Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - First Post - Managing 27 Acre Pond

First time post on here! I have read some good information and thought I would share information for the pond that I live on.

So, back in 2015 I moved into a neighborhood with a 27 acre pond that was an old sand pit in its prior life. The pond gets to about 22' / 23' deep in its deepest parts and there are some random humps and variations out in the middle - some of which have old trees. In one corner, there is a nice triangular 5' flat area that drops down to about 15' in a 1:1 slope. Other corners are not as pronounced. Most of the lake is bulkheads but about 1/4 of the shoreline is still natural. There are a few patches of cattails / Louisiana irises and shoreline vegetation has varied. 90% of the lake is over 15' deep with lots of featureless areas. Bottom is mostly sand but there are areas where it is mud as well (can be seen on sonar).

Back in 2015, we had a bad nutria problem and ended up taking them all out.

Forage species include:

Threadfin shad (get some nice bait balls in open water)
Gizzard shad
Bluegill (mainly coppernose)
Blue tilapia
Texas chichlid
Green sunfish (not many)
Warmouth (not many)
Fathead minnows
Other various minnows

Larger species include:

Common carp
Black crappie (most that are caught are in the 12" to 16" class)
Largemouth bass
Bullhead
Blue catfish (not many)
Channel catfish (not many)

No gar, bowfin, drum or buffalo that I am aware of. Lots of red ear sliders and a few softshells. Cormorants come and go - main infestation is February / March but that just happens to be when so many people like to drive their boats around on the lake and RC boats as well, ha.

The official policy is leave the bass and bluegill alone but everything else can be taken "within reason". I know crappie get pecked away at but everything else really doesn't too much. For the bass, we do a "selective harvest" each year for a community fish fry.

I have gone from normal resident to pretty much calling the shots on what we do for the lake. In the beginning, it seemed like I would catch a few better fish than I do now (as in the 19"-22" range) all the way up to 7+ lbs on the boga. I probably haven't caught anything over 4 lbs in a few years but there are a bunch of fish in the 13" to 15" range for sure. I am not sure if the larger fish have grown lure shy, have gotten caught and eaten by residents that don't care or what. There was a 20" caught by someone else recently though.

It seems the average resident wants a clear looking lake and if they fish, they want to catch something that isn't all head and is a healthy fish. Historically the water gets very clear - sometimes as much as 12 and 13 feet. Most of the time the water has a little bit of green tint to it and clarity runs 3 to 4 feet with a little tint to it normally.

Over time we have added Christmas trees, oak branches and other various structures on drop offs, humps, etc and there are some productive areas for sure.

We did electroshocking one year and from 2020 to 2024 I have done my own study of weighing and measuring 100 random bass and plotting them in excel again 80%, 85%, 90%, 95% and 100% curves to see how our fish are doing. I have consulted with fish hatcheries to see the best bang for the buck (using HOA dollars) and this is what we have stocked:

2019 - 2,500 small bluegill, (3" to 5"), 750 adult bluegill (5" to 7"), 5,000 threadfin shad
2020 - 2,500 small bluegill, (3" to 5"), 750 adult bluegill (5" to 7"), 5,000 threadfin shad
2021 - 2,500 small bluegill, (3" to 5"), 50,000 fathead minnows
2022 - 2,500 small bluegill, (3" to 5"), 50,000 fathead minnows
2023 - 2,500 small bluegill, (3" to 5"), 50,000 fathead minnows
2024 - 2,500 small bluegill, (3" to 5"), 50,000 fathead minnows

We have also put in 32 fingerling F-1 bass and 8 adult F-1 bass along the way. The plan is to keep putting forage fish in. We also put in a sack of crashfish along the way to see if any of them would survive to reproduce. The reason switching from threadfins to fatheads is we had to switch hatcheries and the cost of shad was way too high.

Over that same time, we have probably pulled out 150 bass or so but didn't get many last year and I think that is showing.

I consider myself a well above average angler and my average is usually 3-4 bass per hour. This year however it seems that our fish have dropped in percentile some and are being caught at a higher rate, mainly in the under 13" class. There are still some nicer fish in the 2 to 3 lb range but definitely more of the smaller fish. So, we have decided to cull 100 bass this year up to ~13" on a case by case basis (if we catch a 12' fish that weighs 1.2 lbs, it is going back in the lake or if we catch a 14" fish that weighs 0.9 lbs, it is going in the cooler). I read about culling more per surface acre but in our case we have so much open water that is structureless. Since it is clear water and probably only about 10 acres of true productive water, we are shooting for 10 per those 10 acres.

I have done a random guess on how many bass I think we have in the lake based on data and 50 lbs per surface acre and I figured about 1,750. Collectively, I would say there are ~750 landings per year so a lot of fish are repeat customers. I am sure there is mortality for catching as well fish that just die from old age.

Just curious if there is any feedback from folks on here as to how we are doing so far......

This ,from Fisheries Science Prof. Anderson who literally wrote the book on PSD and RW may help (from an old thread).

Read these threads on PSD for guidelines which include comments from the Prof who developed the concept Richard Anderson.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=23612&page=1



http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=23960&page=1


Dick Anderson


Registered: 18/09/06
Posts: 5
Loc: TX, MO, WI

Keep taking <12 in bass until the number 8-12 equals number 12-15. Ideal pond structure is 40% 8-12, 40% 12-15 and 20% 15+

Unfortunately managing a HOA lake where all the residents aren't on the same page is like saying I want a car to get 60 mpg, hold 6 people comfortably, be able to tow my 25 foot boat and be able to run low 5 second times at 270 mph in the quarter mile.

What you are trying to do, and have everyone be happy, with the budget that you have to work with, just isn't realistic. It can't be done.