Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Need Advice on Existing Lake/Pond

Hello, I am new to the forum and trolled through quite a bit of threads looking for some answers to my questions, but most seem very tailored to each unique pond. I have a roughly 3 acre lake in Northeast Ohio that is man made by my great grandfather in the 1940's. It has been a great fishing spot for my family and friends for years. Unfortunately time has being wearing on it, and my grandfather intentionally planted numerous trees around the shores of the water to make it almost impossible to cast in from the shore, since he was a real private about his land from random fishermen. So its mainly rowboat fished only.

The fish species in this pond are BG/LMB/CRAPPIE/YP (Confirmed recently)
My father told me there were walleye and trout stocked in it at one point in the past (Lake hasn't been stocked in 20 years now.) but I have never caught one. Since the water is probably 10' deep now I am assuming they might have been killed off by heat and no further stocking.

I am a novice/average angler, and certainly a novice at pond management, but I would like to do what I can to help preserve this pond as long as I can, and keep a healthy chain/balance.

My questions are for this scenario are: How do I cull BG population or should I? I can see 50+ in a most small cast ranges on a clear day. You can't even cast without a BG attacking your lure if its able.

Would you have any suggestions to promote a proper balance with these species?

Example: 3 days ago, with live bait and also spinners and plastic worms, we pulled in 12 BG and 3 LMB in 1-1.5 hour of very casual fishing.



This is a satellite picture of the pond, the Red arrow is the shallow end (1-3') and the yellow end is the deeper end and the dam, despite the middle still being the deepest. The lake to the far left of the screen is not my land, but a friendly neighbor who is higher up and feeds into mine. I just figured I'd include it also. Any suggestions, threads I overlooked or guidance will be truly appreciated!

Welcome Emajin! What a beautiful piece of property you have there. And to have that passed down in your family must be an honor.

What are your goals for your pond? Balance? Trophy LMB? The experts will want to know this, I believe, and will be along shortly to answer your questions.

I do believe you are correct about what happened to your walleye and trout.

Thank you, and yes it is an honor. My goal is would say realistically is just to have a good balance of all 4 species, and less BG diluting the experience. I have noticed people reporting that crappie are overwhelming small ponds, but in mine its not the same experience. I just wonder what you would do in my situation to bring out the YP and (BC?) Crappie more, and tone down the BG ratio. I know you have limited information to work with for all these questions, and I apologize.

For trivial balance, all of last summer we caught maybe 80-85% were BG/Pumpkinseed/LMB (depending on which you targeted) and 10% Crappie and 5% YP. I'd love to restore a better balance if possible, and my novice eye thinks these BG are the origin of this issue.

Very interesting. I'll be curious to see what is suggested for you. Culling BG can be a real chore in an acre plus pond like you have there.

Additionally, size doesn't seem horribly stunted on LMB or BG. We don't always fishing seriously, but within 4-5 years, the biggest bass was 5.5 Lbs, and we routinely pull 9+ inches BG's out of the pond. If that information aids anything pertaining to this.

What size/weight are the LMB and BG that you are catching?

I'm assuming that you don't plan on aerating nor feeding.

I would say about 1.5-3 Lbs LMB (From friend/family guesstimate) and I have no clue on BG. We are going back with 3 of us in about 20 minutes, so I can potentially give you some anecdotal information later. We use to aerate, and have an unplugged aerator at the pond, but it hasn't been used for years. It was used from my memory to battle the algae if that makes sense, no sure. There has never been feeding to my knowledge.

If you can, take a camera and take pictures - we like pictures!!

Well today, we went back to mainly clean up some of the shoreline, and do some fishing also. I caught about 15 fish, 14 BG and one LMB that was about 1 lbs. I had another friend who was only bass fishing all day and he landed a nice sized bass. I am guessing 3, maybe 4 lbs, and I've got a picture of his catch. No crappie, No YP caught today. BG were everywhere, the majority were hand sized or bigger.

Did you keep the bluegill? Now, with spawning just around the corner; you need to keep all females. Obvious when they are with eggs, but also have small ear tab and yellowish belly instead of dark orange like males. Keep the small bass too. If you can get a scale and ruler, keep tabs of relative weights. Keep any scrawny ones of any species. Have a couple of fish fries.

