After 13 years, I had my big puddle electroshocked yesterday for the first time. Very cool process, and my assumptions about my forage and LMB numbers were pretty much confirmed.

Although my LMB were extremely healthy, the imbalance of 1 to 4 pound LMB in my puddle had skewed my CNBG sizes. Lot's of small CNBG, and ton's of 9-10" CNBG and RE's. The 3-8" CNBG numbers were way low, and were caused by the overpopulation of 1 to 3 YO LMB. We removed right at 180 pounds of LMB, and my puddle should be better because of it. It has been impossible to remove this many fish by hook and line alone.

Big thanks to Clint Wilson and Walt Overton from Overton Fisheries. Cool guys, and well worth the cost. Not only did they remove LMB, but helped me figure out how to get my puddle back on track.

Some of the pics from yesterday:

Big Red Ear, we had tons of these.


A couple of colorful CNBG.



Clint and Walt doing their thing.

Those are some purty fish!

Anything else of note shocked up besides RES, CNBG and LMB?

Scott not one thing. No catfish of any kind, BH, HBG, GSF, nothing. The puddle has stayed pretty true to form since the original stocking 12 years ago.

My neighbor above me has a tank for his horses that I know has GSF, but we "helped" him with that problem yesterday. He doesn't fish, so it was a non issue for him.

Allen, that RES is doing well!!! Nice looking fish all around.

Your learning curve has been high right lately....


Well done my friend, Well done.

Nice job ! How about posting the written report when available ? What is the plan forward ?

Will do on the report.

The plan is to get my forage sizes back in line. The LMB were very healthy, and we didn't have one fish that was underweight. The problem was the preferred forage size was getting hammered. It was just a matter of time though before my puddle was a typical "loved to death" pond. Plenty of 1-3" CNBG, and plenty of 8-10" CNBG, but just not enough in between. There would be no way to stock 11 acres with enough CNBG to overcome the imbalance of predators to forage. Removing LMB by electroshocking was by far the easiest and cheapest solution.

I'm also currently adding much more shallow water cover using the post and Christmas tree method that you had previously posted. BTW, that works perfectly in my situation.

Thanks Al for the shocking report.
Looking good.
How many pounds of tilapia are you doing this year?
Shouldn't tilapia help bridge that gap of bluegills?

Not sure yet on the tilapia numbers, I may do shad/tilapia this year and see how that goes. If I do tilapia only, I'll probably go with 150 pounds.

I see those guys all bundled up on the shock boat, must have been a chilly 50 degree day - that's shirtless weather in Nebraska!

I am pumped to see those healthy RES - congratulations! What great panfish photos - good job.

Thought about stocking any forage species, like TFS, GSH, LCS?

TJ, if you have a source of LCS let me know. I have a client that's been wanting some for the past 2 years now.

TJ, it wasn't as cold as it was windy. Wind hasn't stopped for weeks, and it's becoming a beating. 50 degrees is flip flop weather, but I was trying to act like a responsible pond steward and wear real shoes.

Shad are definitely an option I'm pricing, but I have to get the Naiad under control first. Heavy fertilization will choke my puddle. Once the GC are in, I'll certainly try the tilapia/TFS cocktail.

Al, those fish are beautiful. 11A puddle, yeah right!!

Yeah I hear you, the wind can get cold blowing across the water.

I have a forage/reproduction pond I could convert...no one seems to want BRES hybrids, anyhow. If I can raise SMB and BRES, thinking LCS can't be too hard. Just need to understand their spawning preferences and get some brood fish. Do they only spawn in moving water?

TJ, BRES is my favorite sunfish. I am going to give them a shot in my forage pond this year. Theo was the inspiration for me. Travis is going to put a few LCS in it also so maybe there will be a surplus of them later. We also have a beaver pond of several acres to stock in Chesterfield so that might work too.

Forage ponds are cool. Wish somebody would start a sticky thread and everybody would post different methods for different species.

Hey, about my buddy Allen – he’s got this fish management scince down to a “T”….
He knows exactly what he is doing and how to get there - double digit LMB pond!
Reworked forage pond – ½ acre grow-out fun pasture pond and the prettiest 10 ever lake that I have ever seen - heck, y’all have seen the pictures..

He has a plan on a ruled notebook that he checks off to-do projects one at a time.
Culling plan conversation that I overheard – electroshock every other year – heard some talk about future Camelot Bell LMB, and of course you know about his OTS CNBG program.

If he can avoid D-I-V-O-R-S-E he may be able to pull it off…
When Mrs. H. saw those buckets of pure Florida LMB come off that shocking boat – there was trouble in the air……killin’ her babies….she is accustomed to walking down to the lake and catching 20-30 overcrowded LMB per day …..She was about in tears….
I had to tell her DD1’s favorite story about how many cows you can put in a pasture and think it helped – I hope so – brother Al is in a heap of trouble.

Another secret exposed – Allen is a very modest person and it takes a while to dig personal stuff out of him, so before you guys start giving advice, you better ask for his advice….he’s a reformed BASS Tournament fisherman turned fly fisherman.

OK Al, I blew your cover, please forgive…
George

Reviving an old thread, but today is the first day I've seen physical results from the electroshocking last year. I know we caught fewer LMB last year, but we also fished a lot less, so that wasn't a good gauge of the results.

I had lost a whole midsize class of CNBG, and I was hoping to drop the predator load and get things back to a more balanced state.

I watched my feeders throw this afternoon, and there were schools of 3-5" CNBG feeding. This was the size class I had lost, so this was a positive sign for sure and the first time in several years I have seen this. All the XXL CNBG were also there, but the next generation seemed to be back.

I loaded the feeder back up with a 500/600 mix, and everybody got fed.

I've already told Todd Overton, we'll do it again next Spring and see where we're at then. It was well worth the trauma.

FIH, at what water temp do you expect the e-shocking to take place?

To be honest, I'm not sure. IIRC, Todd wanted to do it when they started moving shallow, but before the spawn. That's usually early to mid March around here.

They're starting to hit the beds, and my water's in that 50-60 range depending on the time of day.