01-25-2025, 03:19 PM
Almost impossible for perch to overpopulate...as long as they maintain good spawning conditions. In many of our perch ponds the big perch make lotsa little perch and that's about all they have to feed on. Usually very little natural food like aquatic invertebrates or other "minnows" for them in their food chain. However, when there is a couple of bad runoff years in a row...or some other reason for a decline in water levels...exposing the rubble and/or vegetation upon which perch spawn...there will be a poor spawn and a great reduction in food for the bigguns. So water levels are more important to a healthy perch population than mere numbers of adult perch.
And there are species specific parasites and viruses that sometimes take out large portions of a fish population. This happened both at Jordanelle and a couple of years later at Starvation. Huge dieoffs under the ice with only a few fish left for anglers the following spring.
In waters like the Yuba of old, large numbers of walleyes and northern pike did reduce the numbers of larger perch...up to 8-10". But again, as long as there was a good spawn each year, the big perch and other predators had plenty to eat. And a study was made back then that estimated that angling pressure alone only accounted for about 30% of perch removed from the system. Natural predation and disease killed far more. The combination of increased water demands by the water users...and several years of deep drought in the early 2000s...resulted in a dieoff of virtually all fish in Yuba. And it has never regained the healthy balance it once had.
So it is great to be able to harvest lots of perch when they are available. But even the heaviest angler pressure is not likely to affect the population as much as drought and water management practices.
And there are species specific parasites and viruses that sometimes take out large portions of a fish population. This happened both at Jordanelle and a couple of years later at Starvation. Huge dieoffs under the ice with only a few fish left for anglers the following spring.
In waters like the Yuba of old, large numbers of walleyes and northern pike did reduce the numbers of larger perch...up to 8-10". But again, as long as there was a good spawn each year, the big perch and other predators had plenty to eat. And a study was made back then that estimated that angling pressure alone only accounted for about 30% of perch removed from the system. Natural predation and disease killed far more. The combination of increased water demands by the water users...and several years of deep drought in the early 2000s...resulted in a dieoff of virtually all fish in Yuba. And it has never regained the healthy balance it once had.
So it is great to be able to harvest lots of perch when they are available. But even the heaviest angler pressure is not likely to affect the population as much as drought and water management practices.