Crappies, YP and LMB all require different fishing methods to truly focus on them. That may be why you are catching less crappies and YP and more LMB and BG. I am not saying you can't occasionally catch YP and crappies when bass fishing, but you won't catch large numbers of them.

How much money do you want to invest in your pond management? This dictates the advise I would give. Trying to use occasional casual angling as a true evaluation of a pond's fish community can lead to very inaccurate results... Depending on how much money you want to spend, I would start with a better evaluation of your current fish population. The method(s) you use, depend on how much money you are willing to spend...

Burger, its funny that you say that about the smaller ones, I had a 3rd friend (not pictured) that caught two LMB on one lure on one cast yesterday also (both small LMB). I would say 75% of the BG I pulled out were very big, bigger than my hand with ease, and now that you mention the colorings on the belly, a couple giant BG had the neon Orange belly, while a couple had the pale yellow. I didn't keep anything from yesterday either, from now on I will be if that is indeed wise to do.

The more I read about people continuously stocking lakes with YP, and that they favor cold water, I can't wrap my brain around how they are STILL (even in low ratios) in my lake after 20+ years of not being stocked, isn't that sort of odd?

I want to do all I can within reason, the one thing I fear is dreading down the road, and putting massive amounts of work just to have to dredge the pond down the road, and from what I've heard its very expensive. I would absolutely spend money on this pond, and would love to stock it with more YP or BC if maybe that would need done. I guess I ideally I wish I could see some options, maybe what other people have done in a similar circumstance and the price/labor involved in completely the task.

There is a difference between renovating the pond itself and renovating the pond's fish population. Do you feel your pond needs renovation as well? That can get very pricey...

I would get it electrofished.

Also why do you want to thin out BG? sounds to me that they are the only forage fish you have listed. Without them you could have a real mess. I would not think of crappie as a forage source b/c of unpredictable spawn. You also say most BG caught are as big as your hand. It would take a decent LMB to eat that, and could very well mean your lacking in small BG (your biggest forage item).

Just my opinion, trust the experts!

Jake, I agree as to the question why want to thin out the BG. 1st post said many BG, as many as 50 in view and catches 85% BG.(really not out of whack depending upon bait and fishing methods). Sounded like bluegill heavy. Then was stated that 2 bass are caught on 1 lure, sounds like bass heavy.
As you said, get it shocked or at least do some serious fishing with varieties of baits condusive to catching certain species of fish. heck, you could just go catch fish, have fun, and the catch rates should help balance it out with 3 or 4 fishing it.

I know it sounds like I'm waffling. Just hard to read the info; not knowing how the pond is being fished.

Get a cyindrical trap at Walmart or Academy and bait it with dog food (hard) or doggie treats or such. Put it parallel with the bank in 1 to 2 ft. of water. Do this AM or around 6 pm, not in the middle of the day. See if you catch several sizes of BG.

How much do cylidrical traps cost and what area would you find it in at Walmart ?

I think that is approaching a serious problem (pond itself) in the next 10 years at best. It just has such tremendous amounts of foliage around the shores and it endlessly deposits leaves and branches that its slowly eroding the shoreline inward.


To the methods of fishing, I used a diving minnow for the bass I caught, and wax worms and earthworms for the majority of the BG and one other LMB. The other two people were specifically targeting LMB and using a Shad lure, and the other used a large purple worm and a weedless itsy-bitsy (have no clue on spelling).

I don't necessary want to eradicate the BG, I just wish I could do something to promote the spreading of YP and BC populations whether it be by culling BG and stocking some BC/YP or any other methods you may suggest. I am merely speculating on culling the BG population, and obviously I am a novice in every way, and it may be the totally wrong approach.

I will try this over the weekend, I am tied up with work til' then.

Removing BG is not going to lead to more BC or YP. This time of year, try using a slip bobber rig and put a live shiner or minnow on it and cast it out with the minnow hanging a couple feet off the bottom for crappies in the 4-6' dept range... For YP just cast out the minnow with a light weight and let it sit on the bottom. You should be able to catch BC and YP that way if they are fairly common in your pond...

With that much foliage dropping into the water every year, I suggest getting that aerator going again. If it is too far gone, get a new one. The aerators will help in the reduction of muck accumulation and algae. It's not a cure all but money well spent.