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Author Topic: Male and Female Yellow Perch  (Read 39264 times)

taxid

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #15 on: Mar 18, 2011, 06:06 PM »
hmm whats the purpose of raising um for food or stocking and how deeps your pond ? and how big

I raise trophy size perch for sale to Bass Pro Shops for their show tanks which I deliver annually to their main store and quarantine facility in Springfield, MO. I also raise some of them sold frozen to taxidermists for taxidermy competitions and their show rooms.  In most states game fish caught out of public waters are illegal to sell but it's O.k. if they are privately raised. Therefore this demand and the fact that a taxidermist can't necessarily go out and catch a trophy fish when he needs to.  There are exceptions on the legality. Some states allow the sale of panfish out of public waters and some states don't allow gamefish for sale except for stocking purposes.

I raise other species to trophy size also. Right now  yellow perch, bluegills, and smallmouth bass. I was raising brown and brook trout but have stopped that temporarily.

I have four ponds on the property. The biggest one is .62 acres.  11 feet max depth. Depth isn't important as I run a small diffuser in the shallow ends in the winter to prevent winterkill.

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monkeyman2269

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #16 on: Mar 18, 2011, 06:42 PM »
do u make good money?

pikeslayer

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #17 on: Mar 18, 2011, 06:56 PM »
whats the biggest perch you've ever raised

havens88

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #18 on: Mar 18, 2011, 07:48 PM »
Now thats a cool job.

taxid

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #19 on: Mar 18, 2011, 09:09 PM »
do u make good money?

Not yet, but I'm working on it.  :-\  I get good money for each individual fish but don't have the sales yet to feel like I'm really making money.

Like any business there's overhead like feed, utilities, fertilizer, labor.

Edit:

Oh and one of the biggest expenses: Health testing. I had to destroy 60 fish and pay $300.00 to have them tested for the VHS virus. Never mind it's never been found on a fish farm and probably never will be. It will cost double that once the board of animal health trains a veterinarian to take samples.
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taxid

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #20 on: Mar 18, 2011, 09:10 PM »
Now thats a cool job.

It's a sideline.
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taxid

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #21 on: Mar 18, 2011, 09:14 PM »
whats the biggest perch you've ever raised

The one in my avatar is the biggest one that came out of my pond. It was an anomaly though as I haven't had one come out of the pond that big since. I can get them up to 15 inches at age five or six (the one in my avatar was six years old),  but they seem to not get any larger. There seems to be a barrier at about 15 inches -- some even in the 14 inch range.  

I caught her ice fishing in February and I'm pretty sure if I had caught her just before she dropped her eggs she would have gone 3 lbs.

Contrary to what some anglers say a 16 inch or larger perch is extremely rare. I know we hear of people catching them "all the time,"  but it seems odd there is never a picture available.  ;D
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fishermantim4

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #22 on: Mar 18, 2011, 10:24 PM »
thats a very interesting bit of info taxi, 15 inches at 5yrs old.  16inches at 6 yrs old, how big are they at the younger ages roughly?  how big are some of you bluegill and smallmouths?
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taxid

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #23 on: Mar 19, 2011, 08:27 AM »
thats a very interesting bit of info taxi, 15 inches at 5yrs old.  16inches at 6 yrs old, how big are they at the younger ages roughly?  how big are some of you bluegill and smallmouths?

Age 1 -  5 to 8 inches
Age 2 - 9 to 11 inches
Age 3 - 11 to 12 inches
Age 4 - 13 to 13 1/2 inches
Age 5- 13 1/2 to 14  inches
Age 6 - 14 to 15 inches

I'll come back to give you ages and sizes on the bluegills and smallies. I need to get a northern and largemouth painted in the next couple of hours.

Edit:

Feed trained smallmouth:

Age 1 - 4 to 5 inches
Age 2  - 6 to 9 inches
Age 3 -  10 10 12 inches
Age 4 -  12 tp 14 inches
Age 5 -  13 to 16 inches


Feed trained bluegills

Age 1-  4 to 5 inches
Age 2-  6 to 8 inches
Age 3 - 8 to 9 inches
Age 4 -  9 1/2 to 10 1/4 inches
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wile.e.1

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #24 on: Mar 19, 2011, 08:54 AM »
Age 1 -  5 to 8 inches
Age 2 - 9 to 11 inches
Age 3 - 11 to 12 inches
Age 4 - 13 to 13 inches
Age 5- 13 1/2 to 14  inches
Age 6 - 14 to 15 inches

