Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait yellow perch

Hi, I am thinking about adding yellow perch to my ponds, I live in Illinois across the Mississippi river from St. Louis. I have a good crop of bluegill for forage but I think yellow perch would be fun to catch for the grandkids. Can they take over a pond if there is a good bass population. I have a few walleye in the pond also.

Howdy and welcome, Byron

Per Dr. Perca (Wild Bill Cody), if you are talking LMB, YP will probably need periodic restocking in order to maintain a long term presence. If you mean SMB (or HSB, I believe), YP numbers would have to be watched and may need manual adjusting to keep under control.

He also says YP are the shape of forage that Walleye prefer.

On an aside: I have never been to Alaska - the biggest mosquitoes I have ever seen were in East St. Louis.

"Dr. Perca" also says that if you are stocking yellow perch into a pond with mature LMB (13"-16") and you expect the YP to survive more than year, one should stock at least 8" YP and better yet 9"-10" YP are even more likely to survive long enough to reproduce. 6"to 8" YP are very expensive bass food. Someone should please post the photo from Dr.Dave's PBoss article (Mar-Apr07) showing a 13"-14" LMB with an 7"-8" perch down its throat. I wish I had a copy of that photo; very educational indeed.