If you are a perch, there are a lot of great places to live. There's the clear waters of Lake Winnibigoshish in north central Minnesota, in the Chippewa National Forest; the offshore area near Grand Haven on Lake Michigan; the reedy edges of the Ivanhoe River near Foleyet in remote northern Ontario, and, of course, numerous premium locales throughout Lake Erie.

But those might not be the best places.

Life for the perch in a pond in Northwood rivals that afforded those fortunate humans who live on the Big Island in Hawaii, on Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula, or in Tahiti.

These perfectly pampered perch were rescued from a hatchery when they had passed their breeding prime, and then set up Palm Beach style in a one-acre paradise in northwest Ohio. There they found plenty of cool water, luxurious surroundings, and regular feedings of a robust blend of high protein meal, with periodic feasts of minnows delivered by a Lake Erie bait wholesaler.

Life is good when you are a perch and Mark St. John is your landlord. You are in the land of milk and honey, perch-wise, so you grow big and colorful.

"I guess maybe I spoiled them a bit," said St. John, whose pond also has a light and fan mechanism that attracts insects, then knocks them to the surface of the water where the fish below can dine at their leisure.

READ MORE from Matt at his Blade Outdoors blog.

The pond was excavated in 1978 and after St. John bought the house and property about 13 years ago, he saw the pond needed attention. Eutrophication -- the process where nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates enter an ecosystem and cause a proliferation of algae and a reduction in oxygen levels -- was hard at work.

He raked prodigious amounts of plant growth out of the pond and installed an aerator to keep the oxygen level high. After restoring the health of the pond, St. John decided to give the resident population of largemouth bass and blue gills some company. He bought about 400 perch from a fish farm in Baltic in eastern Ohio, and then the coddling began.

"I wanted to see how big they would grow," St. John said. "When I decide to do something, I want to do it the very best I can, so I followed that plan with my perch. They loved the food and all the minnows, and they just kept growing."

Today, St. John's pond has a number of perch that are longer than the Ohio state record perch. The state record fish are determined by weight, and the fish in his pond do not approach the 2.75 pound behemoth caught in Lake Erie by Charles Thomas of Lorain in 1984, but some of the St. John fish are nearly three inches longer than the record perch. Although length isn't used to determine the record, the longest perch caught in the state was 14 1/2 inches.

"I knew I had some big perch in this pond, but I didn't know what the state record was or how these compared in length," he said. "They've just been a lot of fun to raise, and to catch."

St. John once created a minor angling firestorm in an area fish cleaning house when he took a batch of his mega perch in to be filleted. The Lake Erie fishermen at the establishment, many of whom had fished the big lake all of their lives and never landed one perch in the 15-inch-plus class, were stunned to see a cooler stuffed with the monsters.

"You had to laugh at the reaction," St. John said. "These perch from my pond were not only bigger than anything they had seen, they also were so much brighter and colorful. Some of those guys just stood there and stared. They couldn't believe it."

St. John, who graduated from Clay and went on to manage a string of stores for Russell's Tuxedos and then worked for the Dunn auto dealership, has a seven-pound bass from his pond hanging on the wall of his home, and harvests a number of huge blue gills each year.

"My pond is healthy, very healthy, and I'm proud of that fact because I worked very hard for years to get it to that point," said St. John. "I never set out to grow a bunch of big fish: It just kind of happened along the way."

Then it's time for another smorgasbord, and St. John scatters a 40 percent protein feed across the water. The surface boils as the tenants of Lake St. John enjoy the fare. They stuff themselves, then retire to the depths, waiting for the next rich meal they know is coming soon. All fish should be that lucky.

BOATING COURSE: Instructors from the Toledo Sail & Power Squadron will offer an educational session on boating basics on May 19 at the W.W. Knight Nature Center, on White Road in Perrysburg. The "America's Boating Course" runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and certificates will be awarded after participants pass a test. The fee for the course is $50, and $25 for a second person sharing a textbook, and that includes lunch. Registration is available by contacting Larry Cole via email at boater734@chartermi.net or at 734-755-7252.

Contact Blade outdoors editor Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com or 419-724-6068.

First Published April 27, 2012, 6:01 a.m.