Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New Pond Clarity

A have a new half acre pond that is one year old. The area has a high water table with springs I guess. After it was dug it filled up within a couple of weeks. The ground is fine silty clay with blue clay underneath that. Its maximum depth is 12.5 feet and measures 100’ x250’ . We put in a floating dock and enjoyed swimming this summer. We also use barley straw in onion sacks to control algae The reason for the pond is for aesthetics and swimming and for watching the 12 LMB that we put in this spring. I am very pleased with the pond. My question is that I am amazed how CLEAR the water is. I can see right to the bottom. Is this ok for the health of the fish. Is it ok for the balance of the pond to have just LMB?. How many LMB can I put in. I plan to install a water fountain aerator next spring to help with the breakdown of any leaves , and the look of a fountain will be pleasing to the eye.

Hi stu1951. Welcome aboard, it sounds like you have a beautiful pond. I'm just a beginner, but the first question that came to my mind is what are the LMB eating?

Yes good question! Bugs I guess...The fish appear to be very healthy and as there are not many the should be ok I think? In the spring there were lots of tadpoles but after the LMB were put in the disapeared....turned into frogs.....but none to be seen now. I like that the fact the pond is clear to be able to see the fish swim. Could I not throw in some fish pellets to supplement them. I amagine they will have babies in the spring and I hear they will eat their own to keep a balance. Thanks for the reply...Stu

Maybe someone with more experience will chime in, but I would think that it would be a good idea to feed them something. If your pond is by your house I think it would be a lot of fun to hand feed them fish pellets 4 or 5 days a week. Once trained they should put on a good show.

Stu:

I echo GW's welcome to the forum.

You can have a pond with only LMB in it. As recently as 5-6 years ago, the Pennsylvania DNR listed this as one of their recommended management strategies.

In this case, the foodchain works pretty much as you have surmised. You end up with a large population of small, stunted bass with a few lunkers who are lucky enough to be large enough to eat the little bass. In one of Lusk's books, he tells of a TX lake that was famous for it's "jumping bass." On Summer evenings, folks would drive there to see LMB jump clear out of the water to catch dragonflies. That was all they had to eat.

LMB by themselves may never learn to eat pelleted fish food, unless they were thus trained when you got them. If you want something else for the bass to eat besides their own offspring, you may want to read some threads here discussing management of LMB/BG ponds (fairly easy to manage in their own right, as stocking schemes go), and think how having BG in addition to bass might fit into your future. Consider 1) do you want to ctach fish, 2) do you want to eat fish, and 3) how much time/money are you interested/capable of spending managing your fish populations.

For a mixed bass/forage population, we normally consider stocking numbers on the order of 50-200 bass per acre (roughly 30-125 for your sized pond). I cannot off the top of my head decide what a good starting number of LMB for a bass only pond would be, but guess that a minimum of 50 would be OK.

Yes that would be fun! The grand children would love it. We will be moving into our new home at the end of next month. I have been lurking on this sight for a year now getting information. We were very lucky to get this property with the right soil and ground conditions to build this pond. It was a benefit to have the fill fronm the pond to build up the lot for the house I got my LMB from my brothers 25 acre dredged gravel pit which is loaded with LMB there is not a lot of algae about 20-25 feet in depth. He does not feed them. I think I want to add some more fish to my pond........How many should I add if I supplement with pellets. Maybe in a couple years I can let the neighbour kids fish occasionally. Thanks for the replys......Stu

Thank you Theo........I think we posted almost at the same and never read yours till after I posted mine ... LOL ....You answered a lot of my questions. Thank you so much... This pond stuff is alot of fun! I also just subscribed to the pond mag and am looking forward to reading it.

Stu, welcome. I know nothing about Canadian waters but there are some commonalities everywhere. A short growing season might make a difference. Your plan can work with a qualified emphasis on can. However, It would be hard to call it an optimal situation. They really do need more to eat than their annual spawn. They may or may not eat pellets and bugs aren't much of a forage base.

That said, a pond on the place next to me is full of small, skinny bass and a rare large bluegill. This has been going on for years. If you toss any kind of small lure they hit immediately. Why? Because they seldom get anything to eat.

How large are the 5 bass you have? A bass converts forage at a 1 to 10 ratio. That means it takes 10 pounds of forage for a bass to gain one pound. Yours will be on a maintenance diet so there are some unknowns.

Thanks for all the info!
I think I might add some fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas)Because these minnows quickly multiply and seldom exceed three inches in length, they are excellent food for trout, bass, walleye and perch in private self contained ponds that do not have a sufficient food supply.
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) prefers the use of fathead minnows over other native fish species to control mosquito larvae in fighting the West Nile virus.

I can obtain them from a local fish farm.
Does this make good sense?

FHM are rather slow; they make easy prey for LMB. Any sane (from a budget stand point) number will be eaten in fairly short order. There isn't anything wrong with adding them and your bass will enjoy the snack. Some PMs with large budgets stock Fatheads in large quantities multiple times a year (note this indicates that they HAVE to stock them multiple times a year) for their bass, but it is an expensive LMB feed most of us do not choose for monetary reasons.