Good study on what YP eat in yr. 0/1 and beyond.

Age-0 and Age-1 Yellow Perch Diet in Southeastern Lake Michigan

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/pubs/fulltext/2000/20000006.pdf


Large macroinvertebrates were the main prey
eaten by age-0 yellow perch in October 1998 and
by age-1 yellow perch in June 1999. At the 15-m
site off Muskegon in October 1998, Gammarus spp.
and Isopoda were found in nearly 71% of the age-0
yellow perch, and accounted for 71 and 26%, respectively,
of the diet by weight (Table 1). The following
spring (June 1999) at 15-m off Muskegon,
Gammarus spp. and Isopoda were only a small part
of the age-1 yellow perch diet, and Chironomidae
and Mysis relicta were mainly eaten. At the 25- to
35-m site in October 1998, age-0 yellow perch fed
mainly on M. relicta, which occurred in 100 and
80% of the fish containing food off Muskegon and
St. Joseph, respectively, and accounted for almost
all of the diet by weight at both sites (> 96%)
The high occurrence of Gammarus spp. and
Isopoda in yellow perch diets suggests ongoing
changes in the nearshore benthic community are occurring.
Neither have been reported as an important
prey item for age-0 or older yellow perch in southeastern
Lake Michigan throughout the year (Wells
1980, Crowder et al. 1981, Baker et al. 1992).
Gammarus spp. densities in spring 1999 at an 18-m
site off St. Joseph were 42/m2 (T. Nalepa, unpublished
data) and higher compared to historical densities
throughout southeast Lake Michigan (Nalepa
and Quigley 1980, Winnell 1984, Nalepa 1989).