  Mornin taxid.... I was just lookin around reading some posts and found yours and just had to drop ya a line. I have a very similar setup, but only have 3 ponds, size and depth are almost exact to yours.  A few years back I started stocking 1 pond with only big perch, trying to keep a good balance of males and pregnant females. All fish were at least 11".  I used perch I caught through the ice ,basically because every time I brought home some keepers (I was VERY selective)  as soon as I put them in the sink to wash off, they would start kicken. So I ran out to one of the ponds with my auger , punched a hole and they swam right down.   The reason I used only big fish was to see if they spawned .  Well they did.  I waited to to the next spring, and caught some Lil guys...maybe5 inches or so. So it's cool to see that they spawned. Anyway...What I was gonna tell you was that I think , at least where I am from, the growth rate might be a bit smaller.  I feed mine minnows and I have also caught some with small sunfish in there mouths. Thanks for the interesting post.  My setup is much less technical....but it is fun seeing how good perch do in backyard setups.  Later this spring, after ice out I will try to post some pics of mine

fishing mechanic

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #25 on: Mar 19, 2011, 11:52 AM »
Great bunch of info. here, My question is.....do you have knowledge on the ratio of males to females in the perch population, is it different in a natural setting as compared to controlled?

Raquettedacker

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #26 on: Mar 19, 2011, 11:57 AM »
On average how long do the live and which one lives longer, male or female??
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PJDNYfish

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #27 on: Mar 19, 2011, 06:48 PM »
cool stuff.. how large do the smallies and bluegill get in your ponds

taxid

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #28 on: Mar 19, 2011, 11:55 PM »


  Mornin taxid.... I was just lookin around reading some posts and found yours and just had to drop ya a line. I have a very similar setup, but only have 3 ponds, size and depth are almost exact to yours.  A few years back I started stocking 1 pond with only big perch, trying to keep a good balance of males and pregnant females. All fish were at least 11".  I used perch I caught through the ice ,basically because every time I brought home some keepers (I was VERY selective)  as soon as I put them in the sink to wash off, they would start kicken. So I ran out to one of the ponds with my auger , punched a hole and they swam right down.   The reason I used only big fish was to see if they spawned .  Well they did.  I waited to to the next spring, and caught some Lil guys...maybe5 inches or so. So it's cool to see that they spawned. Anyway...What I was gonna tell you was that I think , at least where I am from, the growth rate might be a bit smaller.  I feed mine minnows and I have also caught some with small sunfish in there mouths. Thanks for the interesting post.  My setup is much less technical....but it is fun seeing how good perch do in backyard setups.  Later this spring, after ice out I will try to post some pics of mine

My growth rates for my yellow perch are as good as they are due to two things:

1.) My fish are feed trained. That is they are trained to eat commercial pellets that have a conversion rate of about 2 lbs. of pellets for every pound of gain. Natural feed is mostly water and only has conversion rate of about 10 bs. of feed per one pound of gain. Fish fed as many pellets as they can eat on a daily basis  will usually outgrow and can be held at a higher carrying capacity than their wild counterparts.  

Typically my pellet fed fish are 2 to 4 years ahead in growth rates of their wild counterparts. Only two drawbacks are faster growing fish have shorter lifespans and for some reason my female yellow perch never get the huge ovary size I see in perch caught in the local natural lakes. It may be something is missing in their diet.

2.) I select only the female fish for my may grow out pond as they grow the fastest, get the largest, and this also prevents too many mouths to feed which if left on natural feed will circumvent good fast growth. Sexing yellow perch is easy from fall to just before the females drop their eggs.

Most likely you perch in a pond setting will never reach their full potential if you are planting both males and females. On the other hand even if you are and you have largemouth bass the bass may wipe them out in a pond setting.

Same goes for my bluegills although in the case of that species I only plant males as the male bluegill grows the fastest and gets the largest.

My fish are produced in the back ponds where I can control reproduction and seine and drain them annually.
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taxid

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Re: Male and Female Yellow Perch
« Reply #29 on: Mar 20, 2011, 12:00 AM »
Great bunch of info. here, My question is.....do you have knowledge on the ratio of males to females in the perch population, is it different in a natural setting as compared to controlled?

As I said in a previous post the goal in my grow out pond is ALL females.  Unfortunately I did drop one male in there accidentally when sorting a couple of years ago.  Another way to control perch numbers in a pond is to place brush in the shallow water next to the shore in bundles spaced evenly around the pond. The females will lay their eggs on the brush and one can periodically remove any eggs one sees as soon as they appear.  I do this every year due to that one male I dropped in.
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

 



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