Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Help with Yellow Perch - small, small, small

Are the oldest or largest bass large enough to be eating the 7"-8" perch? Okay. I read earlier that the bass are 10-14". The bigger 13"-14" bass are near large enough to start eating the 6"-7" perch. Next year you should see the 7" perch numbers decrease.

What do you mean by lots of small bluegills? What sizes are they? Can you or have you trapped some of them and measured them. Are they this years BG or last years BG? I think this can be one of the problems in the NORTH of stocking BG one year before any predators. Too many BG result. This is why most of the standard literature suggests fewer and smaller numbers of BG be stocked in northern ponds. Stocking northern ponds can produce different results compared to stocking southern ponds to produce trophy LMB.

Considering all the predators that you listed I am wondering why you have a lot of small BG?

What is the rest of the perch population like? Do you have several sizes of perch or just one size the 7.5"ers? Evidently from your posts all you catch are those abt the size in the photo = 7.5". I suspect that with too many predators the perch you are catching could be those original stock of Jones. Perch could not be getting enough of the right foods to eat, plus all the bass competition and are not growing beyond the 7.5" size. Also or maybe Jones could have sold you a graded size of perch and most of them were males, thus the slow growth and lack of reproduction?

Are you using Aquashade in the pond?

Do you have reproduction from the LMB, SMB and Crappie?