Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Can I Stock Fatheads?

In my pond that is about one acre and spring fed is it too late to stock fathead's? There is about 20 bass in this pond from 1 to 7lbs, and "mudcats"
also a few small sunfish. What I am trying to ask is if they can survive for a while or be instant fish food. Also how many lbs of minnows needed. IF my pond can support them do I still neeed to wait untill right before they spawn to put them in?

Also have a mudcat problem, I have seen many posts on this site on the subject but cant get any of the links for fish traps to work. So if anyone can tell me if the traps even work for these fish. Or if you guys prefer fishing/shooting them out.

thanks for any info in advance.

If your pond has any type of cover they will find a way to reproduce. My new pond was stocked with fatheads last fall along with blue gills and LM Bass. It is full of both fry from several different fathead hatches (many diiferent sizes) as well as LM bass fry as well. Fatheads do 2 things, reproduce and eat. Not sure what they do first but I have thousands of them from 1 stocking. Ask a local stocking source howmany pounds you should stock.

Can't help you on number of fatheads. I put stacks of pallets in the shallow parts and weighed them down with cinder blocks to help reproduction. Pieces of 2-4" PVC pipe, split long way, stuck in the mud with the open part facing the pond help egg laying also.

As for the mudcats, every one I catch stays out, but that only makes a small dint. They stopped biting on dough, but now they like cut bait off the bottom. In my opinion, the best time to do anything to control them is in the spring. Their offspring slowly travels around the pond on the surface in schools of hundreds of little cats. At first they have no fear of humans and you can easily saine out the whole bunch from a boat. I am getting ready for this, but I only have a 2/3 ac pond. If you get much over 1-2 ac, I would say that this method it is pretty much hopeless. I also constructed couple of "traps". Two, six foot long pieces of 4" pipe with a cap and bunch of holes drilled on one end. I only made this couple of wks ago and so far only cought two catfish. My friends grandfather did this for a living in Louisiana, but he used 8-10" tin pipe. (He put his hand over the end so the eals and snakes could escape through his fingers, but the catfish stayed in). Seeing how this worked, I have high hopes for the trashcan catfish traps described on other threads here. I can't stand these things because of what they are doing to my pond, but they are pretty good to eat.

Stock at 5 to 20 pounds per acre. If you provide sufficient cover, they will do fine. I just added 20 pounds myself to my new 2 acre pond. I have them in several ponds that are many years old. They will survive the predation only if they have cover as described in the above posts. Good luck.

The stocking of fathead minnows will be a short lived, expensive escapade. The only real good use for fatheads is in the initial beginning, but they'll be gone in about two-three years. They are nothing more than a starter feeder or a snack. The best and most sufficient feeder fish is the bluegill. Stock these instead. As for the mudcats. Two words; fish fry. Invite a couple buddies over and run trotlines for a couple nights a week all through the summer. Team this with a growing bass population, and you can get rid of the cats. The best bait try chicken liver or dead minnows. Good luck.

In a pond near my house that has ONLY bullheads, I can catch from 30 to 150 in one night. I use them for trotline bait in the Missouri river. The trap is a cloverleaf affair with four entrances. I bait it with commercial catfish food. What kind of catfish is a mudcat?

Mudcat and bullhead are the same.

I have stocked 20lbs of fatheads and 15lbs of golden shiners in last fall and again this spring ....

This spring when we re-stocked, the fatheads were still around but very thin. The shiners were doing very well.

I plan to do this until the end of time or until they get a good hold (if) I have perch, crappie, and LMB. I do not want my pond to stunt!

My pond is around 1/2 acre.

Doohan, What is the name of the Fish Hatchery that is getting your business? They like pondowners with your philosophy. What spawning substrate are you using for the shiners? Are they reproducing?

20lbs fatheads + 15 lbs of shiners = 35 lbs of forage fish. This amount of forge twice a year will produce an increase of about 7 maybe 8 pounds of body mass for the LMB, crappie and the larger perch annually. Fatheads should stay in the shallows of the beach area until they are gone. Make a note when you see the shiner numbers getting low. They too should frequent the shallows of the beach area for protection. Let us know how long 35 lbs of minnows last in your pond.

Bill.

I know I may not be conventional.. But I think you guys scared me half to death with the " black crappies from hell " I keep reading here

LOL!

The truth is, I just moved into our new home about 8+ months ago. When we looked at the house, the pond was well stocked and had some nice sized LMB,BG and that was it ..

After we moved in all the sizable LMB were gone. Best I could tell, I only had 5 LMB in the 1lb range.. everything else was smaller.

I first found www.jonesfish.com and had them bring me some new fish.. I added 5 - 1lb LMB, Red Ear, 12" Perch, 10" Crappie, 30 CC's

I then found this site and laughed at myself for making the "rookie" mistake of stocking too many species. :rolleyes: oh well!

Once here I had Ted Lea install an aeration system.. My DO was very bad when he came to the rescue.. Later that year Jones came and dropped off 35lbs of forage fish. The crappie and perch had plenty to eat over the winter.

This spring Jones came again and dropped off another shipment of 20/15 and again, I have tons of forage fish! This fall they are scheduled for the same.. 20/15

To date, I can see the much larger LMB, varying sizes of BG, and happy Crappie.. CC and Perch are pretty much unseen.

For structure, I have been makeing some rock piles from the tons of flag stone and field rocks that are piled in the adjacent woods and fields. I hope to add more soon.

This approach may be unorthodox but I do not know another way to speed up the growth of my fish.. I try to budget $6-800 a year for pond "stuff"

I am guessing it will be next year at the earliest before I can harvest any of my panfish??

Doohan, I suspected that Jones was your supplier. They are about the only hatchery in OH that consistantly sells g.shiners. A little fishing this summer or fall while making notes of fish plumpness and or standard weights will tell you how the fish are doing. Too thin fish possible means you have too many competing species in the pond. A slight thinning of numbers may be in order when standard weights begin to sag.