Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Low level water and bass populations

Here is my problem. I have a 1 1/2 acre pond, it is ussually 4 acres. I have an abundance of fish, including crappie, which I hate. The water is at most 5 feet deep. Cover comes only in the way of moss and a small tree I pulled into the corner of the pond last febuary. The water was low then too but its gone down at least another foot since. The tree worked, a 10 inch power worm and a 10 pound bass says it all. I will not complain about 10 pounders,but i really want more fish over 4 pounds. The only other fish of any size was a 4 pounder that was way under weight. If u ask me i have plenty of bluegill, but nothing huge. the 1 and 2 pounders hit often but they are not much fun,except to eat. So anyway here is some more info. Water is clear,channel are in there and i even started feeding them. the pond is ussaully 4 acres with much more cover and when full is 12 feet deep. Fishing used to be great , one evening 6 years ago two 6 pounders were caught within 20 minutes. The fish were a more diverse weight wise.A 3 pounder here, a4 pounder there and oh !!!!!! a six plus bass, which by the way is great for northern Ks. So I know this is a rebuilding year because of the low water. It has given me the chance to throw in more cover close to the bank in the hope the water will come up and provide more habitat. So what do I do with the fish population, I've been keeping most of the bass i catch under 2 pounds and any crappie i catch also.This makes since because it gives the fish i dont catch more food, right? I started doing this last year pretty heavy when the moss was so bad all you could fish with was a buzzbait. This year i have caught a few bass over 2 pounds just goofing off and a lot of the same old 1 1/2 pounders. the one thing i do notice now is the size of the crappie, they are getting bigger. I am guessing its because i kept so many bass fishing with topwater lures and left the crappie alone. I will hit the crappie harder this year while i still can. So ami doing the right thing with this pond? Will shad help long term , will shad live though the winter, and what about shiners? I know the water will come up someday ,I just want the pond to be ready for it and come back stronger than ever any input will be appreciated. Sorry for the grammer mistakes, I'm a welder.

Your basic approach thus far, thinning bass and removing all Crappie, seems to me to be a sound approach given your goal of big bass.

You have a special management situation with your water level being so low. IIRC, we had a thread concerning a similar pond situation within the last week or so in which our unofficial PB research librarian, ewest, provided a link to "managing low level pond" info I think might be useful to you. I have been unable to find this thread, so

HEY ERIC, HELP US OUT!

p.s. Your grammar is a lot better than my welding.

Since your goal is to improve the range of sizes of your bass, there are several things to do. First, understand a 1.5 acre pond can normally grow and maintain a total of 75-150 pounds of bass. The numbers of fish determine average weight. Bluegill are the backbone of the food chain. Crappie are detrimental to the accomplishment of your objective. To these ends, here's what I would do.
Harvest intermediate size, underweight bass.
Harvest all crappie.
Improve the pond's ability to grow bluegill through feeding or fertilization, if appropriate.
Shad may help, but not until you have the dynamics of bass and bluegill in order. Same with shiners. They are a supplemental forage fish, but only help if bass numbers are managed properly. Too many bass overeat the food chain, and stocking, by itself, doesn't help. A combination of harvesting bass and crappie (and channel catfish) along with increasing productivity via feeding and/or fertilization will be the first order of business.

THe channel catfish situation is this.I have maybe 20 that show up at feeding time, most of these are over 7 pounds. The largest may be 15,which we believe is one we released last year. Is this enough cats to have an effect on bass? I want to keep the cats in there because it fun to set out a few line when the sun goes down and the campfire is lite.

If you feed the catfish a floating fish food, competition with bass is less fierce. But, a fifteen pound channel cat definitely competes with bass five pounds or less. So, the answer in your pond is, "yes." The affect? They compete in small waters.

Ok os I can reserve another pond for catfish. Will the same food work for the bluegill, most seem to have a hard time keeping it in there mouth. The bluegill seem very interested but they just have not caught on like the cats have.
Anyway, thank you Bob for your magazine, it has added extra meaning to the traditional family fishing trip. By this I mean when we fish now we do it with the intent on improving on the next years trip. I often find my self going fishing for the sole purpose of improving the fishing.

Might want to check this out. I am in north central Kansas. There is a large corp built lake about 20 miles from me. Last fall I was able to get the "shock" boat the Kansas Fish & Game Dept. uses to check fish population and condition on my pond to check things out. I had done this once before about 16 years ago. I gained a lot of knowledge about fish condition and numbers as related to my pond. It is about 2 1/2 acres at maximum capacity and also serves as livestock water. You could have eye opening experience about what is in your water.