Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Need ideas on YOY CNBG in my production pond.

I want to get some options on what to do here. I have a .25 acre pond that I drained once and then added 50 brooder CNBG in sometime around July. I got a good spawn and fed around once a day from Sept-Nov. My goal is to grow out a bunch say 5000 3-6" CNBG to be transplanted in my larger lakes we have on the ranch.

I have a .4 acre pond that was drained last year and refilled, that has No fish in it. My original plan was to transfer 5000 of my YOY to this .4 acre virgin pond to be fed out to proper size. This would insure I don't have problems with more spawning while im trying to grow the fish out being that there would be no adults starting out.

However, I had one problem, when i drained the .25 acre pond i was going to clean it out with a large trackhole but never got to that, I dug around the edge with a small mini excavator but thats it. SO, the bottom of this pond will probably be too hard to drain and seine for a rookie like me with the 4ft deep muck that im sure is in the bottom.

QUESTION: Im wondering if I should just Leave the .25 acre pond alone and try to grow out the CNBG YOY that I have in this pond already, OR still attempt to move them to the .4 acre. I don't have any idea of the numbers of YOY i have. I took a few photos, 2 of which are an example of what I see along the edge all the way around. They are around 1.5"-2.0" long i think.

If you think I should try to move them in March, is there any other options I might have instead of trying to seine them? Im wondering about a Huge trap. I could build say a large 10ft by 10ft by 4ft deep box from PVC, wrap it with 1/8in netting and make it with multiple Minnow trap style openings that the YOY could go in. Then I could put it in the center of the pond and throw fish food in it for a week or so, then pull it out and see what I caught. this might be a dumb idea but hey, I don't know what else i can do when I don't want to seine really...

You might want to look into a Fyke Net. With that density of CNBG, I don't know what you will need to do to keep the water quality acceptable. (12,500 CNBG/ac)

If they were born in July then by March they should be big enough to move to their ultimate home not the .4 acre pond.

I agree on the 12500 per acre, thats pretty steep, i just was more or less trying to get my whole plan out on the table. i haven't really got hard numbers on what i can do with the .4 acre with no aeration as far as growing out to 3-6".

Ewest what size would you think I should move them at? There is probably no way they will be 3-6" by march. It is winter and im not feeding much at all. Haven't seen much growth since Nov. really with the little feeding ive done this winter.

My biggest problem is feeding them, I have been doing it by hand and its a little drive to this pond. Is there any feeder or way to feed that extremely small diameter fish food other than by hand?


A Fyke net may be a good idea, does anyone have a good link to some, i'd be needing a pretty small net size like 1/8-1/4 i guess.

3-5 inches. But move them in several series. Move some caught by seine in March. With fewer there the others will have more to eat. About 2-3 weeks later move some more. Keep repeating until they get hard to catch. Do protect them (habituation) for a few hours by net when you put them in the big lake.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...true#Post127587

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post22246

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post26019

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...true#Post169568

That sounds like a plan, I just don't think I can realistically seine them with the way the pond is with the deep muck. Its probably a 30yr old pond. If I can just find a good way to catch them.