Looking for opinions Guys and Gals.

Brief History: 10 ac. Pond. Bass, Bluegill, Black Crappie and a few Green Sunfish. I've owned it for 6 years now. My relative weights on all species are pretty good up to this point.(Try to manage pretty intensely, But mostly luck up to this point).

Anyway question here is I'm wanting to establish some Red ear. I'd like to cage raise some but I just don't see that happening in the next couple of years or more even. I'll have access to some on Oct the 22nd locally. (Andry's fish truck.) I was thinking about getting between 700-1000 in hopes a few would survive predation. I guess I should mention I do have Bass up to 6lbs and Black Crappie to 2.5 lbs. I have descent cover but probably not the recommended 20%.

Would I be just completely wasting my time and money or is there a chance I could end up with a small percentage of survival. I know a large portion are going to be quick snacks. All arguments supporting either way welcomed. Thanks Rob.

Rob do you have a area where you could put in some tight chicken wire fence say in a circle? Like 12 or 15 foot round. Put them in there then and let them grow for a while. That way nothing big can get at them and you can kinda watch em / feed em or whatever. Food would also come in through the fence.... Unless you have GBH issues then that's a whole other story? If you could get them in about a foot of water they would be fine for a while!!

If you cant I would say put them in. Yeah your gonna lose 80 to 90 percent of them maybe. That pond is pretty big and if there is BG in it more may survive than you think. But they are a must have as a maintenance fish. My pond is MUCH better once I put them in there!!!

RC

Put them in areas where there is a lot of underwater weeds for them to hide in while they get acclimated to the pond.

I'm in the same boat as you. I would love to get redear going. Talk to Rex (Rainman on the forums). He gets a line on larger (3-4" RES) every now and then.

Blocking net or rigid plastic fencing - see habituation.


http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=169568#Post169568

RC and ewest ,I'd like to do the blocking net. I just don't see me getting some and getting it set up before the 22nd.

I know its one of those "it Depends" kind of things but really just curious if you guys thought I'd have a shot at 5 years down the road having RES established by adding them as is.

Bocomo that makes me think of another question.
If I do it what would be your all's opinion on what size to buy

1-3" $0.50
2-4" $0.70
2-5" $0.80

Last two based on availability.

esshup I get what your saying for sure but two question's that come to mind with that are:
1)Turn them all loose in the same area or split up into different parts of the pond.
2) Or take a boat out to the middle where the predators don't hang out.

Thanks guys. Rob

The larger the fish the better the chance it survives. 5 inch fish would give you a good chance of survival. My guess is a 50% chance. With 2 inch fish my guess is < 3 % survival. A Walmart seine net set out for 24 hours will help a lot. Put them in the thickest cover you have and it would be best to do it in several locations. FWIW 100 5 inch fish at $1.00 is much better than 1000 2 inch fish at 50 cents.

In this case like Eric is saying bigger is better. The 5 to 6 inch CNBG I put in my pond did great!! Even tho I had some decent size LMB in it. If you can get 5 inch you would not have to keep them in a fence for long or net whichever. I firmly believe that once a 5 inch fish get acclimated to the pond they are not so easy to catch as a 2 inch. Some of my lazy LMB look at my bigger BG and then just are like nahh to much trouble.... lol. If you have to go with 2 inch I would make a area for them and feed,feed,feed them as long as you can. Let them go once it get colder as the LMB start to shut down and not feed as much... they will have a better chance at that point I think....

RC

I know Andry's, and have had good luck with their fish, but I'm not sure I would count on very many of the 2-5" fish hitting the 5" mark.

I have found that true of my fish farm as well with respect to just about any species. As example, my 6 to 8 inch CC were 5 to 6 but they are very healthy. I suggest you request up front that the fish are to the high side to avoid predation. It's what I have learned to do and seems to work for me.

It's pretty labor intensive to selectively size the larger end of any given grade range. I do have a source that normally has some 7"+ RES, but they are not a buck each! RES over 4" are pretty hard to find in any quantity.

Looking at the example given by R&R for RES:

1-3"
2-4"
2-5"

Notice that 2-3" fish fit into all three categories. You could pay anywhere from .50 to .80 cents apiece for the same RES, depending upon which size class you specify.

Not really....1-3" will average 2".....2-4" will be mostly 3" and 2-5" will be mostly 3.5" and bigger with very few smaller ones under 3".

The ranges shown are almost certainly all YOY fingerlings, with the larger ones being shooters.

Mostly.

d

They should be able to grade them tighter than that.

Who (besides the guys that sell fish that are here on the forum) know how fish are graded (or sorted for size) in the fish hatcheries?

It's different than I believe a lot of people think.

I've wondered about that. Also, my puddle is small so I order small quantities like 100 SF. Are they actually counted or is it done by weight somehow on large orders?

Bill D....Yes

OK Taking the advice given here and I have a 1/4"x 4' x 50'seining net. Floats on the top and lead weights on the bottom ready to deploy as a blocking net at the end of one of my coves. Not positive yet on what kind of area I'll be able to cover but I'm guessing 1000 to 1500 sf. 2 to 3' deep. Heavy cat tails on one end.

Questions:

1) How many RES do I get?

2)How long do I leave them blocked off?

3)Is it a must that I feed? (Not really wanting to)

I'll take some pictures after I get it set up. Getting the RES Oct.22nd so I have time to nail down the game plan.

As always any advice is welcome and Thanks for your input.

Take the experts advice over mine but since I got here first will give you my opinion.

