Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Adding fish to Bass pond

I just purchased a 26 ac property in N.E. Pa and it has a 10 year, old 4 ac, pond 15 ' deep on it. The pond has lots of LMB in it that all seem to be 8" to 12" long and lean. I spoke to a guy at the hatchery and was advised to remove some bass prior to stocking anything else. I have since removed over 150 bass to make some room. This week he will deliver 50 lbs of flatheads, 200 - 10" yellow perch,400 - 6" bluegills and 50 jumbo bluegills. Several stacks of pallets also were added for some structure. Does this plan sound like it has a chance of working. There were no other types of fish seen or caught other than the bass. They seem to be feeding on each other, frogs and bugs.

Here is my recommendation.

If bass are still easy to catch and seem prevalent I would remove a few more now till fall. 50 lbs of fathead minnows will not last long with 200 large hungry perch and maybe 50 bass still in the pond. 50lbs divided by 250 perch and bsss = 0.2 lbs of forge minnows per predator;; not many to carry your fish thru rest of summer,, fall,,, winter,,, and early spring till perch spawn in late April and bgill spawn in June. All bluegills to be stocked are too large for anything in pond to eat them.

As I said, I would still keep removing bass and in spring 2005(June or July) I would buy some 3"-4" bass to feed on the bgill fry and young of year perch. You should get spawns next spring from all species. The number of 3"-4" bass to buy next spring should equal the number of how many bass you remove from now till fall.

Thank you for your quick reply. I was hoping that the flatheads and maybe even the blue gills could still provide some fry to the pond during August. There are lots of bass fry along the pond edges and some are up to 3" or 4" long. I think you are correct about 50 lbs of flatheads, that amount may not be enough to last very long.

With 3"-4" bass fingerlings in your pond already you will not need to buy any fingerlings next spring. You may even have to thin some of them out depending on their density. A 4"-5" bass will eat 1.5" -2" fathead minnows. This is how those bass will rapidly grow to 6". I've seen 6" bass readily eat 2"-2.5" bass.

It is possible that your fry 1"-1.5" bass are this year's fish and the 3"-4"'ers are last year's fish. I recently killed off a basically bass only pond at your similar latitude and growing season length. Lots of 1.2"-1.5" bass from this year's spawn were present and 3"-4" bass from last year were common. Slow growth was due to low amount of forage items.

It is doubtful enough of the fathead minnows will survive long enough to give you much of a hatch anymore this year. Bluegill might be able to produce a spawn in August.

HINT: FLATheads are flathead catfish. FATheads are fathead minnows. Others might get confused when reading your posts.

Flatheads!!!!! man I thought I found supplier for these thing last night!!!!but to no avail....

Hello again,
Sorry about the fathead/flathead error. All of the stocking was done on Sat. morning and everthing went well except for lots of dead fatheads during shipping. There appears to be thousands of healthy ones all around the pond, a dozen or so blue gills were dead but all of the perch seem fine as of this morning. Perhaps I'll have to restock fatheads again prior to winter. There are schools of 1 1/2" bass that must number in the thousands and lots of 4 or 5" bass patrolling the shore line. I don't think I'll have to stock bass just yet.

I would try and get a relatively good estimate of the number of dead fatheads and other fish that float. The bass are gorging themselves on weak and dying minnows. You are only seeing a percentage of the dead fish. A reputable hatchery will replace fish that die soon after stocking. Call them and see what they say; make notes of the deaths for the next fish order.

You may also see latent deaths (up to a week or 10 days). Do a visual inspection or walk around each day.

Hello again,
The hatchery guy said that he added a few hundred fatheads to the order because he finds that some die due to age, shock or shipping but it did seem like a bunch were dead on arrival. This morning while studing the shore line the wind pushed them to shore in one spot because they floated for a while. The rest of the bottom that I was able to see several feet off shore a few could be seen that had settled to the bottom. The blue gills were all on the bottom, none floating and no perch were spotted dead. Most of the pond drops off quickly so who knows what went there. Yes I will keep a log about what happens with the stocking and progress. I did send an e-mail to the hatchery about what was observed so far. Thanks for the input.

I have a coouple questions regarding my pond.

1. I have 1 acre newer (4-5 years) pond - with large BG and cats and small number of LMB - good popultion of cats - the cats come in large quan. when we hand feed - the BG and bass do not show up as much

I want more bass but the man who planted went w/ cats. How/should I thin out before putting in more bass? Biggest channels seem to be about 24" (caught one yesterday (2-3 lb?)

2. One of cats is almost a jet black. Is it a channel or a hybrid - looks similar except color - do they ever mix in wrong fish??

Pond is clay bottom central IN....

VC

Hello again,

I took a walk around my pond after little more than a week after stocking. I was only able to see a short distance into the water shallows maybe six feet out and three feet deep. Well the small bass are still doing fine, the Blue Gills are on lots of bed,I did not see any of the yellow perch and not one fathread minnow. My young nephew (7 years old) tried to catch some fish with night crawlers and he was able to catch one nice fat perch and about ten LMB 8 to 10". It looks like you guys were right about the fatheads being a quick meal but 50 lbs. in a week is more than I can believe. There are also several Great Blue Heron that visit each morning and evening for a snack. Could the minnows be in the deeper water or do you think that they could be gone so quickly?

As Bill Cody mentioned above, they were not going to last long. They had a very short stay there.

Just as a comparison, many of us stocking new ponds will put in fatheads in the winter when we stock our other forage fish. When I put mine in they multiplied by the thousands that spring. There was no place you could look and not see these fathead minnows. I put 3" bass fingerlings in the first of July. And when they were large enough to fit these in there mouth they began to disappear rapidly. By the middle of September they were all gone. I even posted here in August of last year when this was occuring asking if it was possible for bass to grow from 3" to 10" in 1.5 months, and found out with such a great food source in the fathead minnows and bluegill fry it definitely was. In your case you already had larger bass and the newly added yellow perch, it was inevitable that they were made into meals so quickly.

OWG - When fatheads are added to an established pond with predators present the fatheads stay in shallow water. If they venture into deeper water they are eaten and they quicly learn this since they are slow swimmers. If you don't see them around the edges like when they were first stocked they are now GONE. Sad but true.

VG - Channel catfish often appear very dark skinned especially larger fish. Bottom color and water clarity will affect hue of skin.

Each catfish takes the place of one bass. For each catfish you remove it will provide room and food for one bass.