When do perch spawn in texas

A young angler swings aboard a fat redear sunfish caught from a flat on Lake Athens holding scores of the sunfishes' spawning nests. Lake Athens is among dozens of Texas waters offering fast sunfish action during June, the peak of sunfish spawning activity.

Warmouth sunfish are sometimes called 'stump knockers" by Texas anglers, a nod to the red-eyed sunfish's habit of holding close to stumps, logs or other submerged structure it uses as both ambush point and protective cover. At first glance, the stretch of water along the Lake Athens shoreline looked pretty much like just about any other rimming the 1,acre reservoir near the East Texas town for which it was named.

It was not. That became apparent on a second glance, this one made through a pair of polarized glasses.

The sight was something to make so many Texas anglers grin, with that smile triggered by memories or anticipation. Or, if lucky, both. The saucer-shaped depressions, most the size of a dinner plate and crowded almost edge to edge, dotted the lake floor. Thin shadows — some considerably less thin than others — moved across the face of the light-colored depressions, giving away the presence of the creatures hovering over the depressions and casting those shadows.

But it just as easily could have been a host of bluegills. Or maybe a mixed assemblage that included jewel-like longear and orange-spotted sunfish. And if we had been on a lake or spring-fed river in Central Texas, the saucer-like depressions on the bottom of the stream almost certainly would have been populated with a congregation of redbreast sunfish.

Most of the dozen or so species of sunfish found in Texas are communal creatures, spending their lives in groups. This social behavior is as much a function of survival as anything. Sunfish are predator and prey. But come June, that communal behavior manifests itself in an annual event that triggers some of the densest concentrations of these fish and creates opportunity for anglers to enjoy some of the best fishing of the year for these wonderfully cooperative, feisty and tasty freshwater jewels.

Driven by instinct, they seek out areas where the bottom holds favorable substrate — sand, gravel, rock or even hard clay. There, males and their consorts hover close to the bottom, vigorously fanning their tails and other fins, sweeping the bottom clear of silt and debris and leaving a clean, firm surface on which fertilized eggs will rest until they hatch. Sunfish such as redears and bluegills swarm to prime spawning areas, congregating in relatively small areas.

The bottom fins pelvic and anal also have spines. The pectoral fins are very long and pointed. The short, broad ear flap is a solid dark blue to black, and on fish larger than 2 inches there is a dark splotch at the bottom of the soft dorsal fin. Bluegills have five to nine dark, vertical bands running down their sides. Coloration is variable, and males and females differ in color, especially in the breeding season.

Breeding males become a dark bluish-green with darker, vertical bars; the head has bright blue tones and the breast develops a rusty orange color. Females are lighter in color, with faint vertical bars and a white to grayish-white belly.

Adults typically reach 6 to 10 inches in length, although greater lengths may be obtained. The male coppernose bluegill has a purplish head jaw and gill covers and a copper-colored band across the head above the eyes that is prominent in the breeding season.

Trying to identify bluegill from other sunfish species by body coloration alone is unreliable. As with most fish, bluegills take on different colors depending on factors like age, sex, and water clarity. Biology and Life History: Bluegill generally school in small groups of 5 to 20 fish, although larger congregations do occur. Bluegill are sight-feeders, consuming aquatic vegetation, zooplankton, insect larvae, insects, fish eggs and, occasionally, minnows and small fish, although insects and other invertebrates compose the majority of their diet throughout their life.

Bluegills feed primarily under low light conditions at dawn and dusk, but are opportunistic and will feed whenever a meal presents itself. Spawning sites are usually in shallow sand or gravel, but males will sweep depressions in the clay bottom if suitable habitat is not available. Applying gentle pressure on the abdomen of a female that has ovulated will cause the egg strand to be expelled in one mass.

Eggs can be fertilized with a wet or dry method as long as there is adequate contact by the sperm throughout the egg ribbon the micropyle openings face the inside of the egg ribbon. Egg ribbons incubated in tanks must be suspended on wires or racks to allow adequate water circulation through the eggs. The methods and facilities used to incubate fertilized perch eggs are determined by the approach used to grow the fingerlings.

Because perch larvae have small mouths and require live zooplankton for their initial feeding Fig. One approach is to stock adults into ponds containing suitable substrate e. The eggs are left in the ponds to hatch. The primary drawback to this approach is that spawning may take place over an extended period of time, which results in different ages and sizes of fish occupying the pond and increases cannibalism.

