Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Why you shouldn't dump your bait bucket...

in your pond. I' heard this warning many times and today I see why.

O.K. here goes: I drained a pond today that I put in fathead minnows last fall that I got from a local fish supplier to help overwinter some smallmouth bass I was moving this spring. After I removed all the big fish and was down to puddles I dipped some fatheads for bait. One of them was NOT a fathead. It was a 3 1/2 inch green sunfish! Yeah Yeah I know some of you guys like them, but they are not part of my pond management plan. Fortunately the pond that is going to be my bluegill production pond has now been was drained and sterilized, and I didn't dump any fatheads directly from the fish supplier into my male only bluegill and female only perch pond -- so I'm fine. And this particular pond was not run into any other ponds.

So at least take a look at those bait minnows if you're going to dump them into the pond. You could regret it if you don't.

Oh and there was also a stickleback. As they are so small I doubt they can be a problem -- unless they were numerous and feed on my bluegill fry. Anyone know? (Academic anyway as there are no more living fish in the pond.)

Very interesting. Today I bought a load of fatheads and went to the farm to sort and stock them. There were three non-fatheads. Two were golden shiners and one was a brook stickleback. Probably won't be a concern, but it is a good reminder.

Yep that's why I posted it. I assumed since the bait minnows originated on a farm in Arkansas and they were not "wild seined" they would be all fatheads. Wrong!

If anyone wonders where the green sunfish came from in their pond, and they did not plant them, this is one way they could have been introduced.

I did a dipnet survey on my little fathead pond just last week, and caught a 2" BG. I can't believe it got in there so quickly! I stocked my FHM pond by hand last winter, 1 FHM at a time. I stocked only 15 FHM in the pond, and nothing else. The little pond was totally empty and dry, and was filled by rain water. It has a levee around it, and no way it can flood or communicate with any other water. I guess that was the only BG, because the 15 FHM could never have turned into thousands if more were in the pond.

I see that "Operation Bait and Switch" is a huge success!.

Muhaaa, Muhaaaaaa, Muhaaaaa

I hate sticklebacks. The biggest one I have ever seen was about 3 inches in my bait bucket for ice fishing. If you don't watch what you are getting and try to put one on your jig, you can end up get jabbed in the finger by their spines. Fish don't care for them much either. I look through my bait and toss the sticklebacks out on the ice where they go to stickleback heaven.
How big do they get? Are they good for anything?

the stick

The sticklebacks I see are about 3 inches or so.
Found another dead green sunfish in the pond floating as I am filling it back up. Glad I killed it off now. It would only take a male and a female...

Jeez, I just looked at a photo of Sticklebacks. I can see why you guys hate em. They look like minnows from the domain of Hades.

We used to think they were little walleye when we were kids. They seem to be the most ubiquitous "bonus" fish in a minnow bucket.

Bruce,

Here's a pic of one of your boys guarding his bed hoping in vain for a female that isn't there.

That's awesome!!

Here is some stone I planted in some old bluegill beds in the pond I am filling as fast as I can for bluegill production. I thought if I provided optimum bedding conditions I would save them some time. The stone is a little bigger than I wanted but I think it will do the job.

Pond should be full in a day or so.

I hope the females in the cage are not beginning to absorb their eggs as I plan on I removing a few to let them do their thing!