Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My introduction

I've been lurking for a couple of months, and I've asked my share of newbie questions, but I've learned a lot in the short time that I've been reading this site. So, I wanted to take this chance to introduce myself, and show you guys my pond.
I'm a graduate of Mississippi State University and I reside in eastern AR. My pond is 37 acres and has an assortment of fish.
Here it is from above




Here are some GSF for those greenie fans out there.

The bank is lined all the way around with rip rap and conrete. This pond was built to irrigate our crops with, so it is above ground level. The rock is used for erosion control. It is stacked on near 1:1 slope all the way to the bottom.


He doesn't look happy.

We use this well to fill the pond as we flow water out. It pumps 1500gpm, and has been running continuosly for over a month.


And finally, my pellet trained bass, both HSB and LMB.


Mods, feel free to delete or edit this thread if I took up too much space.

Awesome!

cheyenne, please give me a minute to pick up the rest of my jaw from the floor.........
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now let me re-attach my dribble bib......
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now i can speak clearly and keep the spittle from getting all over my keyboard.

a) yer lake is to big for one person to own
b) you have way too much supplemental water, its not fair
c) you like GSF, this is a terrible thing
d) can i come move in w/ you?



wow.

what's the average depth of that ocean?

Wow that is some pond!

...another straggler from Lake Boss :rolleyes:
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truly magnificent!
Really love the pump. How does one go about creating a 1500 gpm well and pump? Cost to drill? Cost to operate? (or maybe I don't wanna know)
Give us some history on your pond . How and when it was built...?

I agree with D.I.E.D. 100 percent.Dave,Im on my way to the beer store,PLEASE stop by and pick me up on your way there.I wont have any luggage,just beer and tackle

DAWM YOU!I've got small man syndrome again, I mean small pond sydrome.

I could do with out the Cotton Mouth, where in eastern Ark are you? I have friends that live near Searcy, and I am in SW Missouri.

Beautiful pond..er LAKE.

I wish I had a pond big enough to justify a gas powered motor for my boat! Awesome pond Cheyenne! Is that a FHM breeding pond in the middle? What is the fence in the water that surrounds the penensula for?

Is this some kind of cruel joke or what! I’m going to grab a beer and sulk by my 1 acre puddle.

Guys that is a working lake / err farm. You notice what looks like rice fields in the overhead. Got to have a water supply feature and a big well. Why not grow fish while you are at it.

C-19 I still owe you some written material.

WOW !!! All I wanted was 50 GPM and I was told I should plan on 25 GPM. 1500 is AWESOME !! What type of crop are you irrigating from your LAKE ??

Thanks for all the compliments guys. We water rice and soybeans out of the pond. It was built in the late 1950's early 1960's by my grandfather. He built it with his dozer that he used to clear our farm. The fencing around the middle was his brainchild. He wanted to raise Canada Geese, and he used the fence to keep predators out. Now it's just to cumbersome to move all of it. The well cost around $15000 turnkey and operates for around $125 a day. Which is much cheaper than our diesel wells. We have another pump that re-lifts water from our tailwater recovery sytem, it pumps 4500gpm. I try to only use it when clear water is available.
The pond in the middle is now being used as a BG RES growout pond. Thanks for the advise on that ewest. I feel like I'm forgetting something but I'm headed out the door right now. Again thanks for the compliments.

It is pretty tough to manage an area this large. There are lots of rough fish that we pump into the pond when we use our re-lift. You can't see from the pics, but it's is full of stunted BCP. We did have a lot of CGC, but I have removed close over 50 this year. When I first found this site I was overwhelmed at what all might be wrong with my pond. After having it electrofished twice this year we found that the BG and GSD pops were in great shape. There are tons if GSF in it, and that doesn't bother me. I've followed the GSF threads here and I can't decide if they really are bad for my pond. If they can't keep up with LMB predation, then at least they fed them for a while. With a pond this size I don't mind if the keep recruitment down a little. I'll try to get you a pic of one of the larger ones, +8" or so. The pond averages 5' deep.
Brettski, I was looking at your thread and that dock is amazing. Really nice work. We had to build ours out of the pond. It is 16'x32'. We built one section that is 16'x16' and used a trackhoe to set it in the pond, then we built the other half and tied it into the bank.
You guys have been tons of help and I appreciate the info.

