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Hi All im new to this forum and am glad i found it. im hoping you guys can give me some advice on my pond. I aquired this pond about 2 years ago and have been in the process of evaluating it ever since. the pond is approximatly three quarters to an acer.water color is deep olive green. theres plenty of fish probally to many. I have blue gill, crappie, warmouth, bass,bullhead catfish big grass carp. that said i shot 2 of the grass carp with my bow another died over this last winter they had the pond void of vegitation and down to mud bottom over whole pond.
ive also caught 3 two to three pound bullheads ive had a trout line in for 2 weeks trying to figure out what kind of cats are in there. so far there just seems to be 3 as i have caught nothing eles.
the guy i bought the place from told me he put 500 crappie in it 75 channels i since have figured out he is a liar about alot of things.
i started fishing it caught all kinds of small bass any where from 8 to 10 inches long nothing over a pound.caught a lot of crappie about9 to 10 inches long nothing bigger.lots of blue gill 8 inches long.a few war mouths so i figure the pond has way to many fish in it. so to date i have taken out 25 bass,54 crappie,30 blue gill, 3 36 inch grass carp and 3 bullhead cat fish.
now the bass i took out i prepared them they have parasites little yellow worms look like rice. oh this is an old pond probally cattle pond at one time. the guy i bought it from did alot of improvments to it. includind clearing dam of all small trees and increasing depht by adding to overflow pipe.the pond now is 11 feet at deepest point.
I would like to get this pond back heathly and a decent pond to catch large bass and bluegill.am i just beatin my head against a rock trying to thin out the fish and hoping for the best.Would it be best to start over and kill everything. i like to fish and really enjoy seeing snakes, turtle, blue herin the pond is full of life hate to kill every thing.would appreciate any advice or past exsperiences. thanks mike

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Hi Mike and welcome to Pond Boss. Hang on for some expert opinions.


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"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."
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Hi jeff and thankyou I could use some expert advice.

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The Bullheads may be keeping the bottom roiled (is that a word?) up more than the GC.

You may have a classic "renovate or not" quandary. You have (at least) three species that will interfere with large bass management to some extent or another. The CC will compete as largemouthed predators, but (with recruitment unlikely) could be reduced in number over time to have less & less impact. The Crappie will compete with the LMB for smaller prey. The Bullheads will reproduce and require many predator mouths or angling/trapping time to control, and if they continue to be present in numbers capable of stirring up sediment, will interfere with sight-predators like the bass.

The surest advice I have - manage vs. renovate - would be if there were streams or nearby BOW which would be capable of restocking the rough fish after renovation. If the BH and Crappie were likely to reappear, I would say you'd have to manage the problems rather than eliminate them. If that's not the case, renovation would probably yield a pond with large bass or balanced for BG & Bass much more quickly.

Next opinion?

Last edited by Theo Gallus; 05/13/09 01:17 PM.

"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever."
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theo im new to this whats a cc and a bow

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Channel cat = cc
body of water = bow

List of commonly used acronyms


JHAP
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thanks jeff im definitly not a computer or english whiz.

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No problemo woodbender. Getting use to all of the acronyms thrown around on this forum takes some time. When I started here I printed them out so I would have a reference list just so that I could figure out what people were talking about. After a while you get use to it and it makes it much easier than spelling things out.


JHAP
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ive been fishing this pond for 2 summers i dont think there are any channel cats or very many bull heads. the trout line i have in there now has been baited twice once with hot dogs the other time blood bait when i pulled up the line all hot dog pieces still there.So i took them off rebaited with blood bait checked it the bait is still thier. I figured ok maybe the channel cats to small for hot dogs but even small cats could strip off blood bait but its still thier to and has been there 3 days.so now i figure there never were any channel catfish in it and cant be very many bullhead or that bait would be gone.

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here is some other information on my pond. the guy i bought it from his brother stuck 2 flatheads out of the missouri river one was 62lb the other 47lbs. i dont know how long they were in there but that might be why there are no more other catfish.i know he was telling the truth on that because when i moved in the head of the 62 was hanging in a tree 12 inches wide and 16 inches long just the head. he told me it took a while to jug them out.

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Well, you certainly have a hodge podge of fish in your pond... I think Theo hit on the head with his mangement vs retenone idea. If your pond is not near another body of water that is likely to contaminate it again, I would probably go the retenone route. It sounds as though the pond is very bass heavy, this has kept the bullheads, sunfish and crappie under control. 8" BG and 9"-10" crappie 8" to 10" bass is tyare not typical of a stunted population. However, lots of 8" to 10" bass is typical of a stunted pond and those stunted bass are hungry and doing a great job of keeping the crappie, sunfish and catfish under control. Throw in warmouths, crappies and tons of stunted bass and you have a real challenge trying to grow trophy bass.

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When you are talking about near. there are probally at least 10 other ponds within a mile of mine plus i live in a flyway for ducks.ive heard ducks can bring in eggs on feet and feathers is this true.

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Basically is there a bunch of ponds similar to yours upstream? If you were to start your pond over, and along comes a big rain. Would there be a chance that undesirable fish could swim down and once again get in your pond?

This makes all the difference to me... If there is a good chance of fish getting washed out of lakes above you, then I would just manage your pond hard. It wouldn't make sence to start it over and have a flood wash a bunch of crappie, bullheads, etc. back into your fresh pond. Waste of effort, time, and money.

I wouldn't worry about birds bringing in fish, that is more rare than say a carp slipping in with your fish from a fish farmer.

If there is little possibility of fish invading your pond from upstream i'd start it over. Pump it dry if you can or atleast to a small puddle then you can easily kill off the remaining fish. Then add structure... Thats a good time to do it. Then either wait for rain or maybe "borrow" some water from a pond close by via a gas pump with a sock on the suction end and get your pond on its way.

In my opinion, thats what I would look at. I was able to pump 4 ponds dry this winter, and fill them back up. I have no Bow upstream so now I have a pond stocked exactly how I want it that will reach my goals better and faster than I ever could have done with just management.

Hey, plus its a lot of fun along the way... either way you do it.


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Thanks guys you have me thinking in new directions.How much does it cost to kill off the pond its a little under acer, 11 feet deepest part?

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This thread might help some . http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=116388&fpart=1

Rotenone is not cheep. Last I checked $150 a gallon. That does not include the cost of having it applied is a licensed applicator is needed. A one acre pond at an average depth of 4 feet would take at least several gallons depending on species present. It is less expensive to draw down the pond (to empty if possible) and use hydrated lime applied to any puddles.

I rarely suggest rotenone (or killing off) a small pond as it is not to difficult to renovate without that. Using traps , seines and fishing plus fish introductions you can fix yours. Another way to help is to drawdown the pond - say to 60 % of its current size and seine out a bunch of fish. This drawdown will also concentrate the fish where predation can occur - yours and natural. When you get the numbers down you can add some adult BG act to increase the forage. You can use a net to do a blocking net grow out situation to increase the forage. There are lots of options.

Here is a blocking net thread. http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=52295&fpart=1

















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