Alright, some of you might remember the post i made a few weeks ago wanting advice on trophy catfish in a small pond.. Change of plans.. My family has gotten together and we are going in on a 2000 acre farm with a 125 acre lake on it.. The main reason we are buying the farm is for deer hunting. I have volenterd for the lake manager job.. I know this is going to be a huge challange and alot of work.. A little about the lake. It has a creek about 6ft wide and 8in to a foot deep running into it all times. and sevrel other creeks a little smaller that only dry up in droughts. It also has a couple hollows that dump water in when it rains. It has no dam so to speak The water just runs out in the form of a creek. It will be blocked by a grate to keep fish in. It has a road all the way around it about 3 ft above the water level. We were told that the road has never flooded and the lake has never droped over 1-2 feet sence it hit full pool. There is an area with 2 rock cliffs for jumping one it 17ft high and the other is 31 ft high water depth in that area is 27ft deep, the area was cleared for this purpose during construction. The depth of the lake verrys from 12 to 30ish feet in the main body with the deepest spot being 43 ft. The pond is almost 3 years old and only has grass carp in it, 3 per acre and creek chubs from the main creek. We were told that structer ranged from standing tember to rock cliffs and everything in between. Our goal for this lake is as follows.. 1 trophy bluegill, would love to grow 2+ pound gills. 2 trophy catfish, would love to grow 50+ pound cats. 3 Bass some members of our family mentiond wanting 5 pound bass. 4 were thinking the lake may be cool enough to suport year round trout?? I am sure i have left things out so just ask.... Is my goals for this lake unreasonable?

A lake that size and the amount of money you'd need to manage it properly, I would consult a fisheries biologist. Greg Grimes may be close enough to you to assist.

Unless you have substantial cold water springs flowing into your lake, I think you would struggle to hold over trout, but it depends on the elevation of the lake and the water quality of the feeder creek(s) that feed it.

I think you will find that there are more than just grass carp and creek chubs in the lake already. Any creek that is 6 foot wide feeding it has a substantial fish population in it already. What ever fish were in that creek are now in your lake. If the lake is now 3 years old, those fish have had 2 or 3 spawning season to heavily populate your lake. I was definitely survey the lake to see what fish community you have present.

$We already have about 10 brem traps
on order just for that reason but i dont think there are any. From what we were told the big creek is the result of sevrel small creeks meeting together a couple miles up stream. I dont the the family could cough up the dough to bring in a pro as the farm cost us a small fortune, we will do good to get the fish. I think we are just going to wing it along with consulting the PB members..

Although the pro might cost some more $$ up front, it will most likely be saved (and then some) in the next few years by getting a handle on the fishery population right up front. A pro will be able to give you advice based on your goals, and he should be able to tell you if they are attainable, and at what cost.

A BOW that size will cost a LOT to re-do if it really gets out of whack.

What kind of bream traps did you order?

As a joke I told my cousin that if I mess up to bad I could always get a couple hundred flatheads over 20 lbs and they would clean up my mess in about a year.. then just set trot lines to get them out.. As to weather that would work.. I dont know

But, if you do mess up, at what cost is the fix, and how many years would it take to turn it around?

I know it will be expensive if we mess up.. but we just spent almost 300,000 dollars between us and we just cant higher a pro any time soon.. should be able to stock it just like a 1 acre pond right? I mean as far as fish pre acre goes? like 500 bg/100 bass per acre just scale it up?

Greg Grimes has land in Kentucky so you may be able to get him to drop of fish or come look at it when he is up that way.

125 acres is alot to manage. You would have to remove a ton of 12" bass every year to have a trophy bass fishery. A trophy bluegill fishery would be alot easier to handle because nature natually handles it. It will always end up with stunted bass and large bluegill if bass aren't havested. Richmond Mill Lake is 125 acres or so and its looks awesome. Get on youtube and type in Bob Lusk and it should bring up a six part series about it. It covers alot of different management aspects that may be useful to you. I wouldn't recomend putting flatheads in any lake. I don't think you can mess this up though. 125 acres should be big enough to have crappie and a number of other species without hurting your goals.

Gregs website is http://www.lakework.com if you wanted to check out some of his pictures and info.

2,000 acre farm with a new 125 acre lake for $300K doesn't sound bad at all. Spending the extra amount for a pro eval and recommendation might be worth it at this point.

question on the bass harvesting, if i stocked blue cats once they got big would they prey on the bass hard enough to take care of the over crowing issue?

Well the family bought the farm for hunting purpose and the lake is just a bones, They,re like {put the fish in it and let us catch them) So im pretty much takeing on the projrct alone, They did tell me they would help with the cost of the fish, But im pretty sure they wont help with the $$ of a pro.. Does any onw know what kind of $$ that would cost any whay? 5k? 10? i have no ideal.. thanks for the input guys

one more thing. When i do stock can i stock all the fish at the same place or do i need to do it in different locations around the lake?

The addition of tiger musky should help cull the smaller bass for you. Blue cats are no doubt predatory, but it will take many years for them to get to the size where they'll efficiently prey on your bass. As far as where to stock the fish, you can stock them all in one spot... They will quickly spread throughout the lake.

