Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Bruce......

Channel cat fair...grass carp highly palatable?
Maybe if you're a,,,,EURO!

Carp -- we don't eat it.

CC probably the most eaten non-saltwater fish around the US. The CC industry is a multi-billion $ business.

There's a really big difference between common carp and grass carp as far as palatability. In my opinion, common carp isn't very good in most circumstances, but grass carp is white flaky delicious meat similar to a cross between northern pike and walleye. I think I'll amend the fishipedia to note that grass carp has tons of bones. I'll also upgrade the channel catfish status to "good to excellent".

You are too easily swayed, in your conviction, master.

Bruce,

I respectfuly disagree on your assessment of walleye not taking pellets. There are several folks that have trained walleyes to take pellets. There are other problems with walleyes then feed training. Ohio's DNR used to have feed trained walleye broodstock and I could have bought thousands of 8 to 10 inch feed trained walleyes from an Iowa supplier a last year. Just didn't have a vehicle to pick them up, and I'd need a separate pond to put them in.

Last I heard Kevin Shultz of Shultz's Hatchery in PA also had feed trained walleye. With each generation they will take pellets better and better.

Cecil, I will change the wording to read - difficult of locate pellet trained fish.

From a practical standpoint, I'm wondering if a newbie reading the primer would take that to mean they could also raise walleye on pellets. Maybe I'll phrase it "Hatcheries have had some success raising walleye on pellets, but you are unlikely to see significant pellet usage in a recreational pond". How does that sound?

Dr Bruce and Cecil, I question how well pellet trained walleye will stay on pellets once they are in a pond with forage fish. I think pellet trained walleye are so scarse that little is known about this topic. If I could get some pellet trained walleye I would test the theory, but I can't get any.

Bill,

You've got a point there. I have enough trouble getting yellow perch to stay on pellets in my .62 acre pond chiefly because they are bottom oriented and light shy. I do think the same would be true of walleye -- possibly even more so. Of course the fact that there is other food available, and they have to compete with largemouth bass I'm sure is factor.

Putting feed trained walleye in a small pond with no othe food source that has a deep water santuary on one end would be the test. Too bad I don't have another pond and another source doesn't come up.

Maybe if we can't get any perch from Lynch this year, and a source for feed trained walleye comes up, we could pick them up on the way to Bruce's. We could tell Bruce they're Lake Erie perch that look different than regular yellow perch until they get to be about 2 lbs.

We'll play dumb when he figures it out and has no more bluegill left.

Personally I'd make a it little of that and what Bill said. Something like "Hatcheries have had some success raising walleyes on pellets but it's not the norm. It's also possible it may be difficult to keep walleyes on pellets if natural forage is available in a pond. Walleyes being a highly piscivorous species, along with being bottom oriented and light shy, would probably prefer to gravitate to a live forage fish than to come up to the surface for pellets if given the choice."

Just my two cents and it really doesn't matter to me what you come up with. I think your idea is a great one and you're doing a great job with it. So far I'm impressed.

If you need any more species pic let me know. I've got some good digital ones.