Unless the RES are feed trained, I don't think it would do much good to feed them. RES are persnickety on what they eat and fish pellets are not much on their perferred eating list unless they have learned to eat them. They like to eat off the bottom, not the top of the water so it is also hard to monitor if they are eating the pellets or not after they eventually sink.

You were talking about 700-1000 fish in your original post. With 10 acres I don't think you can do too many for that size lake. The question is how many is too many for that small area you are putting them into. I think you could put lots if you are only going to use the blocking area to aclimate them for a day or two. However if you are planning on putting some size on them and keeping them there for a while then how many can effectively be fed becomes the issue.

Here is what I would do, right or wrong. Like I say, if the experts say different, do as they say and not as I say.

I would get 1000, put them in the blocking area for several days to acclimate them to their new water. Then I would figure some way to let some out. Not sure how the best way to do that would be, but try to let a third to half out. Then put the net back across and let it go a couple weeks. Try to sample them and see how they are doing and maybe let some more out. Then leave the blocking net up as long as possible while trying to monitor and see how they are doing.

I guess my point is, let some out at different times to hedge your bets and hope some make it. If you could raise some within the net that would be great but that is going to depend on where you live and how cold it gets. No use trying to leave them in shallow water in the winter if they will freeze out. But if you are where they could survive in your cove maybe even try to grow some to several inches within the pen. Thing of it is, can not grow many in that area because of food limitations.

That is what I would try.

One other concern. You say there are cattails on one end of that cove. I would try best I can to scare anything out of that cove that could be hiding.

Maybe get some help and "sein" your way out towards the place where you will ultimately leave the blocking net to remove the most native fish you can from the blocked off area.

The last thing you want to do is lock $500 worth of 2" fish in a small area with a couple of 1# LMB.

Good points snrub. Begs another question:
Would my purpose be better served to wait until spring?
Typically don't have a solid freeze over in our area but do on occasion. Thanks!!

You may have to get the RES when the fish supplier has them. Seems like they can be harder to source in large numbers some times. Not as popular (number wise) as BG and they do not reproduce in as high of numbers so fish farms likely do not produce near as many RES.

Even more true if you are going for larger sizes.

As to how many, it depends on your pocketbook and what the goals are. I usually recommend 20% RES in a typical pond of the total sunfish stocking numbers.

OK. I have taken everyone's advice and I have my blocking net in hand 4'x 50' 1/4" Mesh. I hope to get it set up this coming weekend. If so I'll send pictures. It has floats on top and lead weights on the bottom.I expect to have an area of about 7-900 sq. ft.(Surface area) from 0 to 3 feet in depth. Questions:

1)Should I try to keep the top of the net out of the water of let the floats take care of that. I plan on staking it.

2)How many Red ear for that area.

3)When do I release them? This year or next spring/summer

4)Should I put some Fat heads in that area?

Another thought. I have a similar net, similar mesh, and I can't keep the bottom on the ground. Although it isn't likely that RES will go under the bottom edge, I know some of my fish (perch, goldfish, LCS) do have no problem scooting in the mud and shimmying in and out of the net.

I bought some fast setting concrete in a bag and mixed it a bit soupy and scooped up the wet concrete into plastic cups. I then put a 6" piece of wire in each one before they set. They set in about an hour and are easy to shell out of the cups later. I used thes to add weights to the existing weights. Even with my added weights when pulling the nets on an uneven bottom while seining, the fish find little uneven spots on the bottom and shoot out.

You might think about weighting the bottom like this, or better yet, getting some cheap metal tent stakes and staking the bottom here and there to keep things in that you want in.



In this picture I have 2 nets tied together to get the desired length. I added cement weights in between just about every existing factory weight. The factory weights were terribly inadequate. A shame that they even called them weights!

canyoncreek
Thanks great idea. How did your floats do?

Thanks to everyone else too!! I didn't realize I reposted almost the same thing twice. Must be a symptom of old age(Just turned 51) I apologize.

So in summary:
Not going to feed. (waste of time)
Gonna try 2-300 RES for that area (confirmed availability)
Planning on over wintering behind net(keeping an eye on ice)
Planning to try and tie net above water.

Feel free to add any suggestions or criticism to my first attempt at blocking net fish rearing. Thanks.

Here is the blocking net set up I used for SMB years ago at my dad's old pond. I zip tied the netting to the bottom of the fence posts before pounding them into the pond bottom. It made the netting tight against the bottom and did not let any fish in or out. I also zip tied the top of the net above the water to make jumping the net difficult. Note, these are the release pictures dropping the net.

I wonder how a length of sinking 3/4" air line would work for weight on the bottom of the netting? Leave the ends open so it would fill with water and zip tie it to the net every six inches or so. Maybe even wrap the net around the line at the bottom of the net.

That sinking air line is pretty flexible so would follow the pond bottom contour.

Just a thought. I've never tried it.

snrub , I bet that would work good!!

Thanks shorty. How did you run everything out of the area?

R&R one way to get the fish out to start is to back seine the net from shore to its location.

A very important step I would suspect.

Locking hundreds of newly stocked 2" fish in a pen with a couple of 6-8" LMB fingerlings already in the pond would not turn out well I would imagine.

That is called gaining experience right after you already needed it.

One time I had a couple LMB (12 inch) get inside a blocking net. I guess they jumped the net as the bottom was well secured and they were not there for the first 2 weeks. Remedy was a 22.

Not good for sure!!

I have once again changed my plans. Going to wait until next spring for my RES blocking net attempt. Thanks To all.