pond.

Jordan What part of MS are you located? MS is a long North and South state. Northern areas of MS would more likely have YP surviving. It is the YP larger than 10" that have trouble surviving when the water gets above 85F.

Where are you finding a supplier to purchase them? I'm in TN and can't find anywhere remotely near to purchase them. I have a deep spring fed pond that i'd like to try them out in.

Bob, I haven't found anyone in Mississippi yet but Jones lake management is licensed for Tennessee and has YP, SMB, and a bunch of other cold and warm water game fish.

Yea, But they can't sell them in TN. . when I first started looking I thought I could buy them through them. At the bottom of the page it'll show which states they can sell each fish to.

Well let me know if you find one then.

Bill likely has the most important question here. Top end temps could potentially be the downfall of your LARGE perch. Depth would be your friend here, but depending how hot it gets might dictate thriving vs surviving. I'm in southern Ohio, but even here, I only run my aerator close to sun up when the surface water is coolest to limit warmer water mixing with my cooler water.

Maybe not " sell them in TN" but they can be picked up at farm if you have the equipment to haul them in. Doesn't take much to haul a few hundred YP. Especially in cooler temps.
As long as TN has no restrictions on YP in a pond...

Zetts in Pennsylvania, not the one in West Virginia, will overnight them to you. The owners are difficult to deal with and shipping is expensive but if you can get them in the colder weather months they will survive the process. Fenders out of Ohio also worked with me, delivering halfway to my location where I picked up 300 4” perch in 8 boxes. They survived @7 hours of vehicle travel. I live in nc.

I haven't found Zett's in Drifting, PA. to be 'difficult' to deal with, however, they have a process that they follow, and they are set in their ways.

What size and number of perch would you guys recommend for a 1/2 acre pond?

What other fish are in the pond (species, size and quantity), how much vegetation is in the pond and will you be pellet feeding your fish?

Last year I dumped in around 8# of FHM, couple hundred RES and some BG mixed in as well. Was supposed to be all RES, but the fish wagon let me down, imagine that haha. I've also got one lonely 8" rainbow in there. Some of the BG are around 4-5" now. So i'd imagine I'd want to add larger YP in the 4"+ range if at all possible? Then hold off on my small mouth another year to give them a decent chance at getting some size on them. Once I get to full pool i will almost certainly add a feeder.

Maybe 50 @ 4-6"?

Did you see the thread linked in post 2 above? It will be difficult to get good performance out of YP in MS unless you have non-typical water temps in a pond here.

Give it a try and please report your results.

With that said, I say look at 100 4"-6" YP, and if you talk to the hatchery and they said they are pellet trained, get the feeder set up before the perch go in. If not, you will lose growth on the YP.

If the pond isn't full now, you have a short window to get dense brushy cover in the pond so it's covered by 2'-3' of water - that will be the spawning habitat for the YP.

It's easier to get cover in the pond prior to it filling with water, MUCH easier.

You will want to have underwater plants established for the YOY YP to utilize for cover to help avoid predation from the SMB when they are stocked in 2025..

As mentioned, I would get the feeder set up now. Sure you'll maybe have to move it when the pond fills, but still. Why waste the time?

For bob_esper12 - Be aware since you in Tennessee have had an unplanned introduction of BG in to the pond, history shows that SMB will not do a very good job or controlling the high reproduction capable by BG. It will take only one spawn of BG to begin the BG overpopulation problem. Make plans NOW on ways to annually remove or reduce numerous BG. YIMO it will not take long when you may eventually have to resort to adding LMB to keep the BG numbers significantly reduced and the fishery in more of a normal balance. Some fish species stunting could occur fairly quickly due to too many BG.

LMB will probably initially favor eating YP until their numbers are low density then switch to eating wider bodied sunfish. IMO do not let the BG get way out of balance before deciding to add LMB. With LMB and you want some YP you would probably have to periodically add some stocker sized YP to the fishery.

One option would be to stock both SMB and LMB in a high SMB ratio: 75%-80% SMB, 20%-25% LMB. This would give you better chance of having a SMB - YP fishery in the pond's early history.

Please return regularly and keep us updated in this thread about your pond's progress. Thanks and good luck with this new pond.

I want to offer an alternative to the LMB stocking...
We need to check on TN regs and see if we can stock Saugeye. Far more effective at knocking BG down because of hybrid vigor, and for reasons unknown, they prefer that shape of the smaller sunfish over the more fusiform shapes.
Keep a eye on things and let's see what happens.
Like Bill, I have had little to no success with SMB controlling BG, just doesn't work.

This could be the sweet saugeye case study we want!!!

Snipe, If you can figure out how to get some to me i'd love to put some in haha. Would HSB do a decent job of BG control?

HSB in normal conditions and numbers don't do an adequate job of controlling BG. Much the same as SMB.

Saugeye - another cool water fish in a very warm water environment.

If legal give it a shot and post results !

I was refering to bob_esper12 that BC was referring to the accidental BG stocking.. Sorry, lost track of original post topic.