My wife and I bought our place in June 2007 and the previous owner had put in a small pond somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/5th acre. Based on how things seem to have been taken care of around the rest of the property, I'm guessing the pond received no maintenance at all. It was completely covered with filamentous alae (sic?). I took a depth survey myself from 30+ locations around the pond and came up with an average depth of just over 4' with a max depth of 11'. It's only source of water is runoff and at the time the pond was between 3 and 4' low. I applied 1/2lb copper sulfate around the perimeter and the algae problem was much improved. August of 2007 I installed a bottom aerator and that was the end of the algae problem (in summer I get a just a bit of algae growth, but nothing that concerns me). The first year we caught BG of all sizes but nothing above 8-9". The biggest of them being HBG. LMB of all sizes from fingerling up to 3 lb. Several black crappie were caught in the 8" range, unfortunately not knowing any better and being a crappie fisherman to begin with, they were returned to the pond. I stocked 10 8-10" CC that year as well, not having caught a single cat that year at all.
Last year the fishing really seemed to suffer. BG numbers and size were smaller, same sizes of LMB and small crappie. This year BG numbers and size are still small. We did catch a CC that was 4 lbs, and one crappie in the 11" range (again released). Next spring I will start removing the crappie. My concern are the size and numbers of BG. With the pond's size I'm primarily interested in BG, and less concerned with LMB. A population of CC would be nice to have for the occassional fish fry with there numbers being replaced when they are removed. I do feed but nothing seems terribly interested and I worry about fouling the pond. In 2007 they devoured the feed as soon as it hit the water. I do put in 5 lbs of FHM in the spring and fall. I know the BG are there, I can see them around the bank and we do catch fair numbers but they all seem small, mostly in the 3-6" range. The LMB we catch appear well fed. I'm assuming when I put the aerator in more of the pond became usuable to the fish so perhaps I'm having trouble finding the larger BG now. It just seems the fishing was better before the aerator.
Sorry for the long post, any advice is certainly appreciated.
Chris
It sounds like, to me, that your fish may becoming conditioned to fishing pressure. In a small pond, they can pretty rapidly learn that there are strings attached to easy meals.
Hello Chris and welcome to Pond Boss!
Hey Chris, welcome to PB from another Buckeye!!!
Welcome Chris, where exactly is Harrison?? In Near Dayton.
As far as your pond is concerned, i agree that fish in a smaller pond get easily conditioned to fishing a certain way and once I switch methods, the fishing seems to get better instantly.
If you are managing for bigger bluegills, ( sounds like you are) then a little more info on how the LM bass did this year might help answer the problem, were they more numerous, smaller etc. or was it just the nigger gills you noticed seemed to be disapeering, I might add that the bigger gills are more shallow in may-June and then move into much deeper water so if you had caught them early durring the spawn, it may have seemed like you had more bigger gills then say after 4th of July wen they get hard to find. Just a thought.. How much fishing pressure are you giving those guys??
Salmonid
Welcome Chris. You live right up the road from me, I live near Harrison Av and 128! Anyhoo, you'll get alot of help on here, I'm trying to bring a small pond back to life myself, and have gotten some good input here.
Thanks for the welcome wagon!!!!
Mark B - Harrison Ohio is about 25 miles northwest of Cincinnati in Hamilton County. Fishing pressure would be light considering we fished much more when we first moved in. This past spring and summer I'd say we averaged fishing the pond every 2 weeks or so, then only for an hour or two. We certainly caught larger LMB this year. I don't recall catching anything under 10-12", which isn't large but last year and the year before it wasn't uncommon to catch them in 6" range. As a matter of fact our last outing (about a week before my original post) my sister in law caught a 5-7" BG which was in turn swallowed by a 12" LMB. Perhaps I'm worried over nothing, but I definately think I need to start harvesting some predator fish.
dwlic23 - I would be on the other side off Harrison from you. As a matter of fact my mailing address is a bit misleading as I'm closer to Cleves. I live on Sand Run Rd about 600ft from the Indiana line. Nice and quiet!!!!
