I have just got a new pond to manage that is in walking distance from my house. It is stocked with BG,LMB and crappie. This pond is about 20 years old and has not been managed properly since 10 years ago. I have just started to feed the BG and are taking bread very well. In a day or so I will start them on floating fish food. The owner said the CC died out a long time ago but I did see a 20 inch CC come up today for food. What could I do to see how the population of all the species are doing? I have already tried cast netting and it does not work very well.
How big is the pond? I think simple angling would give you an idea if it's a small pond. Do you know the last time that the CC were stocked?
If there is a fairly flat area without much in the way of obstructions, you could run a seine survey in late May, early June. That would give you a very good idea what you have going on... Along with angling of course.
It is .5 acres. The bad thing is the owner long time ago stocked CC and Crappie in it by throwing lake fish into the pond. I've thought about running seine but there are 4 large brush piles in the pond. I will post pics soon..
With both the feeding and fishing, I think you can get a good idea of what you have in the pond.
Can you remove the brush piles?
The brush piles are tree limbs that have been cut and have been thrown in. I would like to remove them and put in a pvc type structure. How could I remove the brush piles?
Not sure I'm the right guy to be answering this, considering my track record with these sort of things, but if it was me I'd get a heavy chain, skidloader, and a grappling hook.