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Joined: Dec 2016
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My dad has two strip pits that we've fished for years but we have never tried to manage them. We've practiced catch and release for the most part. I just built a pond myself and its opened my eyes to pond management. This site is so helpful. I just subscribed to Pond Boss and ordered the Trophy Bass book and look forward to learning more. All my lifelong observations of the strip pits finally make sense. One is 2.25 acres and the other is 1.75. It was stocked several decades ago with HBG, small LMB, and regular BG. With the exception of one 8 lb bass, the LMB have always been around 12". Now I realize we have an inferior BG population that isn't spawning enough to support the overcrowded bass. When I was a kid, I enjoyed being able to catch lots of bass even if they were small. Now we want to want to make these strip pits the best fishery they can be.

So here is my solution. Please let me know if you think I am missing something or should do something different.

My dad's church has a men's group and youth group that fishes out there each summer. I suggested to Dad that we leverage the group and get them here in March. We remove as many LMB as possible. Would a goal of removing 30 lbs per acre be in the ballpark? I don't think a slot limit will be necessary because they'll probably all be under 14" but I'll tell everyone anyways. We'll also fish hard for HBG and remove as many as possbile. We clip the fins of any small bass under 6" and all green sunfish and throw them back to make an easy meal for the remaining bass. I hate to let fish go to waste because they can't be eaten by us. We release all regular BG. Then once we are satisfied that enough predators have been removed, we stock some 4-5" BG in april in time for them to start spawning. Is it OK to stock CNBG if I already have northern BG or should I stick with Northern BG? Will CNBG spawning with Northern BG contribute to inferior offspring? Also how many medium sized BG should we add per acre and is my timing correct? Lastly and most importantly, will my plan work?

Also aeration and supplemental feeding is not an option. There is no electricity and I'm worried about theft. We have a gate but have still lost tree stands. I think we will have the water tested to see if its need fertilization. Its very clear but I've never tested the visibility. Thanks for all your input and suggestions.

Last edited by Kimberwood Farms; 12/26/16 10:46 AM.
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You should get some pretty good advice from others with experience on the on this topic. I am pretty busy now and I will try and return in a day or two to provide my opinions. Have you read through the appropriate topics in the Common Pond Q&A Archives? The one about LMB management is quite large. My initial advice is, for now, keep the pits separate and work to get the fishery in each improved. The fishery in each pit could be skewed toward different species - angling diversity. There are some intitial answers helpers will want to know. In the meantime:
1. provide a guess how much (% amount compared to surface area) natural and artificial cover (structure - habitat) and the types of cover that are in each pit. Include the depth of majority of the cover.
2. Provide average and maximum depths.
3. Do you have a topographical map for either pit?
4. Provide a best guess estimate as to how deep you can see the bottom. Is the water clarity relative constant throughout the spring, summer, fall.
5. Do you know the alkalinity of the water?

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/26/16 11:19 AM.

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I'm with Bill in keeping both pits apart. One thing about the pits is that they typically have steep sides which provide little area for spawning habitat for the BG. I'd feel comfortable if I had 10 pairs of BG spawning for every pair of LMB.

I think I'd stick with stocking Northern BG as you may be too far north for CNBG to prosper.

Agreed about removing 30 pounds of LMB per surface acre. The GSF act as little bass, and also hammer the YOY BG.


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).
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The green sunfish not only 'hammer' BG fry but all fry. Small GSF are aggressive especially in spring when fry are common.


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Thanks for the help.

1. There is very little habitat. Yes, there is a steep cliff on one side. The entrance road goes right by the cliff of the small pit. So who knows what is in the deep end because there was a lot of public dumping before we bought it. We quickly put an end to that but I wouldn't be surprised by anything that is at the bottom (cars, construction debris, tires, bodies?) but its probably too deep to be any benefit to the fish. My dad had the other side cleaned out a couple years ago with a track hoe. We added a couple stumps but I'm sure its not enough. I'll make sure we increase the habitat before we add any BG. What percentage of surface area should we try to put into habitat? Keep in mind that 1/3 of the area has deep water underneath.

2. Maximum depth in the big pit is 25' and the average is maybe 6-8'. There is a shallow area (maybe 1/3 acre) at one of the ends, we call it the lagoon. The lagoon gets pretty weedy and I can normally see a lot of GSF in there. The smaller pit has a maximum depth of probably 16-18'. The average of the smaller pit is probably also probably 6-8'. The averages are just guesses, I certainly could be wrong. There is a 100 yard field in between the two pits. After big rains, the smaller pit will flood the field but the two pits are always completely separated by an old logging road so they never actually combine. On an average year of rainfall, the field stays flooded about half of the time (winter and spring). It has lots of fallen trees so there is a lot of habitat. It also gets very weedy because it is only a couple feet deep.

3. I do not have a topo map of either pit. I have structure scan in my kayak but haven't used it in those pits. But they're both the same. Imagine long hot dogs. One side is a cliff straight down and the other side is probably a 30 degree angle. The ends taper to a shallower area. Some taper more rapidly other.

4. Its pretty clear. I bet the visibility is close to 3 feet. Again, that is a guess. I'll measure it the next time I'm there.

