Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations A Tale of Two Ponds - #1

Have read a lot of the archived post and thought I had a handle on Pond #1 but fish data doesn't add up. This pond is owned by a friend and he has done a good bit but lately he's been tied up trying to make a living.

5 acres
Max depth: 16 ft
Source: Wet weather spring and run off
Age: 15years- friend bought 8 years ago
Goal: Leaning toward trophy LMB

In 2006 the pond was shocked.
Results:
BG: Good number of large fish, lacking enough 2-4" fish
LMB: Good numbers but stunted
WC: Some all sizes
CC: Few 5 lb and up. We had caught many and had some good fish fries.

Recommendation/Action:
Feed BG
Limed and fertilized
Added 20 lb FHM
Added 300 2-4" BG
Recommended removing CC and many 12-14" LMB

Feeding and fertization were discontinued at the end of 2007 due to time constraints.

Fishing this year has been dismal, so I thought I'd investigate. From creel records, trapping and observation I found the following:

LMB: Few bass all in the 10-14" range. RW .85 None found below 8 1/2 inch
BG: Many 2-4" Few caught above 7" were male HBG with RW 1,00+(guess these came with the stocking in 06) No YOY found
WC: None in evidence from fishing (minnow and jigs) or trapping
CC: 2 or 3 left in the 20 lb range. One is albino so we've left them alone for conversation piece
FHM: Few in evidence, some YOY observed

There is the possibility that the BG and WC were fished pretty hard in 07 by friend's in-laws, Conflicting reports on how many they caught.

Baffled by absence of small LMB and all WC. Any ideas?

Al Rebel welcome to PB. Neat name.

They were eaten by starving larger fish.

Starting a fertilization and feeding program and then stopping is a big risk. By doing that you ramp up the number and size of the fish and then jerk a big part of the food chain out from under that class/size of fish. They eat everything in sight of the following spawn just to stay alive and even doing that get skinny.

It is difficult if not impossible for a 5 acre pond to support a bunch of people fishing and keeping lots of fish. You have to have good records of what has occurred.

Good adherence to properly designed slot limits (once enough information on the fish populations is known to set them up) would be quite useful as well.

Welcome to Pond Boss Al! By WC do you mean White Crappie?

If your friend is aiming for a "trophy bass" pond then the food chain has got to get jump started. One of the experts will have to make suggestions related to that.

Have him buy Bob Lusk's book "Raising Trophy Bass" it is very interesting and will help him understand what is involved in managing for a trophy bass pond. IMMO (in my moronic opinion) it is going to take hands on management, plain and simple.

The "In-laws", at a very minimum, need a stern talking to.

Just seemed odd that the sizes that were missing aren't the ones you would expect. Without the small LMB and WC what would be targeting the YOY BG? I was wondering if there were some circumstance that would cause a failure in the spawn.

Rebel