Thanks for the help.....
Chris,
Several things to do for producing larger BG in the smaller pond. There should be something in the Question & Observations Archives section about this. If there isn't we moderators need to create a topic about it.
1. The pond should be bass heavy with the population dominated by 6"-12" bass. This means harvesting primarily the largest bass caught in the 16"+ range. There is previous posts about why to do this. Larger bass can be caught by fishing with smaller BG (3"-4") under a bobber.
2. Feed the BG but just dont't use catfish food or similar food in the 32% protein range common at various stores. Use Purina Aquamax Carnivore (blue bag) that has 41% protein. It grows bigger BG faster. For a pond your size and feeding mostly BG a 50 lb bag should last you one whole summer. If you and dwlinc23 can share food purchases, buy a bag of 5D05 (3/16")and a bag of 5D06 (5/32") mix the two and then split it between the two of you. This gives two sizes of pellets one for smaller BG 3-5" and one for 6-9".
3. Harvest mainly the female BG to help produce larger BG overall. Searching the old topics will produce posts that will teach how to tell males from females and why to do it. Might be a topic on this in the archives.
4. Don't overfish the pond. It causes fish to be hook smart (shy) of the method used. Spend time feeding fish, harvesting small fish, angling for biggest bass and keeping records lenghts and sizes of fish caught.
5. Initially if small BG appear overabundant, manually harvest some of the 3"-5" BG with angling and trapping until the pond becomes bass heavy.
6. Try and get and read the 3 back issues of Pond Boss Mag (Mar-Apr, May-Jun, Jul-Aug 2006) of Growing Behemoth BG in Small Ponds by Cody, Condello and Baird.
7. Visit the website Big Bluegill.com.
I added this topic in the archives section. See it for a few more Big Bluegill tips.
Do these 7 things and the pond should be on its way to producing some bigger BG in 1-2 yrs.
I go to West Harrison IN every Christmas season. Maybe I could stop by some time to talk about your pond.
Chris, Bill knows his stuff... When he offers to drop by your pond for a consult take that offer with open arms!
Great info Bill!
Chris,
It sounds like you are well on your way to the pond you want. If you add Bill Cody's tips, it won't take long to get there. I may sound like an infomercial, but I've achieved what I wanted using the advice Bill posted.
I too have black crappie in my pond, but none of them ever go back.
As for channel catfish, I think that since the first Pond Boss conference three years ago when there was a presentation about what catfish eat, many of us have really felt that they add to growing big bluegill. They are definitely "put and take" fish. Just don't allow them to get too big, as they can become real pests.
My pond is a little bigger than yours (about 0.7 acres). I put about twenty 10-12 inch catfish in per year. We take out all that we catch over about 18 inches. The ones I put in 15 months ago are now 22-24 inches and about 4 lbs. I figure there are about 7 or 8 left of that year class. They are voracious eaters and you never know when you'll catch one. I've caught them on flies when fishing for trout, and we've caught a number of them when fishing for bluegill with ultralight equipment. They are just plain fun to have in the pond, plus they are great eating.
Ken
Bill,
Would love to have you out. I'm on vacation the week of Christmas so other than Christmas Day I should be open, unless the wife decides she wants to visit her family in Toledo. Let me know when your in the area and we'll try to make it work. I'm about 6 miles directly south of West Harrison.
Any suggestions where I could find the Purina Feed. I don't believe any of the stores around me carry it. But I only have Tractor Supply and Orscheln's in my area. The local Purina supplier shut down sometime this year, he was actually in West Harrison on State Ave.
Thanks for the help!!!!
This is what I love about Pond Boss, those willing to help others and answering the vast amount of questions over and over. You will seldom find members that will not help you so ask and you will receive.
If you go here:
AquaMax dealer locator type in your zip code and how many miles you are willing to travel, you can find all the dealers in your area. They might not stock AquaMax, but they might be able to order it for you. That's how I found the place that I buy it from.