If you’ve got a body of water on your property, or have access to a pond on someone else’s property, pond stocking should be something you consider. Pond stocking can provide many benefits to the body of water in question, and it can make for some great fishing! We’re here today to tell you why stocking your pond with perch is a good idea, not only for fishing but for the ecosystem of the pond itself.
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The Benefits of Stocking Your Pond
Pond stocking is certainly a way to have a good time, allowing for some great fishing if done well. Did you know that it can actually lead to a healthier body of water overall, though? Here’s a few of the ways that it can accomplish just that.
Environmental Balance
Stocking a pond with different species and providing diversity leads to a healthier ecosystem. When stocking a pond, it is important to focus on the natural environment around you, and what species are native to the area. When looking to stock a pond with non-natice fish, it is of the most importance that you take a look at the role the species plays in the ecosystem, making sure that they’ll have both prey and predators.
Species Management
If your body of water is suffering from overpopulation, whether it be plant or animal in nature, pond stocking can help reduce this overpopulation. Keeping in mind the natural order of things, consider introducing fish that eat harmful weeds that choke out other fish. You can also introduce small populations of carnivorous fish to help control bug and fish populations that you may be worried about overrunning the pond itself. Whatever you do, it’s important to keep an eye on populations as they rise and fall.
Why Perch?
When stocking a pond with fish, yellow perch are an excellent choice for a number of reasons. The first reason, of course, being that they’re a fun game fish! They’re often considered a delicious freshwater fish for frying, and are generally fun to catch. They’re easily identifiable by their black banded sides, with an average size of about eight inches.
Perch are a fantastic pond stocking fish because of their hardy reputation, as they tend to do well in just about any pond you can think of. They maintain a fairly steady population, and they hunt other small fish and invertebrates. While being an active predator, they’re also a prey fish for larger predators, like walleye. Juvenile perch are also a food source for many freshwater predators, including adult perch.
How to Stock a Pond With Perch
When stocking your pond with perch, keep in mind the following needs of the fish for success. If done right, you’ll have a fishable perch pond for years to come.
A Suitable Environment for Perch
Perch prefer bodies of water with vegetation as well as submerged structures like trees. Areas of high vegetation provide a place for perch prey to live, as well as a place for juvenile perch to grow. Larger, submerged trees and branches provide areas for perch to spawn. This is important for maintaining a healthy population, as good spawning areas will be needed to promote population growth.
Water pH should be somewhere in the area of 6 to 9, nearing 7.5 to 8 for optimal conditions. The temperature of the water should range from 70 to 75 degrees on average for optimal conditions, as yellow perch are a northern fish and need cooler temperatures to survive adequately.
When to Stock
When stocking your pond with perch, you’ll want to stock it either in the spring or in the fall. Temperature levels are optimal and oxygen levels tend to be higher, allowing for fish to acclimate more easily than during summer. In almost all cases, stocking should not be done in the winter. If stocking needs to happen in summer, it can be done, but acclimation may take longer and stress will be higher, resulting in a higher mortality rate.
The Stocking Process
When you’ve received your fish, the best way to acclimate them is to follow the steps below:
- Untie the bag that the fish are in, allowing for new oxygen to enter the bag, then reseal it.
- On the edge of the water, submerge the bag while still closed, allowing no water to enter or exit the bag. If hot outside, cover the bag with a towel.
- Allow 20 minutes to pass, then remove the towel from the top of the bag.
- Reopen the bag, pouring about a cup of pond water in.
- Reseal the bag, and wait for 10 to 15 minutes to pass.
- Repeat adding a cup of water to the bag after 10 to 15 minutes has passed. Repeat this step 2 to 3 times.
- After the last waiting period of 10 to 15 minutes, open the bag, and allow the pond water to fill it. The fish will be able to then swim into the pond freely, and will be acclimated.
The entire process can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour per bag of fish.
Options on How to Stock – Brooding Adults or Fingerlings
When stocking your perch pond, you’ll have the option to stock it with brooding adults or fingerlings. This is all entirely based on what you’re looking for in a pond, and the amount of time that you have.
Stock your pond with brooding adults if: The pond’s population is already established, and yellow perch are being introduced. This helps to ensure a breeding population in the years to come. Keep in mind that perch can overpopulate easily if not heavily maintained, so stocking with adult perch may not be your best option if you cannot monitor the population closely to begin with.
Stock your pond with fingerlings if: You are currently establishing the population of your pond, and there are few predators to eat your yellow perch. This will allow for the perch to grow in the years to come, and then begin breeding once they have reached maturation. Fingerlings are the best method when playing the long game with your body of water.
It is recommended that in either case you stock your pond with approximately 150 to 200 perch per surface acre initially, monitoring the population after one to two years and restocking if necessary.
What to Stock Yellow Perch With
Perch are both predator and prey, so when stocking it’s important to keep in mind the ecosystem in your pond, as well as the size of it. If perch are going to be the top predator in the pond, make sure to stock it with fathead minnows as a food source. If you have a larger body of water, and need a predator for the perch, stock with walleye, as they will keep rising perch numbers in check.
The Takeaway
Stocking a pond with perch can be a fantastic way to add some game fish to your body of water. They’re some of the best eating freshwater fish available, and are fun to reel in, as well. They provide an excellent service to the food chain, being both predator and prey, and can help keep smaller fish populations in check, as well as any invertebrates that may be in the water. When stocking your pond, consider yellow perch as one of your options!
Sources
- https://www.fws.gov/fisheries/freshwater-fish-of-america/yellow_perch.html
- https://harriettahills.com/fish-stock-pond/
- https://www.aquaticbiologists.com/fish-stocking/
- https://www.lakedoctors.com/benefits-to-fish-stocking/
- https://agrilifetoday.tamu.edu/2020/04/08/when-stocking-ponds-with-fish-stick-to-the-process/
- https://www.thepondguy.com/product/learning-center-pl-tips-for-fish-stocking/learning-center-pl-fish-care
- https://woodlandstewards.osu.edu/sites/woodlands/files/imce/0010_0.pdf
- https://www.solitudelakemanagement.com/effective-fish-stocking-the-right-species-makes-all-the-difference-3/
- https://keystonehatcheries.com/blogs/gamefish/yellow-perch
- https://thefishsite.com/articles/species-profile-yellow-perch-perca-flavescens
- https://www.pondsolutions.com/pages/transfer-fish.html