Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Yellow Perch in Kansas?

Deep water in a pond situation will stratify to form warm and cold layers. Problem is for almost all ponds, where spring water does not flow in, the cold layer almost always looses its oxygen during mid-summer. Pond age, productivity, and water clarity determine how fast the deep water looses its oxygen. Thus no fish, not even perch live in that deep water that has no oxygen so the cooler/cold water is not a benefit for cool water loving fish. Bottom aeration brings the deep cold water to the surface thus warming & oxygenating the bottom zone for fish and invertebrate life. Aeration run time can affect how warm the bottom water becomes.

Hatchery pond raised perch will grow quickly to large sizes in ponds where water gets into the high 80F to I have seen low 90F. YP will grow well in KS ponds especially if YP are pellet trained & fed hi-protein pellets. Proper periods of aeration of the pond during the heat of mid-summer can help more of the old adult perch survive better.

In your case the big benefit to starting a new pond with YP is the pond fishery can be easily changed to other species if the YP are not performing to your goals. However to add perch to an existing fishery especially if LMB are present is quite difficult to maintain them as a good sustainable panfish or the main panfish fish without periodically stocking adults.

In my experience whatever you do start the "perch" based pond without largemouth bass. LMB eat too many YP that would have grown to harvestable fish. LMB can always be added years later in desired. Once LMB are thriving YP density proportionally decreases. For predators use HSB, SMB, walleye(WE) or I have even seen where a few CC will help control excess numbers of YP. Be careful, CC can overpopulate in a pond without bass. For a perch based pond, I prefer predators that have minimal or no reproduction & recruitment. The more control you have of the predator population numbers, the better the YP will be. With reproducing predators there needs to be a 'heavy' harvest of predators to allow YP to achieve their potential for highest numbers of large adults. Remember the more predators present in a YP pond the fewer perch will be available for harvest. So goals and proper fish management are very important to having a high quality yellow perch fishery.

With pellet trained YP in small ponds, I have had very good luck with YP-HSB combo and with only YP and minnows as supplemental foods. As soon as the YP are perceived to be too abundant and YP are not growing, predators can be added to achieve balance.