Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations fathead spawning site

Hi Marc. Sorry for the delay. Had a couple of days of meetings in DC.

Your information on grass carp is at least partially correct. As they age, their metabolism slows, and they do not need to consume as much food. However, this is tempered somewhat by the fact that bigger fish eat more food. Do you see my point? They may eat/need less plant consumption per pound of body size, but they are still big and do consume plants. Also, grass carp can get REALLY big -- 40 pounds plus, and I'm not exactly sure where this slowing of metabolism occurs. I'd guess not until they exceed roughly 15-20 pounds. Maybe another of the southern pondmeisters knows more about this.

I do have one caution. It's easy to stock enough grass carp to strip all of your submergment (underwater) vegetation. At your geographic location, you want vegetation unless it gets extremely abundant. Unless your sumbergent vegetation covers more than 20-30% of the pond surface area in midsummer, I'd leave it alone. That vegetation provides food and cover for your young largmeouth bass.

If your pond has been established that long, I don't think what happens this year for reproduction is all that important. I like electrofishing in either spring or fall, generally at water temps of 65-75 F. So, if you want a pond survey, which indeed will tell you a LOT about what is happening, I'd feel free to do it this spring. They can tell you what has been happening for reproduction and surivival of bass and bluegill for the past 10 years (not just this year)!