Lower Rd. Enterprises

Lower Rd. Enterprises is comprised of three separate services.

• First, it is a a licensed yellow perch farm.  Selling yellow perch for pond stocking.  Prices per fish ranges from $.35 (2 inches) to $2.50 (8 inches).
• A residential cleaning services (local area) 826-7617, ask Martha for evaluation.
• A Skidster (by John Deere) Service ( with tracks and 11 foot reach backhoe)

Lower Rd. Enterprises started as an opportunity to get my family involved in a farming type business.  It made use my property to achieve my goal to pay for my daughters' education.  I started with a pond, that I dug, while I was providing landscaping fill, with my Skidster Service.  Two years later, I stocked it with perch.  I started to feed them and saw how fast they grew.  I dug and stocked four more ponds over the next two years.  Let's not forget just how incredibly good these yellow perch are to eat!

Pond Operations

Currently, I have five ponds being serviced by three air pump windmills and one  floating type windmill.  Pond #1 contains all the perch I catch over 12 inches long, from all the other ponds.  We have some perch in there that are 14 inches and almost a 1lb.  Pond #5 is a pond that we stock with fry each spring and sell in fall. Ponds #2, 3 & 4, we seine out, to fill special orders for people who want a full range of sizes for their ponds.

We get natural spawning in all of our are ponds.  To increase survival rates, we collect spawn that gets separated and washed ashore and bring it inside.  We also strip a couple of females for eggs, manually fertilize them.  Fertilized eggs are placed into a 150 gallon tank, on racks and with water circulated over them.  When they "eye up" we put them in Pond #5 for the summer.  We pellet train the fish, when they are small, it helps them grow faster, if they eat powder early, several times a day.  They graduate to eating larger pellets as they grow.

Tank Operations

We now have invested in tanks.  We separate fish by size, into different tanks and net holding areas, awaiting sale.

We test Oxygen for signs of problems several times a day. When things go bad in a tank, it only takes hours, not days for fish to die. We do water changes, filter flushes, filter changes, and clean tanks regularly.  I have designed my own filter system, with barrels, pails, pipes, flex hoses some valves, and pumps.  It is cost effective, but not completely tested.  It takes hands on learning, with fish in tanks, to determine what works best. 

Tips for your Perch Raising

Be prepared for predation on  both eggs and fish.  It would seem that perch at any size are a favorite for any predator out there, that can either catch a fish or eat an egg. 

I  recommend stocking ponds with a full range of sizes for several reasons:

• It may allow you have spawning during your first year in spring.

• Fish grow at different rates.  When I seine out a pond, I catch a wide variety of sizes, even when it was stocked with same sized fish.

• Perch spread out in a pond and if pellet trained do not normally eat their own.

Get to a fish farm seminar!! Ask questions of people raising perch, and read up before starting, and always remember. If your going to raise fish in tanks, your going to kill some fish. Don't give up. If your not killing fish, your not learning, or making money.

Good Luck, from us at
Lower Rd. Enterprises, Sobieski, WI