Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! > Perch

Perch with eggs.

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jbird68:
I caught a couple perch yesterday and when I was cleaning them for the freezer they were both loaded with eggs. When do perch reproduce? Now,  I feel bad for taking them home. I would have rather let them go to reproduce.

taxi1:

--- Quote from: jbird68 on Feb 04, 2018, 07:46 AM ---I caught a couple perch yesterday and when I was cleaning them for the freezer they were both loaded with eggs. When do perch reproduce? Now,  I feel bad for taking them home. I would have rather let them go to reproduce.

--- End quote ---

1. Yellow Perch start spawning in the spring when the water gets into the upper 40's. Typically it's over a two week period. At least it is in a pond I use to reproduce them. However they can already appear to be loaded with eggs in the fall if feed is ample.

2. Usually no need to be concerned about keeping females with eggs. One female can produce 200,000 eggs. If there aren't enough predators they can overproduce and stunt.

jbird68:
Perch aren't even listed as being in this Illinois State Park. But I've been catching them through the ice for the last couple of years. I don't think they were stocked by DNR.


How can you tell if they have eggs? Belly didn't look like it was bulging.

taxi1:

--- Quote from: jbird68 on Feb 04, 2018, 08:54 AM ---Perch aren't even listed as being in this Illinois State Park. But I've been catching them through the ice for the last couple of years. I don't think they were stocked by DNR.


How can you tell if they have eggs? Belly didn't look like it was bulging.

--- End quote ---

Could be a male? When they get close to peak egg maturation it's pretty obvious.


These two fish are from my fish farm. Top is a male bottom is a female. Both the same age. Males are runts compared to the females. During the spawning period one can push out milt with some pressure with the males along with the obese appearance of the female due to eggs. Up to 30 percent of a female's body weight can be eggs at peak spawning time.



They have differences in the appearance of their urogenital openings but it's not 100 percent. Only way to tell them apart 100 percent correctly when they are not in the spawning phase is by the use of a small diameter catether tube to see if you can extract some eggs.

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