Stocked these 3 eating machines into my 1/4 acre pond this weekend.



I plan on puting in 5-10 more. Very predator heavy!! There is YP,BG,BCP,BH in this pond. Lets see how effective these beasts are at eating up my over populated 1/4 acre pond. There is no structure in the pond with very clear water.

Any predictions over the next 2 seasons?

IN a Pond that small I would just leave it at 3 and they might get some real size. 10 of them in a small pond , they will be pretty hungry after awhile and not get as large for you....IMO

Good point Bobby. I should have stated my goal here.

My goal here is to raise and maintain a population of large BCP in a small body of water.

I want those pike to stay at a certain size so they target fish between 2-7" leaving the smaller forage for the BCP.

mnfish - I doubt the NP will heed your advice and stay small. IMO they will eliminate your YP over the next few years especially the YP 8"-10" or sizes that you prefer to harvest. They are also likely to prey pretty hard on the BH which may be in your plans. BG and BCP will be the least favored prey but they will definately get consumed. Ideally you want male NP not females. Male NP stay smaller than females. If you had a choice of stockers IMO it would have been best to choose the runts (probably males) in the tank thus maybe getting closer to slower growing NP. Keep us advised of your progress. I am very interested in how your YP handle the NP introductions.

I always doubted the "eating machine" label the NP often get. Toothy yes, aggressive - maybe not so much. I doubt that pound for pound an NP eats more than a LMB. I've worked with NP and LMB and IMO you can't get much more aggessive behavior than a LMB. Granted a NP can develop a larger weight than a LMB. It is understandable that the larger weight predator will eat more than the smaller predator. It takes a certain amount of fish biomass to gain a pound of body weight, so unless a fish is adding more weight per year than another fish the amount eaten is probably very similar.

10 pikes in 1/4 acre pond? Oh, that's a short term deal...
At first I have to say that they won't stay at size you wish. Pikes grow fast and they eat much. After some time they will have consumed all of possible suitable fish and will eat your crappies. After that they will try to eat other pikes. In the first spring they will spawn and after that you'll get a pond of pikes... Most of them will be small and hungry (eating only some insects, frogs and other pikes).

Sounds like a horror story for you? I'll tell you a REAL story.

Sometimes I visit my friend and we used to go fishing crucian carps to a pond (~1 acre) - pond was full of them because these fish reproduce well (even better that that ). Once I asked him to go fishing but he replied that there is no point to go because of the lack of fish. I was surprised because last year I saw huge amount of fish, so I visited that pond.
Water was very clear and I didn't see any fish. Strange. After some fishing and watching I agreed that all those crucian carps were gone but where and how?
Nobody could catch all of them.
Predators couldn't be responsible for that because nobody stocked them.
After some thinking we decided that some irresponsible farmer in close neighbourhood used pesticides and fish died of that.

I visited the pond after some time and somehow I was lucky enough to see something like pike. I returned home, got my rod and soon caught a small pike. There were pikes, though.
That summer we both often went fishing to that pond. All we got were small and starving pikes.

I may imagine the whole situation. In the spring pikes managed to get into the pond. How? I think that's beavers fault. It travels from a nearest ditch to pond and back. Pikes like that ditch for spawning and probably fish eggs travelled to pond attached to beavers fur. If not beaver then maybe ducks did the same.
Some amount of them survived and started growing. Probably the first summer nobody could notice changes because pikes were still young and amount of crucian carps was sufficient. After some while they reached a bit more weight and started eating all around them. In the next summer I visited the pond and saw nothing...

What happens right now? Pikes are skinny and always hungry. Larger of them eat smaller ones and all possible live creatures - frogs, insects, some swimming mice and so on.

Too bad that I can't say how much pikes were there in the beginning. Maybe a great amount of them and that caused that rapid eliminating of those poor crucian carps. But anyway even 3 pikes (if not the same sex) could do the same but in a longer time.


Be careful with pikes in a small pond.

I was hoping Dr. Willis would comment. After reading his article about pike again, it got me thinking (which is usually not very productive). I know I'm playing with fire here with these pike but heck we will all learn something from this.

Dr. Willis wrote that pike target fish 33%-40% of their body length and will clean out a pond very quickley. My hope is to let them eat for two years and then remove by line and/or trap. My assumption and want is that they will not reproduce in a pond this small. Once removed, the BCP 8" or greater will once again be the top line predator with little competition for food.

How much can they possibly grow in 2 years with unlimited food?

