Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Forage Ideas?

I have a 6 acre pond in the Cleveland area and am looking to increase growth rates in LMB. It is roughly about 15 years old and over the past few years I have taken out quite a few LMB but growth rates are slow and pretty insignificant. I was thinking about stocking adult BG and was looking at GSH. Will the GSH last and continue to reproduce each year? Or is that something I have to restock yearly? Generally the LMB are about 16" and around the 2# range give or take a little on both size and weight. I am looking for fish that look like the swallowed a baseball if you know what I mean. Any ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Keep taking LMB out... If you aren't seeing much in increased growth rates, you still have too many.

Adult BG are your best bet for continued presence in your pond. 6"+ fish would be best. Fewer BG of that sized as compared to more in the smaller size range would be better if money constraints are an issue.

As to whether GSH will last and continue to reproduce in your pond... There are several factors. First off, does your pond have an over abundance of LMB? From the sounds of it, yes. That is going to be the biggest factor and challenge is getting GSH to permanently establish in your pond. Does your pond have cover? Particularly vegetation? Some vegetation is a good thing, roughly 20% of you pond... Are the banks of your pond extremely steep with minimal shallow areas? If your pond is lacking shallow areas, it is lacking brooding areas for YOY GSH. Source the largest GSH you can find and stock them in mid to late April. If conditions are right, they should spawn shortly after stocking and give you the best chance at them taking hold. You can also just stock large numbers of GSH each year realizing they'll just be expensive snacks if you don't have the right habitat. It's just pricey doing that.

Are there other species present in the pond besides BG and LMB, like crappies or catfish?

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes there is some other species in the pond there is some RES some hybrid BG I believe because of the neon looking blue lines by its mouth and there is catfish. This year I plan to really put a hurt on the catfish population. There is catfish that easily go 8-10# and I have seen a buddy pull one out of a hole that was easily 3' long and had to go over 20# for sure. This weekend the pond will be sprayed with reward but it will not kill all the vegetation and around maybe july june its gets american pondweed around the first3-5' from shore. There is a few spots that are shallow and cover more area then just like along the bank. Around this time those areas are full of holes from the RES/BG spawning. In all honesty I think the catfish might have a big impact on the BOW. I have no real way to calculate how many I think are in there and its somewhat rare I hook one compared to LMB but when I do its usually a good one. I have caught more over 5# then I have caught ones under 2#. I did catch 2 smaller ones on rage craws this year and threw them on the bank. My plan to remove them is like catching turtles and put out milk jugs with rotten chicken livers and see what happens the next day. Or take the boat out at night with a buddy and a few rods a piece and bottom fish the deeper water. If I removed 100# in cats would it make a significant improvement in growth rates or would I need to remove more weight per acre? Sorry for the giant paragraph I was just letting it fly as it came to mind lol sorry.

What CJ said. I would fish hard for both LMB and Catfish this year, taking out every one caught, no matter what size.

Look in the archives for the relative weight chart. Print it out and check your LMB against it. If you have any LMB that are 10% or greater over the weight for length that is on the chart, I'd consider returning them to the pond

I think the catfish are a big factor. They are certainly heavily competing with your bass for limited resources. Start to track the relative weights of your bass. Any bass under 90-100 remove and all catfish caught remove. Once most of the bass caught are in the 100+ relative weight range you can cut back on culling them. At that point I would consider adding forage. It sounds like you may have some suitable habitat for GSH. Get the catfish and bass thinned out and give them a try. Don't get carried away with removing all the American pondweed, it's excellent habitat for GSH.

I dont plan on removing any of the american pondweed. Atleast not on purpose. It provides shade and cover in the shallows for the fry. It is dynamite to throw a frog or some other top water over and ill troll around on low and pitch in the scattered holes all the time. How do i know what 90-100 is? Is there a chart somewhere that has length to weight ratios?

See: http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=160456#Post160456

Most good information is in the archives section. Check it out if you haven't already...

How many bass is say to many to remove for a 6 acre BOW? If I removed all LMB caught it could get to be quite a lot in a year. We are talking easily hundreds and hundreds. Granted some are the same fish I generally check to see if a fish has any marks from being caught before.

Honestly, you couldn't remove too many it's just you or a hand full of other people fishing. I would say easily 300-450 bass would probably get you there...

I would shoot for a minimum of 120 lbs of CC and 100 lbs of LMB watching the LMB RW and condition as noted. More forage would be a help.

I don't think there is any concrete number. It all depends on the amount of forage fish in the pond. That's why weighing/measuring the fish and keeping track of the relative weights are important. You can head off a big problem quickly if you can spot trends in the fish population in your pond.

A faster way to do it is to hire someone that has an electro-shock boat to shock the pond. They might be able to remove enough LMB in one day to get it turned around. It all depends on whether the LMB are in shallower water or deeper water. Right now, they are in relatively shallow water due to spawning.

My pond averages right around 1 ac. I removed over 80 LMB from it last year. Multiply that by your 6 ac and you see where CJ is coming from. If the WR (or RW - relative weights) of the fish are close to 100, then you don't need to remove as many, If they are 90%, then the number to remove goes up. Every LMB needs 10# of forage to put on 1#. Do the math and you'll see why removing LMB is important.

But, even more important is removing the CC if they don't fit in your fishery plans. They don't eat as much as a Flathead, but every BG they eat is one less than a LMB can have.

I would like to remove all the CC if possible. They get huge and there is quite a few big ones that can easily eat a BG the size of a mans hand. While on the other hand there is maybe only a few LMB that can easily eat a BG that big. There is at least 1 CC in there that can easily eat a 2# LMB it's mouth is like 12" wide and im sure there might be more like that one but I never see them. I would gladly trade a 10# CC for 2 5# LMB any day.

Are you sure they are CC and not Flatheads? I don't think even a 50# CC would have a mouth that big (12").

Put out a few jugs with cut bait.

TBH I don't know what kind of cats they are. All I know is there is at least 1 that is huge. It is like carp status it's so big. A friend saw it's tail sticking out a hole near the bank. It was caught on a plain hook. Dropped it down in the hole and it grabbed it right away. It was like a 15 min fight on spinning gear with 30# braid. I should of kept it out but it was so giant I felt like it should be put back. Here is a pic of the thing.

I can't tell from that angle, but it might be a Blue Cat too.

definitely not a channel cat thats an eating machine probably eating some of those bass. if theres just one Id leave it for the fight but if theres more Id get rid all but one. channel cats are also eating machines theyll put a big hole in forage. have a catfish tournament and keep them all and have a big cat fish fry, best way to get rid of them

No way to tell for sure without seeing the anal fin, but that is one impressive CC if it isn't a blue.

Any updates on this pond.