Renovating pond species YP and WE? Bill Cody ? - 08/06/11 03:41 PM
I have a scenario, that I hope some will chime in on here.
Forgive me for beginning with a novel here, but I feel it's important to give a history of my BOW, so everyone can get a feel for what I have and what I'm trying to accomplish( though I wonder if I know what I'm trying to accomplish lol)
My pond was originally constructed in 1977, by my dad, he hired the dozers, and paid the bill.It has just right at 3 acres of surface, the greatest depth is 15 feet, and is spring fed. The pond has never lost its level. The pond was used for the first few years as recreational fishing. I was 10 years old at the time, and with my great knowledge of fish and biology at the time I put GSF, and BH in!What a wonderful combination!
Dad would feed the BH with commercial feed, and we had a wonderful bullhead pond, 2 lb. BH were not uncommon, and was fun. The BH are no longer there, though. My dad was a cropduster, and let's just say, the BH accidentally died, as this pond is surrounded by Missouri Ag Land.That was alot of years ago.
In the early 90's dad embarked on commercial catfish raising. He constructed other ponds, stocked, fed, trotlined, and sold
dressed catfish. He had quite a business going and he passed away in 1998.Here's where my story continues.
Flash forward to 2011. This pond has not been managed for 13 years, and rarely fished. I recently repaired dads jonboat, and went fishing. I caught lots and lots of small GSF, and I was quite surprised when I caught several 10" plus bluegills.
I decided to by some 32% floater, and see if I could get any channel cat to feed. Wow....CC are alive and well, and even some very large ones. (at least what I call large) So far caught several 7lb. fish, all the way down to 1 1/2 lb.
Last year, (2010)I noticed the corrugated steel drainage tube had rotted through, and had a small sinkhole on the backside of the dam. I called some friends who run a dozer service, they finally got here last week, and replaced the tube. I raised the water level approximately by 3'.They made the repairs, and within 24 hrs. I got a 5 1/2" rain. With the spring, and rain I am now 1' from going out the tube.So far success!
Now what I THINK i want to do.....
I no longer care about eating catfish.The pond currently has a decent population of CC and lots and lots of small BG and GSF.I have also caught a few Orange Spotted sunfish.June 29 of this year, I added 300 RES. There are no LMB or Crappie to my knowledge.Basically no "predator" fish I guess I would say.
I have been removing the CC, and so far I have removed 43 CC, all ranging from 1 1/2 to 7 lbs. I have put them in a lesser quality BOW, that is 2 1/2 acres surface area, and feeding them, calling that one my "catfish pond".I plan on removing alot of them, but not annihilating them, unless it's best for my goals.
The BOW I am writing about, I plan on stocking with YP and Walleye in October 2011.My water clarity is variable, due to phytoplankton. ranging from 5' to 3'. I have a fair amount of Aquatic veg.getting close to 30% at the height of summer.The veg. decreases pretty well during the cold months. At this point in time the veg. is not a concern to me, as I believe it to be beneficial to my pond ecology. My veg. is a plant that looks like coontail, as many do resemble this from a distance, and I have not analyzed, probably Eurasian milfoil, but not certain. I have pondweed,and chara in the shallows and some FA.Small bullrushes are starting to take off around the edges.
I like the idea of Walleye not reproducing, as I can have a certain amount of control on numbers of larger predator fish.I can eat what I want, and for 2 or 3 hundred dollars, I can put more in. (compare that to a fishing trip to Northern Minn. where I did'nt get a bite!)
So I guess I will cut to the quick,I would like to end up with a good BG,YP, and WE pond. My definition of good, is a balanced pond. I am not concerned with catching record fish. My pond will be used for recreational fishing, and harvest.What size of fish do I want? Decent sized filet's, and not having to filet 300 fish for 4 lbs. of meat?
So Bill Cody, and Bruce Condello,(and anyone else,) will you 2 have compassion on my ignorance, and give me your opinions on what to do, even if it's give up and drain the pond, and grow rice?
Will the YP work on the BG numbers and be effective? I have been, and plan on continuing feeding AM 500 and 600 growing some BG before the new arrivals.I know it's expensive compared to 32% CC feed, but as dad used to say...."Are you preparing for failure or are you preparing for success?"I also have a 1 acre pond dedicated to FHM and GSH solely for the purpose of periodically adding a natural forage to the main BOW.