Might it be safer, from the view point that a miraculous pike spawn would ruin your pond, to stock one animal of a few different species?

A big blue cat or flathead will absolutely turn things all Jack the Ripper in a little pond like that.

I might think about one of them and one northern and maybe one largemouth.

I credit the few female NP in our 5 acre pond with improving the overall health of the pond's fish population.

We have many species in many sizes and they all continue to reproduce and thrive. I think different and apparently our pond is different; it all works in harmony here.

I know that a 40" NP will eat a lot and 1 of those in a 1/4 acre pound would become lonely pretty fast.

I am not so sure they belong in that small of a pond. Maybe one?

I can't wait to see how this turns out... Please keep us updated! I would like to research chain pickerel more. Similar to pike, they just don't get huge and thus only prey on the size class of fish most people want removed.

You may hope but be ready to find out that somehow they have managed to spawn... These aren't trouts and spawn easier.



They eat everything that's available. At first they might be fish with size you mentioned but after that all small ones and large ones too.

Don't pike bite people? (More than 33-40% of their body length.)

About the only time pike bite people is when people stick their fingers in the pike's mouth.

I have to agree with that! I grew up in North Wis. and in all that time I think we only had 1 or 2 Musky attacts on small kids and I think that was from reaction as they got to close to them or jumped into the water right on top of them. One of the kids had to have 60 stitches in her leg. (Very Rare Thing Though) I have NEVER heard of a Pike doing that. As far as what Pike will eat??? Man once they get to be 30, 40 inches long anything goes. All fish, snakes, baby ducks, small adult ducks. ( yes I have seen this in action myself) I think they are good eating also if you can get around all the Y bones when you clean them.

Like RC51, I grew up in northern Wisconsin. From the time I was 3 or 4 y.o., I was fishing at every opportunity I had. I literally grew up with northern pike and musky out the back door.

Yes, I've drawn back a number of bloodied fingers because of pike and walleye. But, it was always my own fault, as I was trying to retrieve a hook or lure.

I've seen baby ducks get swallowed down by big musky. But in my 65 years I've never known any person to be attacked by a fish from the pike or perch family.

I'm more afraid of my hybrid sunfish, and their green cousins.

Ken

Mnfish - here I am! As a first comment, I agree with thoughts of one pike per quarter acre might be enough?? If it gets to 5 pounds, that is 20 pounds per acre, which is a very high biomass for northern pike. I also agree with Dwight that pike in low abundance may not be a problem and likely will help with some predation. A good example might be a pond with a high density of small largemouth bass and BIG bluegills. A low density of,pike added to that pond can result in fewer, bigger bass, but still with the bigger bluegill. The few pike crop the abundant small bass so bass growth increases, but pike must also be eating at least afew bluegills and help keep them at the large sizes.

Look for the next PB mag. It will have an article on Musky and how they interact with other species. After the research I think I would rather have Musky than NP.

Here are my thoughts take em for what they are worth.

First Mnfish pond is not the typical pond and has no largemouth bass in it currently.

Second the man and his people fish this pond like crazy.

So what that means is he is capable and devoted to intensively manage this pupppy. Typically recommendations for ponds are based upon the what the owner is capable of, not what fish will do on their own once stocked.

In this situation I like Pike better than Muskie, because my experiences show catch rates of pike to muskie greater than 10 to 1. I stock lots of pike and muskie each fall and have the privilege of monitoring closely the fish populations of many of the lakes that get stocked with these fish.

So Im all for his original plan of putting 10 northerns in there instead of three and I love the attempt at keeping largemouth out completely! So for your situation just simply remove the pike when caught once it reaches about 28 inches long.

keep the total population at about 10 fish or under and simply put them in and take them out as needed. maybe you find out that you need to get some out and then just lower your size limit, maybe you find out you could add a few more. Find a good taxidermist to start decorating your cabin with home grown "trophies" or simply eat them.

put them in and take them out, you have control. Adjust the program as needed. no worries of ruining your pond, pike reproduction is extremely rare in situations such as yours.

going into fall of next year, maybe consider adding 50 lbs of trout to the mix to have some good fun ice fishing and to push some serious pounds on the pike over winter. (but then you'll have to take em out come spring!)

I have many experiments going with pike and muskie in small ponds and they are just alot of fun. people just catch the pike way more than the muskies in every situation.