Congratulations Tommy! Wow what a great adventure for your family. Post photos when you can.

Such a big BOW, this will be fun to follow. Congrats Tommy.

We cant wait to get control of this property! It will be after hunting season ends (feb for bow season) before the land will be in our posisson as the contract states. So Im looking at spring before any stocking begans. If we stock tiger musky would they pose any threat to swimmers? I would hate to take one of our kids for stitches because a fish mistakes a little foot for a gill...

I have heard and read that they are no threat to swimmers. But I'll let someone else back that up from experience.

I'm no fisheries biologist, but I have swam in a lot of muskie/pike/tiger rich lakes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario. Still have all of my toes, and I've never heard of a member of the Esox family attacking anyone. They are ambush predators of fish. Large animals are not a food source to them. If you don't have anybody who wants to fish for them though, they might end up consuming biomass without adding fun.

300k for a 2000 acre place with a 125 acre lake... that seems like a hell of a deal. You saved a lot there, I really would consider getting out an expert to help you stock. I mean, you're probably looking at $1,500 worth of LMB alone by my back of the envelope calculation. You'll save money in the long haul through being able to develop a better stocking/management program for your lake. Also, a biologist might be able to give advice on how to make your lake better for hunting, perhaps by adding duck/deer/dove friendly habitat around the shores.

TOMMY, Have you contacted your local conservation officer for advice? He can,or you can get the regional biologist (fisheries) to evaluate your lake for stocking. Probably,they would not stock it under their farm pond program with an existing fish population.And,it may not be practical to rotenone it.But,they can offer a wealth of info. to your family. Growing trophy bass/bluegill is tough in infertile soils. Much easier in western ky. Yeah, I know, Greenbo lake produced two years ago.BTW where are you at in eastern ky?

Well, there is not existing fish in there besides grass carp so we might be able to have the state stock it.. I live in martin co ky but the new farm is in lawence co and might even lap into johnson co?

I would get advice on trout of different kind, but with your depth an inflow, it's my guess that brown trout will survive.
So dont hesitate youst do it, if legal in your area.

PAUL

How are you sure there are no fish in there besides Grass Carp?

sunil....
the sellers of the farm said that Is all they put in, They wanted to make sure they controled the growth and never introduced other species to the lake.. But we are going to set traps around the lake this spring prior to doing anything to it to make sure on that.

as stated earlyer i dont think there are any. From what we were told the big creek is the result of sevrel small creeks meeting together a mile or so up stream. So the only thing that caould survive more that a mile or so up the creek is chubs.

What about downstream? If I recall correctly, you said it has a creek as the outflow as well. That is a lot of flow for no fish to find.

well it flows the rest of the way through the farm then down a spill way of rif raf rock into a larger stream. But no way ish can get up that spill way.

I'd be tempted to throw in a red wriggler under a bobber next time you're there. Just to see if there's anything you don't know about.

This sounds like an amazing piece of property. And if you are looking for some people to come check out the lake and help you evaluate it, I'm sure the idea of fishing and possibly some beer (or truckloads of beer depending on which members are invited) you could have the free help of some of your pond boss family. I'm sure at least a few guys would be willing to come out and throw a line in.

Mikey: did you get the girl a ring yet?

Tommy, first glad you are here you will gets some great advice. thanks guys for referral been busy and not checked in PN in a few days.

Tommy not trying to sell u but a lake that size is worth lots of money to construct the permitting alone these days would be 100K easy. At 300K that seem awesome. When you start talking stocking numbers for that size body of water it is not going to be cheap. I think we can save you tons of money by spending it right within your goals and budget. Also unless the lake is new it more than likely has fish. Hard for a lake that size to not have some in a matter of a few years. Not only would you be paying for the shocking but the advice. We can lay out a plan of action. Anyway I just did the math to get us up thee it would be $1000 to get us there and $1500 for a day of shocking and consulting. Report another $500 that will attempt to answer all your questions and covers next year worth of advice. We would help find best source of fish and supplies, etc. Anyway congrats on a great piece of water.

thanks guys.. I belive ive taked every one into getting a pros advise. But like i said we wont have control of the farm till after deer season. as for the price of the lake, It was built free of charge. yep you heard me right FREE.. How you ask? It was strip mined as the law says the land must be reclamed better than when they found it.. Hence the lake.

Sweet deal Tommy, almost seems too good to be true! $3000 bucks to have Greg electroshock it and give you his advice is a steal! If you can get him to assist you, it will be worth every penny... A lake that size has the real potential to produce multiple species of trophy fish if managed properly.

Tommy too cold to do any shocking up your way until next spring anyways. If strip mine one of the first things would be to run water quality test. Have you seen it, guessing it is ultra clear. Might even be very difficult to shock. If you like email me greg@lakework.com and send in a water sample. We will reduce charge say $30 and run some test for ya. Good first step, also some of the strp pits have grat habitat they did not built it for a lake so they leave humps, channels, etc. I've seen some very cool ones.