5. I have no idea about the alkalinity or the PH. I have a testing kit for my pool that I'll bring with me next time I go home.

I had thought about trying to make one pit great for bass and one pit great for BG. Thanks again for your time and suggestions.

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The fish likely use the deeper parts during winter after the BOW de-stratifies.


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We have a 10 A. quarry that has 8 A. that is 20 to 35 ft. deep. It is completely spring fed and with berms all around there is no runoff that can get in. We have had it for three years now. Our PH is 8.0 and we had to add quite a little structure. There is no electricity so no aeration. We have found that year round we have fish at all depths from top to bottom. We have a very good depth finder to find the fish. I am always surprised how many LMB, BG and other fish we catch right off the bottom. I would not discount the value of the deeper water.

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High density bass at 14" will weigh 1 lb or less. Remove 25-30 bass per acre for a good start. Transfer many of them to the pond for big BG. For big BG esp without pellet feeding, the water has to be bass crowded. Generally the more skinny bass crowded it is, the bigger the average size of BG. High cropping of BG recruitment results in more food for remaining BG. Supplemental offshore pellet feeding would really help you to grow bigger quality BG. You can make an economical fish feeder using a plastic garbage can and purchase the mechanical guts from Texas Hunter or other wild game feeder. Mount the feeder on a floating platform anchored offshore beyond shore based casting distance.
http://www.texashunterproducts.com/feeder-kits/

Hampering the swimming ability of GSF and then release is good bass food. I think adding 40-50 midsize BG (4"+-6") pre-spawn will help a lot. Remember poachers will harvest some of your larger stocker BG. IMO CNBG will not perform well in your KY pit pond,, stick with local 'northern' BG which can and will with ample food get to 10", if they are not harvested or stolen first.

Creating a high quality fishery will be a big, big, BIG challenge as long as there is public trespassing access esp when word gets out once a quality fishery exists. One or a few good anglers can quickly and efficiently fish down a pond. There are a few old threads on the forum how to deal with trespassing. Brush infested shorelines deter angling trespassers.
Ideas & trespasser discussions.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=194874
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=357677
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=215519
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=42267
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=414556
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=252437&page=6

Weed beds are your good habitat and fish food buffet. Habitat at more than 13% to better amounts of 25%-30% of the total shoreline provides needed benefits for good fisheries. Look through my PBoss magazine 2016 issues Table of Contents and the index for several 2016 articles by South Dakota fishery guys focused on improving fish growth using added structure - habitat. Maybe ask for a subscription to PBoss mag for future long term fish growing info. A subscription can start with Jan 2016. There is a tremendous amount of fish growing and management information available in old forum threads. You can access it by googling it by using: Pond Boss forum then the subject.

Build and establish durable fish attractors (aka structure) located off shore and beyond casting distance from shore and out of reach of trespasser anglers. Do your best fishing using boat methods focused on the structure. Locate or anchor your fish attractors slightly beyond the maximum depth of your weed beds. Fish will loaf near attractor structure and often feed among or at outer edges of weedbeds.
See Pond Boss Mag May-Jun 2016: 14. HABITAT FOR FISH: IT’S COMPLEX. Dr Neal describes how to find a happy medium between an empty pond and one with too much habitat. Defines habitat, structural habitat, how they are different than structure-cover, do fish need cover, he enters the mind of a fish, how to design habitat, location of habitat, and amount of habitat. Included is a sample Structure - habitat placement map.

Spend lots of time this winter going through the lengthy Forum Archive thread dealing with structure types, cover, fish attractors and habitat; much of it is durable and homemade. Mark the locations with GPS or triangulation or your depth finder.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463#Post92463

IMO pretty clear water is average annual water clarity of 4-6ft. Clear water is 10-20ft of visibility. Visibilities of 2.5ft to 3 ft is still naturally productive enough to grow quality fish; just not as many fish as when a bloom has green hue water of 16”-2ft. Do you know about a secchi disk and its use?
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92624#Post92624


Your weed beds, depending on the weed species, provide lots of invertebrates as fish food. Often there are high 100’s of inverts per square yard of weed bed. KNOW YOUR WEED SPECIES. You may be able to enhance the fishery by adding more productive submerged weeds such as American pond weed (aka longleaf pondweed). Also bulrush beds along the shallow angler side out into the water to 4-5ft deep will deter angling from shore. Bulrush beds allow more open spaces for fish to hunt through compared to cattails while also discouraging shore based angling. Note: soft and hard stem bulrush can grow to 6-8+ft tall spread relatively quickly and would eventually need some management - control in a 1-3 ac pond. Slender bulrush does not grow quite as tall(6ft) as soft&hard stem bulrushes. Know your weed species! There are herbicides that work well to reduce bulrush. Bulrushes and common rush are easy to transplant from local waters.
http://www.northcreeknurseries.com/plantName/Scirpus-validus-
http://ionxchange.com/scirpus-acutus-hard-stem-bulrush/
The common rush Juncus effusus does not grow as tall as the bulrushes.
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=c262#AllImages

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/29/16 03:01 PM.

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