Thanks for all the inputs guys. Very helpful for me. Nate read my thoughts exactly. For my situation and goals, I defined the perfect predator:

1. I can put and take as needed. Maintaining the "right" size and numbers
2. Capable of eating a lot of 7" BCP or BG
2. Has limited or little chance for reproduction
3. Doesn't compete with a BCP preferred forage(s)
4. Inexpensive and readily available

NP!

Maybe, I don't know. Watch, I will have a freak pond and the NP recruitment will be huge! Now that would be one large mess of a pond.

Nate - I have 3 stocked now. You would take it to 10 and wait until they were 28" to remove. They are 18-20" now. How long to get to 28" assuming unlimited food?

maybe try to get 3-5 every fall and then literally probably sometime midsummer or fall of 2013 start removing the larger ones. More than likely these first three will have the fastest growth rates, and blow up into 26-28" very quick!

definitely keep this thread updated every time a pike is caught to monitor their growth along with your observations of the impact on your unique fishery as a whole!

I thought the goal was for the Esox to reduce the other species not to catch them. I would rather go with Muskie and not chance a hammer handle NP explosion.

This will be a good learning experience for us about use of NP in small intensively managed ponds. Thanks for sharing it with us. Nate's experience and comments about use of NP make sense. I am interested in how the NP affect the YP population dynamics primarily as far as numbers and size structure. YP are fusiform and BCP-BG are rounder bodied. It will be interesting to see if the NP 'hammer' the YP more than the other panfish - BG, BCP, BH. Please try to keep some catch records of the sizes of panfish and numbers that you catch per hour of angling. Compare before or early NP introduction and after several years post introduction. Inquiring minds want to know.

I will be highly surprised if NP successfully spawn in this pond. They struggle to spawn successfully in 200+ acre lakes many times...

It only takes once. I am aware of several oxbow lakes under 30 acres where the NP have spawned and they are crammed full of 10 inch hammer handles.

Just wondering if he will be able to use the Fyke Net to view/remove any possible reproduction of the pike.

If they reproduce, its draw down time and ohhhhh the humanity of killing everything and starting over! There will be no netting

Like EWEST, I have seen my share of over populated lakes full of Jacks. It's a mess!

Hoping for the best for you mnfish. The odds are with you being successful IMO. If not the good thing about ponds it's easy to start over and you get to keep the fish (pre-rotenone). Keep us posted on results.

If your small pond does not have a fairly large percentage of shallow weedy water (marshy - wetland type) it is very doubtful the NP will spawn successfully. If they do spawn lot of small panfish will likely eat almost all the eggs and fry leaving little or no recruitment.

Its good to read that Bill. Time will tell.

I am putting together a data sheet and will post tomorrow. Looking for feedback to make sure I capture meaningful data on this pike experiment. Once it cools off, I am going to get a good baseline before they have been in there too long

For those following along...I stocked 4 more NP this last weekend for a total of 7 now swimming in the 1/4 acre pond. These fish were measured between 16-20" and tagged. This will be the final stocking for this year.

BCP with one person tagging no problem. One person tagging a NP is a whole different ball game. Had to call in a friend to help.



Cooling weather is coming so the net will be going out and a baseline sampling by weeks end.

This is gonna be interesting!

Certainly a well thought out document.

I like projects and data. This should be very interesting. Do you have a start and end date or are you going to keep going until it feels right?

Calling information gleaners. I would like to see some data of stomach contents of larger pike 30+" long that live in a mixed fish community where the pike can be selective as to what they consume. I think most all previous studies deal with small pike less than 24".

Mnfish - Nice start for your project.

Awesome!
Can you get us an angling report as well as soon as possible that shows what you catch when you go fishing for 30 mins or an hour?

To be as successful as possible you will need to fish for and remove the big pike and then stock new ones. continually putting and taking them. if you do end up enjoying that aspect of the mgmt plan I guess thats ok....

Also Im not concerned if the pike do happen to reproduce and stunt out at 16" hammer handles....

I do think the YP are gonna get hit hardest initially unfortunately. That makes me wonder- currently how is your perch population? how often do you catch them and what average size are they? how about the biggest ones, how big are they?

I think it would be helpful to set the baseline for each species in the pond up to this point based on your current knowledge gained or assumed from stocking and angling.

Then do the netting survey info and see how that lines up and then move forward from there.

One thing I assume is that with the absence of the pikes, currently the fish average size across the board is probably rapidly going down due to the absence of predators...

If I could have the perfect pond, it would have northern pike and bluegill. And maybe some yellow perch and walleye. Unfortunately, from my observations over about six decades, it just seems like NP need a lot more water compared to other types of fish to get to sporting size. I would love to see several people have great success growing NP in ponds smaller than an acre. Then, I'd want to try it too.

