Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Disaster Today... I need ideas.

Well I have been pumping a 1/4 acre pond down to remove the bass and HBG so I can make a forage pond. Bought a 50ft seine from Cabelas...

I have the water down to about 1ft deep probably still about 60-70ft across though. Everythings going good untill the seining process begins.

Turns out, there is about 3ft of sludge/silt in the pond before you hit hard bottom. We decided to try it though. The 1/4in siene was a pain to pull, got stopped up with some green pond scum at times and on top of that walking in the 3ft deep mud. Needless to say we get to the end and the bass start jumping out over the seine. That was actually pretty cool although bad. then the bottom kicks out of the seine releasing all the fish partly because it was caked up with scum moss and silt. Game over!!

So tomorrow i'll continue to drain the pond to nothing. I have to get the bass out regardless.

But Im really worried about this summer when this pond is a forage pond with thousands of 2-3" CNBG. This was just a test run, we are new to this. I can't clean it out in the winter and am dead set on doing the forage pond this spring.

I don't think I can seine it Plus draining the pond that low in the summer is very dangerous I mean I had one foot of water but 60-70ft wide... What should I do????

Im thinking... Instead of having to draw the pond down to seine I should try to construct a HUGE trap that I can put in and remove with a tractor loader. First dig out a 20ft wide spot in the bank that is 3ft deep all the way to the edge of the bank IF the fish are feed trained and I had maybe a 12ft by 12ft square trap thats 30" deep. Do you guys think I could catch the fish by lowering the trap in and tossing feed in and letting them fight to get in... Im not sure how successful I'll be as far as numbers.

Its something like that or throw nets but Im not sure how successful that will be either as far as removing large number of fish.

I know someone has delt with this before. I even thought about a 100ft seine with ropes that you could stand on the bank and pull it through.

Options.
a. HUGE Trap $150 not sure on success
b. Throw nets. $80 a piece maybe... Success, I don't know either.
c. 100ft seine $$$Expensive. might not be able to pull it...

Well Im leaning towards option a but lets hear what you got to say.

Chad can you add longer rope to each end of the seine to stay out of the muck? Keep in mind when seining you don't want to draw up the bottom of the seine ahead of the top. That's something that novices unawaredly do do when pulling their net in the last few feet.

As far as jumping, bass are notorious for jumping over a seine.

One other option is to lower the water even more and dip the fish out with a net as they flop, if you can negotiate the bottom muck. But your water must be no higher than the 50's in temp or you will have oxygen problems when the muck gets stirred up. 50's or lower you should be O.K. if you get them into fresh water right away. I used a boat filled with water once set on the bottom and dipped them out of that later to five gallon buckets to transport them elsewhere.

Maybe if you dug a hole in one spot the fish would go into the deeper water and you could block them in with the seine while you dipped them out.On the other hand you could shock em with dynamite and scoop em put real easy,I always like dynamite.

Fill it back to 3' and call Todd O. to shock it.

It's too shallow to seine. You need at least four feet of water to seine it. I would rather have 5 feet of water. Buy a longer seine. The seine needs to be 1/3 longer than the pond is wide and at least 8 feet deep. When you get ready to seine, don't wade in the mud, pull the seine with a rope. Be sure you have zero algae or not only will the seine roll or clog, you will kill every small fish you catch.
Also, when you buy the seine, be sure you order a nine-strand mud line with it and it won't dig into the mud.
Where are you in Texas? I might loan you my seine to pull.
At least I could show you how to use it on one of my ponds (which I need to seine anyway) What are you doing the day after Thanksgiving?

Thanks for the offer, i'm actually gonna be in south dakota doing a little pheasant hunting.

I probably do need to read up on the seine a bunch. The one I have is probably way to small. I can probably find some links on youtube also.

Is the 1/4in seine to small. I thought maybe i could go with 1/2in.

You either need a 1/4 or 3/8. 1/2 will be too large, as small fish will either swim through it or gill themselves and you will be dealing with a whole other set of problems.
By the way...I was about half-way kidding about the day after Thanksgiving, but if you want a lesson how to seine, we can do it at my house. Just make an appointment with me and I'll teach you how to do it the easiest way possible....maybe without even getting wet.
Also, I like the trap idea, as long as you are able to safely handle the fish from it.

Yeah I figured that...

About the trap, Im thinking maybe to have the trap 12ft by 12ft minimum.

Im thinking about making it where it has NO top on it. So you lower it in the water, hopefully the fish get in it wanting feed, and then when your ready, raise it up out of the water but not all the way.... Then you run your large net through the trap a few times and go straight to the holding tank with them.

Can ya'll follow this rambling idea?

Your idea is a good one.
But, you don't need a trap so large, if you are capturing small fish, you don't need the surface area.
Also, if you leave the top open, great blue herons will learn to play, come in and eat your catch.
Research the use of a lift net...that may be a better idea for you. This is a large square net attached to a frame, with cords on each corner, attached to one larger cord to be able to be lifted as fish eat above it. It looks similar to an upside down umbrella with a bowl in it where the fish collect.

If the forage pond is not too far from the main pond, I wonder if you could connect them with a shallow channel? You could make a pair of gates, and attract forage fish into the channel with feed. Close the gate behind the fish and open the other, and the forage fish would swim into the main pond. Introducing predators into the forage pond would be a concern, but could be prevented.

Its 300 yards away. Only problem is, its about 30ft lower than the main pond.

I think I'll go with the trap. Im gonna start looking at designs. I see the normal fish trap that pretty much channels the fish into a rectangular opening. Im either thinking of making a trap with multiple openings like that OR building one that has a trap door on the back of it. Kind of like, set the trap in the morning and then come back in the evening when I normally feed and throw feed in the trap. With the trap door they will get in WAY faster also. Then I'll have some kind of trigger that drops the door down...