To avoid this problem, perch may be tank spawned or artificially spawned and the eggs incubated in a tank system equipped with suitable structure to suspend the eggs above the tank bottom. About 15 days after fertilization, or approximately 3 days after eye pigment develops, the larvae become very active and will be ready to hatch.

The tanks are gently agitated to help the larvae exit the egg mass. One method uses a commercial paint stirring paddle and a slow-speed drill. The eggs are placed in a bucket, then gently mixed until the egg mass is broken down. The remnants of the egg mass will settle to the bottom and the larvae will accumulate at the top and can be harvested. The larvae are then counted and stocked into fertilized ponds.

To ensure that there will be a food supply of appropriate size e. Stocking rates for yellow perch larvae range from , to more than , per acre, depending on the stage at which they will be harvested. If the perch are to be left in the pond longer than 2 months, the stocking density should be at the lower end of the range. Feeding of the young fish begins when they reach 17 to 20 mm in length and continues until they are harvested in the fall.

However, there will be a good deal of variation among individual fish and in survival rates. Fingerlings produced this way are also reputed to be more difficult to train to feed strictly on a pelleted diet, and may not be desirable for growout in a tank culture setting.

In ponds, 30 to 60 percent of the larvae stocked would be expected to survive to this size. The small perch are feed trained by keeping them at high densities and offering feed continuously. Natural food is not offered during this process. As many as 80 percent of the small fingerlings can be converted to a prepared diet in this way, but they will be very susceptible to cannibalism if they vary greatly in size.

The intensive tank culture of yellow perch larvae on a commercial scale has been less successful than extensive pond culture. While research is continuing to improve these results, many specific parameters such as optimal stocking densities, light levels and tank colors, prey concentrations and feeding frequencies have yet to be defined.

Newly hatched perch larvae are small 4. In general, perch larvae are offered rotifers for 3 to 5 days beginning the day after hatching. Then newly hatched brine shrimp nauplii are offered in addition to the rotifers. The rotifers are discontinued after day 10 and the perch are fed brine shrimp nauplii until they are well developed and can be weaned to artificial diets beginning at about day The mixture of brine shrimp and artificial diets continues until the fish are 15 to 18 mm 0.

Then live foods are discontinued and the fish are fed only the artificial diet. In an intensive tank production system, survival from hatching to weaning is highly variable and relatively low, ranging from less than 5 percent up to 30 percent in the most successful cases. Weaning success can be improved by using specialized larval fish diets, by mixing frozen midge larvae with feeds, or by coating commercial salmonid starter diets with feeding stimulants.

Lighting within the water column of the tank is reported to be better than other sources of lighting for training young perch to an artificial diet.

Female perch grow faster than most males. Yellow perch grown in culture ponds in the southeastern U.

However, growth slowed and feeding nearly stopped. Water temperature is one of the primary factors that determines where yellow perch can be grown and the culture system that can be used in the Southeast. Early efforts to culture yellow perch commercially used recirculating tank systems, but with limited success. At typical harvest sizes for yellow perch—0. Static and flow-through pond systems also have been used with yellow perch. In the southeastern U. In more northerly areas of the U.

Where a water source is available for operating ponds as flow-through systems so that optimal temperatures and water quality can be maintained, annual production can be even higher. Growth rates increase from about 0.

Higher rates of growth may be achieved if allfemale stocks are used, especially if fish are harvested before the gonads are fully mature. In pond systems in the Southeast, temperatures are well above or below the optimum for perch growth much of the year and most perch will not reach harvest size during the first growing season. Fish held over the winter may lose weight and conditions will favor sexual maturation during the second season. In tank systems or other systems with controlled temperatures, market sizes can be reached in 1 year or less at optimal temperatures.

This avoids the problems associated with sexual maturation in most of the fish. However, the lack of year-round supplies of fingerlings for stocking such systems is a problem. Yellow perch are believed to require protein levels between 34 and 44 percent and lipid levels of up to 12 percent. These levels are similar to those of rainbow trout diets. Higher lipid levels may increase the rancidity of stored flesh.

Commercial yellow perch diets are available, but smaller sizes of trout diets also can be used. To achieve maximum growth rates at optimal temperatures, perch will need to consume 2 to 3 percent of their body weight per day.