In my years on Pond Boss, I've seen the limits really pushed. I'm doing things I would have scoffed at 10 years ago. It is because of people like Condello, Cecil, George, Lusk, and many others. Other than Dwight, we don't have a lot of people with pike in small waters -- but, even Dwight's pond is larger than what the majority of us have.

As for retirement, I haven't had time to rate it. But then I've not had as much time to evaluate it as Dave D. I'm just a newbie to this life, but I like it.

The stick, Sargent Jeff and myself will be catching and cleaning Pike next week. They will all be at least 5 pounds (probably larger). They won't be from a pond, but they will be from a diverse fishery where they have many choices on the menu. We will examine the stomach contents and report back.

I am betting the fish they eat will be smaller (relative to body length) than the studies have indicated in those 24" hammer handles.

Dwight - I will run this experiment until we stop learning. Or until I have only one giant NP in my pond! I love the learning and exploring unchartered grounds.

Here's what I'm currently thinking with this project. I will execute the data collection, report the findings, and then have the experts on this forum interpret the data and suggest or pose new questions that need answers. My original goal: Produce a sustainable population of 10-12",.5-1lb BCP in a small body of water.

Nate - I will include catch rates and species in the data collection. No problem targeting NP with the fishing rods. The cool thing right now is those NP have so much food and with school starting and the hunting season begining last weekend, they will have very little human pressure.

As far as whats in the pond for species sizes and relative weights, haven't monitored this pond that close. Up until now I've used it mostly to run my aerator testing, catch 4-6" BG at will(kid friendly), enjoy my morning cup of coffee with the Mrs. The biggest YP was probably only 10" and I'm not sure how many are in there. The BG are abundent with most being 4-6". BCP the biggest was 10" with high abundance. BH...have no idea how many.

Your net sampling and angling catch records will provide a very good indication of density and size structure of the sampled fishes. I like to fish with a small hook, worm, and bobber and keep track of what species, sizes, and how many that I catch per hour. Those data can tell a lot about a fishery. Just keep the records and the data will show good trends as to how the fishery community is changing.

Examining NP gut contents, lots of slime, I love it. We need a limit of NP for pickling purposes anyway.

We cleaned our limits of NP. The largest of them was 32 inches and around 8 pounds. The limit is 3 per person, so the sample is small. The forage available to NP in the Alexandria lake chain is diverse and abundant. Oh, we also caught our limits of LMB plus the ones we consumed on the trip.

The stomach contents of the NP were small LMB and YP. The longest being around 6". These results cast doubt on NP eating large prey (33% -40% of their body weight), but as I said it is a small sample.

Photos to follow.....

Pickled Pike is good eat's!

I have a project up north a bit that may get me into some. Internet seems to be a bit tight lipped on what's up with this BOW as far as fishing. Maybe the best thing to do is talk to the locals and hope they don't feed you a line. Really would like to hit WE, but the boat rental places are on bankers hours. Find out what's up next week.

Update-
Earlier last week, I was told the count went to an even 10 pike in the 1/4 acre pond. I told my "helpers" no more!!!!!

Sorry guys, haven't had the time to set the trap or fish much. Last weekend was the opener of our archery season for deer. Hoping this weekend to set it out and do some BG,YP,BCP fishing.

We did, however, cast a few lines into the pike pond on Sunday. We threw a scum frog, black/silver rapala, and a five of diamonds spoon. 1/2 hr of fishing and not one follow up or strike. I think those pike are very happy in there. The rest of the fish...not so much

I thought I was the last guy in the world who still pickled fish. I do it with bluegill and small culled LMB since we don't have a lot of NP out here.

But -- I'll be in Northern Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin in two more days!

Good eatn' is on the way!

Ken, as you may already know, it's the opener of duck season this weekend in MN. Lay out blinds, a thermos of coffee, some birds in the air, and wildlife management talk with great friends...a perfect Saturday Morning to me. Followed by a gumbo, beers, and bs'ing with great friends...the perfect Saturday evening.

Where about's in MN will you be traveling?

We're heading to a family wedding that takes place on Saturday. The wedding is in Superior. The reception is in Duluth. (mixed marriage )

I expect we'll also get to Two Harbors, Minong, Iron River, and places in between for some good eats and visits with relatives and old friends. Breakfast, lunch, and dinners are already planned with cousins for Friday and Sunday. I'm sure we'll hit a walleye fry on Friday night. I'm hoping we can find a fish boil on Sunday -- if not, maybe just some good smoked fish somewhere between Two Harbors and Cornucopia.

