Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Lake Chubsucker Update

In early summer of 2009 I bought 50 lake chubsuckers(LCS) from Todd Overton of Overton Fisheries in Texas. To make up for shipping losses, Todd sent 55 and 53 survived. They were right around 2" or so and YOY.

I didn't see any signs of them the last couple years and figured that the otter I had seen around the pond had possibly cleaned them out, the water chemistry just wasn't to their liking or since they were from Texas stock, perhaps they couldn't handle the brutal winter we had in '09-'10.

Well, with the temps being in the 80's the last couple days, I decided to go down to the pond I had stocked 35 of them into to check on it and see if any fish were active. The pond only has forage fish in it as of now. A giant cocktail I have been brewing for quite some time now so there are no predators as of yet. Sure enough there were massive amounts of fish in the shallows enjoying the warm temps.

With the biggest fish other than the LCS only reaching about 5" in size I couldn't believe my eyes when I caught movement of two fish that I thought had to be pushing 8". As I walked the shore more, I began to see pods of these fish cruising by. Getting a good look a them I realized they were my missing in action LCS!

The most exciting thing was they were all between 6-8" in size with a couple pushing 10". As I watched them through my polarized lenses, I could see small groups of 3-4 fish cruising around. In certain areas a lone fish was seemingly defending an area from other fish. As I have read many different accounts of the spawning behaviors of LCS, most are contradicting so it seems science doesn't even know for sure how LCS spawn. I found this behavior fascinating and I hope it indicates prespawning behavior. Hopefully this will be the year I see a successful spawn of LCS. Hopefully Bill Cody will experience the same as his waters warm as he also bought some LCS from Todd.

So thanks Todd for taking the chance on the LCS! They've made it nearly 3 years here in VA and hopefully will pull a spawn off this year. This would be about right as most literature suggests they mature at around their 3rd summer. This is going to be their 4th summer coming up, so they should be ripe! I'm hoping to catch a couple for photos with my cast net over the next couple days.

Congrats CJ, time really flies, hard to believe it's almost 3 years. Hopefully they will reproduce and you'll have plenty to stock when you have your ponds.

What did you do with the other LCS from Overtons?

Great report! So, you think all the LCS you see are the originals? No chance of them having spawned in previous years?

Thanks for the report and glad the plan is working.

I suspect the ones I am seeing are the originals. They may have been mature and spawned last year so there may be some 1 year old LCS in the pond I am not seeing. I am going to toss the cast net and set a few traps tomorrow and see. I have been neglecting the pond as of lately, so it was time I paid a visit.

I did have a boom crop of banded killifish and literally have thousands of 2"-4" fish now. The water is literally moving with them. So for anyone who is interested in trying some banded killies, I have plenty to offer. I'll try to get a few photos of them as well tomorrow.

When are the predators going in, and what are they?

"I have been neglecting the pond as of lately, so it was time I paid a visit."

So what's happened lately that you can't get to the pond?

I had two in my aquarium, both ended up in the stomach of my LMB. Amazing how big an LCS a 6" LMB can eat!

The others were stocked into another pond. It's much larger, so... I am not sure how they are doing.



Most likely going to stock them next year. This pond has been more of an experiment into what forage species can reproduce in ponds. I have done very little to this pond to make it special. Just your typical clay mixed with detritus bottom with a few scattered rocks used as erosion control. Something almost all ponds are. So I have been wanting to see what forage fish will take hold in your every day run of the mill pond. I am still debating what predatory fish I will stock. I am stocking RES this year.



Can't say anything overly special has happened, I've been focusing more on the other ponds I manage. I really have been ignoring this one, perhaps a bit too much... Funny, it's 100 yards from my house but I end up forgetting about it almost. That is why I was so excited to see so many fish and the LCS in it yesterday. I am trying to stay patient. Many of the fish I stocked into it were only a couple dozen of each kind. So I knew it would take a couple years for them to reproduce and be abundant enough to where I felt comfortable stocking predatory fish into the pond.

My biggest challenge with this pond has been controlling the duckweed and keeping the river otters out. I may wait even longer to stock the predators, the forage fish experiment has been very interesting. A lot will depend on how things progress this year.