The plan right now is 600 YP, 4-6" WE 300 6-8" in Oct 2011
Thanks to all for any opinions.
Forgive me for beginning with a novel here, but I feel it's important to give a history of my BOW, so everyone can get a feel for what I have and what I'm trying to accomplish( though I wonder if I know what I'm trying to accomplish lol)
My pond was originally constructed in 1977, by my dad, he hired the dozers, and paid the bill.It has just right at 3 acres of surface, the greatest depth is 15 feet, and is spring fed. The pond has never lost its level. The pond was used for the first few years as recreational fishing. I was 10 years old at the time, and with my great knowledge of fish and biology at the time I put GSF, and BH in!What a wonderful combination!
Dad would feed the BH with commercial feed, and we had a wonderful bullhead pond, 2 lb. BH were not uncommon, and was fun. The BH are no longer there, though. My dad was a cropduster, and let's just say, the BH accidentally died, as this pond is surrounded by Missouri Ag Land.That was alot of years ago.
In the early 90's dad embarked on commercial catfish raising. He constructed other ponds, stocked, fed, trotlined, and sold
dressed catfish. He had quite a business going and he passed away in 1998.Here's where my story continues.
Flash forward to 2011. This pond has not been managed for 13 years, and rarely fished. I recently repaired dads jonboat, and went fishing. I caught lots and lots of small GSF, and I was quite surprised when I caught several 10" plus bluegills.
I decided to by some 32% floater, and see if I could get any channel cat to feed. Wow....CC are alive and well, and even some very large ones. (at least what I call large) So far caught several 7lb. fish, all the way down to 1 1/2 lb.
Last year, (2010)I noticed the corrugated steel drainage tube had rotted through, and had a small sinkhole on the backside of the dam. I called some friends who run a dozer service, they finally got here last week, and replaced the tube. I raised the water level approximately by 3'.They made the repairs, and within 24 hrs. I got a 5 1/2" rain. With the spring, and rain I am now 1' from going out the tube.So far success!
Now what I THINK i want to do.....
I no longer care about eating catfish.The pond currently has a decent population of CC and lots and lots of small BG and GSF.I have also caught a few Orange Spotted sunfish.June 29 of this year, I added 300 RES. There are no LMB or Crappie to my knowledge.Basically no "predator" fish I guess I would say.
I have been removing the CC, and so far I have removed 43 CC, all ranging from 1 1/2 to 7 lbs. I have put them in a lesser quality BOW, that is 2 1/2 acres surface area, and feeding them, calling that one my "catfish pond".I plan on removing alot of them, but not annihilating them, unless it's best for my goals.
The BOW I am writing about, I plan on stocking with YP and Walleye in October 2011.My water clarity is variable, due to phytoplankton. ranging from 5' to 3'. I have a fair amount of Aquatic veg.getting close to 30% at the height of summer.The veg. decreases pretty well during the cold months. At this point in time the veg. is not a concern to me, as I believe it to be beneficial to my pond ecology. My veg. is a plant that looks like coontail, as many do resemble this from a distance, and I have not analyzed, probably Eurasian milfoil, but not certain. I have pondweed,and chara in the shallows and some FA.Small bullrushes are starting to take off around the edges.
I like the idea of Walleye not reproducing, as I can have a certain amount of control on numbers of larger predator fish.I can eat what I want, and for 2 or 3 hundred dollars, I can put more in. (compare that to a fishing trip to Northern Minn. where I did'nt get a bite!)
So I guess I will cut to the quick,I would like to end up with a good BG,YP, and WE pond. My definition of good, is a balanced pond. I am not concerned with catching record fish. My pond will be used for recreational fishing, and harvest.What size of fish do I want? Decent sized filet's, and not having to filet 300 fish for 4 lbs. of meat?
So Bill Cody, and Bruce Condello,(and anyone else,) will you 2 have compassion on my ignorance, and give me your opinions on what to do, even if it's give up and drain the pond, and grow rice?
Will the YP work on the BG numbers and be effective? I have been, and plan on continuing feeding AM 500 and 600 growing some BG before the new arrivals.I know it's expensive compared to 32% CC feed, but as dad used to say...."Are you preparing for failure or are you preparing for success?"I also have a 1 acre pond dedicated to FHM and GSH solely for the purpose of periodically adding a natural forage to the main BOW.
The plan right now is 600 YP, 4-6" WE 300 6-8" in Oct 2011
Thanks to all for any opinions.