Due to a short schedule, we're flying into Duluth, rather than the usual drive from the Cities to "Up Nort." So, unfortunately no stops at Toby's!

What...All those types of prepared fish and no where on your list. The best prepared fish on earth.... lutefisk!!!

Hope your stay in MN is a good one. Have a safe trip sir.

It is so special we reserve it for very special holidays!

Living where I do now, and being Lutheran, I was aghast when I first moved there nearly 40 years ago! Nobody out there has lutefisk church basement dinners! Actually nobody even knows about lefsa.

Uffda!

We made it. We are in a room on the 14th floor, overlooking the Irwin and the Lift Bridge.

Did you bring your long johns? It's gonna be cold over the weekend!

I want to run an idea by you guys...

I am thinking about catching and sacrificing at least 2 NP this weekend to examine what they have been eating and how big the species are. There are 10 in there now so I think its worth the sacrifice. I will take lots of pics and measurements but I am wondering.

Is there any other non obvious observations or measurements that a novice "fishery want to be" would miss?

Actually it might end with nothing. Most of pikes caught in lakes by me were with empty stomachs. It doesn't mean that they had nothing to eat. Not at all. Simply they weren't eating for some time and after that they saw my lure...
That's about catching them with lures. If you plan to use some fish traps then results might be better.

Anyway, if you got a possibility to get another 2 pikes instead of these removed then have a try!

Results from fishing on sat. afternoon:

- 3 hrs of fishing with one line
- 4-5" BG's were used for bait
- Simple hook and bobber rig

3 strikes were observed with one fish being caught, one lost at the dock, and one fish lost at the set. The fish caught was released



The picture shows #065NP with the BG used for bait. 25% of its body length. I really want to catch some 6-8" BH and repeat this "experiment" next weekend. Sorry for the upside down pic.

ahhhhh, your very first catch of your very own pike from your own pond.....NICE

Here is a photo of the that 32 incher I caught on vacation.

Nice fish ! How did you get that first NP to give you the bait back whole?

Dwight,

That's a beauty. To me, there is just not a more thrilling fish to fish for than a NP, or maybe a musky - especially at that size, when using a big spinner, spoon, or plug just 6-10 inches below the water surface.

Ken

Dwight nice one! I would love to see one like that being pulled out of my pond!! The look on a kids face when that came to the surface would be priceless.

I caught it on a 5/8 ounce spinnerbait. They do like to kill the spinning blade!

Ewest- Mostly luck I think. We have been using a 1/4 oz, black, long shanked hook, tail cutting the BG, and butt hole hooking. We had two others on but couldn't land them. My attempt at trying to make the BG look as natural as possible.

Funny thing was he shook the BG as we dipped him and I almost went swimming trying to recover the BG. All in the name of science. If my buddies weren't already convinced about my fish obsession, they are now.

Pretty fish. Nice coloration.

Pike are what really gained my interest in fishing as a kid when I caught one on a crappy rod with weak string. I had a steel leader on though, just in case.

I was in a canoe with no anchor. Got dragged all over a swamp for 10-15 minutes before it finally ditched me under a log. It was huge (not sure if it was a Muskie) and saw it several time in the shallows. Once I got close to it, it would take off again with my rod screaming at me. Had to reel in carefully to avoid snapping the line.

-LS

mnfish

You have any updates for us on you Pike?

Very confused right now. Ice went off my ponds Sunday of last week. Found 4 dead NP, 1 BCP, 2 BG in the top pond. The BCP, BG's number of winter deaths;pretty typical for winter stress in my ponds.

What is puzzling are the pike deaths. I can't figure out why the pike winter killed. Last fall I stocked a total of 10 pike. I believe the water has warmed up enough that if I had a big winter kill I would see 100's of other species floating or laying on the bottom.

I did place a trap in the big pond and caught BCP,YP,BG, and BH. I plan on setting the trap in the top pond this weekend

I hate to hear about your fish, makes you wonder how long they have been dead.

I am sure someone will be along shortly to fill you in with some information.

Look forward to your trapping and hope you can get some pictures.

How did the dead fish look - condition - fat or skinny? Some fish die overwinter due to starvation and not typical DO winterkills.

Plus, northern pike are SO tolerant of low winter D.O. that low oxygen conditions killing them should take out all other fishes (other than fathead minnows, which are the toughest of them all ).

