Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Seem to Have Lost my Bream Population

Had a few guys come over Friday to fish the pond since one of them lost his boat axle on the way to the spillway basin. They ended up pulling 4 bass from the pond between 4.25 and 5 pounds. While they were bass fishing I went to the front ditch and scooped up some small crawfish for some bream fishing. Usually the bream cannot resist the crawfish. Not a bit or nibble on the crawfish. I also notice the last few weeks when throwing the bream some food none came to eat. I had a bunch of water turkeys,(Anhinga) attack the pond when I was at work for well over 2 weeks. I counted over 18 in the tree on my days off. I was finding dead bream each day after my wife indicated they birds were in the pond. I have trouble believing the birds wiped out my entire population but the evidence seems to indicate this. I think that's why the guys fishing the pond were able to catch the bass so easily. I am now worried by bass will starve. Is it possible these water turkeys took out my entire bream population? Anyone else experience something like this?

How big is the pond? Maybe reduced them significantly but probably didn't take then all. Any possibility they are bedding and you weren't fishing the beds?

The pond is only about 70' X 110'. I hope they are just bedding or something like that. They used to come eat like piranahs. I did stop feeding them as we had a pretty cold winter but usually there was some little ones eating the food, didn't even see them. Would usually see the bream hitting the top of the water for bugs in the evening and early morning and haven't seen that either. I may have had a bream over population, that is cured for sure.

Welcome to the forum Don! Double Crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) also called Water Turkeys, or Anhingas (Anhinga anhinga) (also called water turkeys), could very well clean out a pond that size in that length of time. Like Cecil said, they may not have eaten ALL the Bluegills, but they probably ate the majority of them.

Can you tell us what your water temperature is? That might give us a better idea where the BG could be in the water column.

I expect that they got you but didn't get all of them. However, the remaining ones are staying under cover. The problem is that they might have gotten your forage base in enough trouble that it is tough or even impossible to recover.

Any Data or personal use on the devices that scare ducks/geese? will this work for the cormorant?

Dustin

No good data here. I looked them up and they are protected, go figure. Those things are ruthless eaters, especially in a small pond like mine with very little cover for the bream.

Dunn's fish farm is showing up at the local feed store this Thursday. I plan on picking up quite a few fat head minnows to at least give the bass something to feast on assuming my bream population has been more or leass depleted. Wonder if I should restock some bream, just wonder if they will get eaten up by the bass and not be able to recover as you said. Or should I just pull the bass out that I can catch to help the bream recover?

Thanks for the welcome,
I need to get myself a thermometer to check. I know the bottom stays pretty cool since I have to pump so much water from my well into the pond since it leaks so darn bad. I did feel the top water and it felt pretty good the other day but hard to say actual. Maybe it's a good time to get what fish I have left out and try to find my leakers.

DonC, so 'bream' will be a general term for various types of bluegill-type fish. Most likely, it wouldn't hurt to add some more bluegill; if you've got existing bass, then you would benefit from stocking larger bluegill and you'd have to find out what Dunn's is going to have.

Stocking fatheads doesn't hurt, but they can get pretty quickly cleaned out by existing bass populations.

Those cormorants would have done a good bit of damage to your pond if they were able to stay there unmolested, but like it was said, they wouldn't have gotten every single fish. But you need more than just a 'few' bluegill in your pond.

The best solution for cormorants is the good ol' three 's's if you can do it covertly.

Yah, it seems to work the best.... lucky for me, i actually have a permit to take care of them! 11 dollars with the state, i just have to renew it every year...

I would call someone in the USFWS or your state department and see what you have to do to get a permit to take em out of the air. Until then I would get a hold of a couple boxes of cracker shells and start shooting at em with those it will at least scare em off temporarily, but they will get used to it and not be as skiddish.

At the hatchery I worked at in college for a few summers Cormies completely wiped out a 1/2 acre pond that started with 5000 3-5 in bass. Not to scare you this pond had absolutely no structure and a black liner on the bottom the bass were very easily hunted I could see most of them I cant imagine how easy it was for the birds.

Suggest you get some adult BG (100 would help) and add them. Be sure what Dunn's is selling (look at them closely). You do not want HBG , GSF or some other offshoot.

Good news is if the fish are gone the WT will leave. Bad news is they remember where their meal came from and will be back next year.

Beaver traps work on occasion.



Here is what they do well.

I stocked with coppernosed bream(bluegill), from what I have read they take pellets very well and they have small mouths so they leave more food for the bass. They were very good feeders on the pellets. What gets me is the water turkeys killed the large bream too even though they can't eat them. I think it's to eliminate the competition for their food sources. I'll check with my state to see if I can get some sort of permit to take out those water turkeys.
I actually saved one of those darn birds. One was hanging around the pond and I noticed he was weak and noticed something on his beak that looked strange. I saw him spear a coppernose and bring it on the bank pecking at it to eat. That's when I figured out his beak was tied shut with some twine. I caught it with a net and took the twine from it's beak and let it go. If I only knew what I know now about those birds I would have let nature take it's course.

When you say tied shut you mean as in someone did it to him or he got fishing line wrapping around his beak?

I wouldn't be happy with the birds at my pond and would probably shoot them on site, but it was the former it would take a special kind of person to do something mean like that. When I have to kill something it's quick and merciful. Any other way to me is wrong regardless of the animal IMHO.