Stumbled upon an article about Dr. Gary Schwarz, owner of LaPerla Ranch, who is attempting to grow the world record bass. His practice of supplementing the forage base with freshwater prawns is one of the most unusual yet most fascinating management strategies I've ever seen. Article attached:

http://www.bassmaster.com/tips/building-world-record-bass

That got me thinking about the crayfish base in my ponds. Has anyone attempted to stock large quantities of crayfish to supplement BG base? General experience? Any success stories using crayfish? Risks versus benefits?

Cheers

DJT

Welcome to PBF!

There are lots of crayfish threads here on the forum. Google Crayfish or Crawfish followed by Pond Boss and they should come up. I will say, from the threads I've read, I do not recall anybody spending 1000s or 100ks of dollars on them to use as supplemental feed. Lots of folks stock them, including me, but, at least in my case, I don't consider them alone as a significant source of food...more a nice lobster snack for the fortunate predator that finds one out from under cover.

Again, welcome to PBF!

Bill D.

Prawns aren't crayfish. They're crustaceans, like crayfish, but are like large freshwater shrimp. A pretty awesome forage option for southern ponds.

Schwarz is not the only one in Texas going with the fresh water prawns to put weight on his Florida lmb. I have talked to Mark @ Camelot Bell Ranch and he is also feeding freshwater prawns and telling of good lmb growth. I can relate to what Schwartz said about growing lmb in a heavy stocked forage fish pond, where it's tough to get a bite sometimes when fishing for lmb. He talks of where he added F1's hoping to improve the fishing and then realized he should have stayed with his original plan of using pure Florida lmb . I have thought about adding some northern lmb to my pond to improve the bite, but I am staying with the Camelot from Overton's Texas Legacy Lmb. The prawns sound interesting but like Tp and where I am located , it will be necessary to add the prawns every spring. It's not so easy to stay with the plan when you are there fishing and can't catch an lmb. One of these days, maybe after I get my first spawn of lmb I will add some prawns to the pond and see what happens.

Tracy, I think jigs are the lure of choice at the CB Ranch, so prawns make sense for them. At least to me they do.

Tracy, do you get crawfish from any of the Shreveport places? One of the local restaurants does an open order at the end of January, and I'll be trying to decide if it's worth a trip to Shreveport when the late winter prices hit.

Omaha, definitely was not saying they are the same thing at all. I just don't have the resources to raise and stock freshwater prawns. Crayfish are the closest I could come to anything resembling a prawn. Have you had experience with raising/stocking prawns?

Thanks Bill! The supplemental stocking of crayfish would be in addition to the numerous BG in the pond at the moment. I guess I am just looking for a good supplemental food other than tilapia, and I figured a bunch of crayfish would be good for that purpose.

That's interesting Tracy; opens a whole new discussion about ways to improve catch rates. I stocked 18 northern lmb in one of my ponds last October, and hardly ever catch them. Mostly catching F1s. Update us if you ever add prawns.

Apologies, Cosmic. I was responding to Bill's post, but didn't see him quote you. I don't have experience with prawns, being way too far north for them, but pretty envious of our southern friends who have them as an option.

Omaha,

My fault...I saw your post and realized my post must have caused some confusion so I went back and edited to put in the quote from Cosmic for clarification on why I posted what I did.

Bill D.

Al, there is crawfish grower on the north side of Cross Lake. And that is where I purchased 70+ lbs last spring. The craws were in the 5 to 6" size. I can't recall the name of the place but I will drop by there and see what up and if he is selling any now. I will ck today and let u know how to contact him, I found him on Cregs list Shreveport last spring. Cost last spring was a hundred bucks for two very crowded bags.

Ps Jigs are my fav go to bait for lmb. it is a big fish bait

Cos, for me it has been all about trying to grow double digit lmb, so I started out with heavy forage base of cnbg,res,tfs,tp, crawfish and 120lbs of fhms with all spawning before the fingerling Camelot Bell (now Texas Legacy LMB) were added. I believe I have around 20 lmb per acre right now but this is not a sure count. This is in a 3.5 acre pond. With all the forage it makes it hard to catch a lmb sample for growth rates. And I am not fishing for lmb except to sample. I have caught one lmb in the last 6 months. I am trying not to introduce lures for catch and release until the lmb are in the 8 to 10 lb range. I am finding out it is not as easy as I thought it would be to grow out some Xtra large lmb, even with the best genes available. If I want to fish at the pond I pick up a fly rod for the cnbg and or res. Those are now two yrs old, feed daily, and some big ones are in the pond for catching and releasing.

One concern I have is weather or not I will get a spawn of lmb next spring. With all the larger cnbg I am not to sure I will get survival of lmb fry next spring.

Tracy, if I recall correctly, freshwater prawns can be grown together with tilapia in a forage pond. Prawns eat detritus from TP, and TP leave them alone, so a good combination. I'd like to try it myself next year, in fact.

Hay there Frank. I kept 10 Tp from the pond last year and placed them in 3, 10 gal aquariums. Five survived the winter and placed back in the pond. I have to think bigger if I want to grow more Tp and the prawns.

No worries Omaha! Do you use strictly BG as forage base?

I think largemouth benefit from diversity in a forage base, as any predator does, but bluegill has to be the backbone. Nothing else really keeps up, as the article alludes to, having to constantly restock prawns.

Tracy, how are the tfs working out? That is interesting about your catch rates. I have a 3.5 acre pond with F1 LMB which was stunted a few years ago, and so I have added for two seasons a heavy forage base of BG, and with a lot of harvesting, growth rates have been more than decent. However, catch rates have predictably gone down. Of course, the trade-off we all make in trying to grow double digit LMB! I wonder if increasing structure would help some of your LMB fry survive?

As for the fly rod, I almost never do anything but fly fish for bass now days. There is almost nothing in the world better than that! Cheers

How big were the tanks TGW1? That's awesome.

The Tfs have been in the pond since its first stocking in late Nov of 14. Also added cnbg and res at the same time. I added about 300 of the largest sized Tfs hoping for a spring spawn. I followed up with 10,000 tfs in the spring of 15 and did the same this past spring. On occasion I will find one 3" dead one floating on the surface and so it tells me they are still in the pond, how many are still there in the pond I am not sure. I also have some Tp for some Fa control and for lmb forage. And crawfish are added for a snack or two. I may add someday some prawns if I can find them in the same price range as the crawfish. And CC I had the Tp over winter in 3 10 gal aquariums for the experience.

Okay, it's been a while since we talked freshwater prawns. Anybody used them last year? Anybody stocking them this year?

Bob Lusk mentioned he intended to try prawns out in a fall 2015 PB article. Bob, what did you experience? Any good sources for prawns?

Frank, I have been giving it a hard look see this year. There is a hatchery guy in Texas that advertises the prawns for sale. I need to give him a call. If interested we might split a delivery. Mark @ Camelot Bell ranch is using them.

Tracy, who is he?

Dave, Aquaculture of Texas, Craig Upstrom, located in Weatherford. there is another fish supplier in Texas who advertises fresh water prawns for sale with delivery but did not find him on the quick search this morning. I have seen his web page in past research. I seam to remember he is located near or at Weatherford

I think I saw something about him in the Rural Electric newsletter.

Dave, I enjoy the rural elec coop has a monthly magazine. But I could do without the mag if they would reduce the rural elec cost

No kidding!