EWEST - They seemed to be skinney and they appeared to be the smaller of the stocked fish. But its hard to tell. I also wondered about not eating for a cause of death.

Dr. Willis- I agree about the O2 not likely the cause. I will know for sure about the O2 once a place a trap and start catching or not catching BG,BCP,YP.

If lack of O2 is not the reason,I have a hypothesis but have no way of proving it....

1. Some kind of disease that wiped out all ten pike. I only found 4 but could easiley have missed the other 6.

2. The pond is 1/4 acre with 10NP stocked. That is a lot of top line predators for that size body of water. Is it possible the other larger pike "pushed out or made eating very difficult" for the smaller ones. Thus starving the littler ones

Any thoughts? I will probably never know, with so little information.

If I recall you obtained the 10 NP from another nearby BOW.

They may have been stressed by catching them by hook and line, transporting them, placing them in water with a composition differing from their previous home. Some or all of these factors could have weakened the fish and they didn't recover or contracted some virus or disease.

Since you haven't found them all, I wouldn't count out the chance that the rest of them survived.

Eating lunch and running some numbers on the pike pond...

*Those 10 pike were in there for about 200 days before the 2013 ice out. This pond has little to no structure. Very little weed cover and very clear water clarity. Advantage NP for sure. With 16" of ice cover I figure about 300,000 gallons of water.

*Assume each NP eats 1 fish a day
*10fish/day consummed
*Assume 200 days
*2,000 fish consummed by NP
*Assume 8 fish to equal 1lb
*250lbs of fish consumed


There might only be 4 NP and some darn big BCP left in the pond!!!

Could this be right? There might not be anything left to trap

Plus, if you have 4 NP left and they are 5 pounds each, that is 80 pounds per acre in a 1/4 acre pond! Pike typically do not exceed 10 pounds/acre and 20 pounds/acre is a huge amount.

Yes, I believe we are around that 20lb/acre number. Not many but all in the 10-20 pound range.

You may be find that your pond is happiest with just one NP.

That is absolutely possible ! They are called predators and that goes further than just eating other fish. They try to protect their area and food sources.

Mnfish, do you mind to post a picture of your fish traps? Do cr. go in them? Thanks.

Ken- check out the fyke trap thread it shows the trap I've been learning to use. I will be updating that thread as I get more experience and trap modifications. I just wish it would warm up here. Its snowing right now and the temps are high 30's low 40's. My water temps can't seem to break the mid 40's!!

These pics are from last week.

Mnfish, I have a net like that but haven't tried it yet. I thought you had a fish trap you used last year but it might have been someone else. I like your handiwork on the net.

Not real sure what happened but I thought I would close this loop. This weekend I drew down the 1/4 Acre NP pond and sprayed Rotenone. Not many fish in this pond. I saw maybe 25-50 BH, 1 BG, and some FH minnows. Not sure if this pond winter killed or the NP ate themselves into starvation.



Before draw down



After draw down

So what are your plans for the pond now?

Any progress towards a successful BCP pond? I once tried NP in my 1/4 acre pond that is primarily a YP LMB fishery, with the rare GSF and RBT. 3 years after stocking that pike I have not seen it again. I suppose it perished.
My BOW seems out of the ordinary for this forum. It is fed by cool irrigation water 6 months of the year and very little surface run off the other 6 months. The irrigation water is drawn from a nearby trout river, so is cooler than optimal for the bass. We've had substantial Elodea growth the last 2 years; prior to the last 2 years we had no vegetation whatsoever in the pond. My guess is the former owners saturated the pond with aquacide and more. The fish are growing much faster and larger now as the vegetation is providing habitat for all sorts of insects and the like that were not in the water "before weeds".
We live right by the BOW and can fish it regularly. I remove many of the LMB and occasional perch for the table. I'm told by the state fisheries people that BG don't reproduce well in our cooler waters. I just think I will stock some one of these years to find out for myself. LMB fry are abundant each summer, so there are mouths to feed on BG should I decide to give them a try.
As an aside, I certainly enjoy the rattle of the belted kingfishers when they stop by to drop off a tree limb and snatch up a 3" LMB.

It is said that pike have to eat approx. 7 kg fish to gain 1 kg of weight - this might help you to do some calculations.
Btw, it's also said that pike needs AT LEAST the same amount of food as it's weight is (annually). Sure, it's only for survival...

By the way, don't forget that usually there are other creatures as well - for example, frogs.

Just wondering if we have any updates on this?