Better be careful Cheyenne or we'll make you a member of the GSF Club with all of the duties and obligations that follow.

How many acres in total is the farm?

Great photos!

Cheyenne19,

You've got a spectacular spot, and I've been thinking about your pond [lake? impundment?reservoir? inland sea?] since your first posts. I don't have any contributions, but a couple of aspects of your situation are puzzling, and maybe some of experts have ideas.

I think it's interesting that your lake seems to have a lot of forage, but a relatively low number of LMB. This is apparently common early in the life of a well planned pond, when the forage has been stocked before the predators and allowed to grow relatively unmolested, but from the info above, it appears that your lake is older.

-Is there anything that you know of that interferes with LMB spawning, such as fluctuating water levels?

-Do you think the combination of crappies and greenies may be putting too much pressure on yoy LMB?

-You mentioned some big blues in the impoundment-could they be pressuring the 1-3# LMB?

I think Jeff Slipke's suggestions all make perfect sense, and suspect that with the forage base you have in place, the next few years are going to provide some phenomenal growth; it would be interesting to know how the lake got to where it is, especially because it seems the opposite of the the usual experience in mere ponds-the LMB usually chew up the forage base, overpopulate, and stunt.

Anyway, you've got a fantastic place, I wish I was blessed with such problems!

Looks like a fantastic place; also very capital intensive.

Jeff, we farm 3000 acres.
Yolk Sac,
The pond was drained down very low in 2000. This could be why our G shad are not very large. It could also be why other species seem to have not stunted yet, except for BC. There are some large blues over 15lbs, but not very many. Until this year I had only put 50 adult LMB in the pond. I think that the severely low numbers could be the reason for very low recruitment. Both Jeff and the state biologist thought that the shallow water and amount of wind could reduce recruitment as well. Am I wrong to think that this is ok to an extent? I feel like if the LMB have low recruitment, then I won't have to harvest as many. I do believe that the BC and GSF put a large strain on the YOY fish in the pond. Hopefully when the LMB we put in reduce their numbers maybe recruitment will go up. We did stock a couple hundred BG fingerlings 3 years ago. I'm now seeing lots of large BG. As far as the water level it is as constant as we want it to be. We draw down some in the winter to control erosion along the bank. We are thinking about drawing down a little more this year to allow the fish to concentrate so that the LMB can get more forage.

That makes a lot more sense, and it appears you have every reason to be optimistic that your bass fishery will explode-extremely ample forage and some barriers to overrecruitment of the preferred predator. It looks complex but managable-you're lucky to have Jeff on board to help.

Yeah, Jeff and Eric from SE Pond are great help. Jeff's comments were that it's not your typical LMB/BG pond. He said it was more complex than that, but that everything looked great. I'm suprised that I backed into that with little or no knowledge about ponds. I'm lucky to have found this site and tapped the knowledge that is here.

quick 2 cents, great lake btw, recuirtment might be low due to G shad or GSF. Question so you still see the lmb eating pellets to spite the high forage base? I have not had that at all they abandant pellets when they have fish to eat.

There are a few that eat pellets around our dock. The majority of them are feeding around our well discharge. I think that may be mainly due to them be concentrated there to start with. A good number of the LMB can be seen around the edge of the pond in the rocks with the GSF. I try not to let them eat all the pellets they want. I thought that if they were still hungry that the would feed on the forage.

I've got a question for everyone. About half of the pond was standing timber when it was built. Now all that remains are some stumps under water. I've made four different brush piles, and created 8 pvc trees and 2 BG condos. The trees have really helped concentrate the BG around the dock where they are now eating pellet food. Is the rip rap good structure, or should I still be adding something else?

Newbie question: If the GSF and G shad are limiting recruitment, and at the same time providing ample forage, doesn't that possibly set up a trophy LMB situation?

I certainly don't have the answer, but I'm hoping so. I'm trying to find some up sides to some negatives.