Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations A LAKE STORY WITH A NOT SO HAPPY ENDING SO FAR!

I live in central Florida in a gated community built by AV Homes. In 2004 they created a gated community, about 10 ponds totaling 50 acres and a 240 acre private lake including a cement lift that locks into West Lake Tohopeligia. The builder’s main purpose was to sell home lots with docks and access to Lake Toho at a premium and also as water retention for street runoff, etc. The acreage was bull dozed and all waters within that acreage were emptied. The 240 acres of water fishes much bigger than its acreage as it is not wider than a hundred yards in any one area. The pond excavators dug it out with an almost immediate drop throughout. The shoreline does still have arrowheads, cattails, and reeds but they are right up against the shoreline in very shallow water much of the year. Much of the lake’s shoreline drops off from four to ten feet out to water depth from 5 to 7 feet depending on the time of year. Maximum depth is about 14 feet with quite a bit of 8 to 10 foot depths. It is my understanding that no fish were stocked by the builder. For the first 4 or 5 years, the lake’s management was ignored by the builder until there were some complaints by residents that hydrilla was becoming an issue. In 2010 the builder hired a lake management company to chemically control the weeds in the lake. They basically treated the entire lake and removed all weeds that lived off of the shoreline except for some lily pads in a few areas. The waterway does have an overflow that keeps the water levels from being a problem for the home owners and the excess water flows into Lake Toho. The bottom of the lake consists of sand, mud, and clay. The clay tends to suspend in the water and the color is a greenish gray most of the time.

It took about 3 or 4 years before the lake started to naturally become a fishery. The local anglers including myself were bringing in limits of bass from Lake Toho and putting them into our private lake in order to boost the catch rate and enhance the fishery. I would guess that we put at least 1000 keeper bass of which 200 weighed over 5 pounds throughout the 240 acres. Bass is the only specie that was added to the fishery. The lake now contains the following fish species gar,largemouth bass, crappie, green sunfish, bluegill, glass minnows, threadfin shad, gizzard shad, golden shiners, channel catfish, brown bullheads, and armored catfish. The birds and animals that utilize the waters are bald eagles, osprey, cormorants, some cranes, a few alligators, and a few otters.

The lake is used more by boaters going out to Lake Toho than by fisherman angling in the private waterway. I would call the fishing pressure as being very light. Perhaps a couple of bass fisherman per day at most with an occasional Saturday catch and release tournament having as many as 5 boats utilizing the 240 acres.

My angling experience on our waterway began in 2006. In late 2008 it was nothing to go out and fish for 3 or 4 hours in the middle of the day and catch 5 bass weighing 15 pounds total. The hydrilla that had developed was concentrating the fish and they were pretty easy to catch. In 2009, I caught a 9 pound 9 ounce bass which was the lake record back then and the hydrilla was really getting nice and really helping the catch rate per hour. The fishery seemed to be improving each and every year. Fast forward to 2010, things changed dramatically with the chemicals killing off the weeds. The fish were no longer positioned next to weed lines as there were none. My angling results were that I was catching a greater number of skinny bass by length and I wanted a professional’s opinion to bring back to the fishing club.

I brought a fishery biologist out in early February 2012 to fish with me in order to identify the health of the bass in our fishery. We caught about 10 bass, 6 of which were between 9 and 12 inches, 1 about 14 inches, a 5 ¼ pounder as well as a 7 ¼ pounder. He felt that we caught enough fish and in different year classes to be able to make a probable determination. He observed that almost every bass was lighter in weight than it should have been for its length. The biologist acknowledged my concerns and identified some facts about the fishery. I brought this information to the fishing club and they discussed it and most of their opinions were that the lake was fine. I believe that there now exists a bluegill shortage which comes from a combination of factors. The lake has little shallow water access, no weeds, and the fact that the bass can herd the bluegill against the bank and consume them easily. In addition to that our stocking of keeper bass from Lake Toho without stocking an ample amount of forage for every bass stocked has really hurt our fishery in my opinion. I also strongly suggested the discontinuation of stocking bass from Lake Toho to the private lake based on a recommendation from the fisheries biologist. Unfortunately, the President who was not fond of me decided to take that suggestion under advisement and did not make any rulings. He also had the HOA make the lake CATCH AND RELEASE ONLY with signs surrounding the lake. Another mistake in my opinion.

In August of 2012, a buddy and I made a final presentation to the fishing club in the hope of scheduling an electro shocking survey in order to determine the present condition of the fishery. With a major discount on the electro fishing and study already secured, we thought we would get some cooperation. Unfortunately, it was once again met with disagreement as there was money for the shocking but no money to spend on fish or structure if those items were identified as necessary. I attempted to appeal to their common sense, but you need some knowledge in order to have a real opinion and most of them were closed off and were not interested enough to do some research as we had. I told them if a lake is stocked with 50 bluegill to every bass, we were already 50,000 bluegill shy of balance. They just would not agree with common sense and pointed out that they thought the bluegill population was fine. We both quit the bass club and put feeders on our own docks and are very frustrated. Additionally, the HOA is unwilling to spend a dime especially when the fishing club thinks that everything is fine.

It truly is a shame that the fishing club were so short sighted. In 2012, I fished for big fish almost exclusively. My results were that I caught 48 bass over 5 pounds, 21 over 7, 12 over 8, 4 over 9 and 2 over 10 pounds. The largest was 10 pounds 11 ounces. Almost all of these fish were skinnier than they shouId have been. I believe that almost all of these were originally trophy’s from Lake Toho. Furthermore, my belief is that the bass over 4 pounds or so are able to utilize the variety of larger forage present and are not dependent on the bluegill for forage. That being said, again I believe that our resident bass are having trouble getting large enough to be able to utilize the larger forage as we do not have enough supply of small panfish. Furthermore, I believe the bass spawns are overly successful due to the lack of bluegills and once these Lake Toho resident lunkers have died from old age, we will have a fishery of overstocked stunted bass. It truly is to bad because we could have created an enhanced trophy fishery with the trophy bass that had been stocked. My belief is that the lake would have needed structure added (pallets and oak trees available) throughout the lake, accountable weed spraying, and bluegill added annually. I forgot to mention that there are 4 automatic feeders that I acquired for other homeowners and for myself and that we really needed some commercial feeders in a few key areas on the lake along with either a slot or bag limit. I am sure that you guys on here have heard these type of stories before and will hear more of them in the future. Thanks for taking the time to read my saga!