Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations CC or Bullhead?

If there were more Gregs and Todds in the fish squeezer industry things would be a lot nicer, but you deal with what you got... We all can thank Pond Boss for the support and ability pick other people's knowledge to keep the non Gregs and Todds from working us over too bad!

Mark, I'd be half tempted to order 100 CC from Zetts and hand sort them right in front of them... If I found one brown bullhead in with those fish, I think I'd go berserk right there!

Mark

Did you deploy your BH traps? I'm really eager to see what you yield...can you video for us? I think this would be very instructional for all of us.

Good luck!!

We have condello and cecil...but they have full time jobs and I think limited in terms of shipping fish. I'd certainly prefer doing business with our PBF bros though...but I did see this guy in TX offering FREE FISH. I think I might call him tomorrow.

WIth all of these unstatisfied fish clients outside the SE-TX I will loook into regs for selling in more states. Back in the winter we finally got a bigger fish truck. It would have to be several orders in an area to make this profitable (I know frowned on these days making a living)but I have seen some of the prices up the atlantic coast line are very high. Seems like room for me to get fish up there if enough volume to make it win win. If I get approval in more states or get my ducks in a row on air shipments I will let you guys know. Thanks for all the kind words, and I know there are plenty more good fish stockers out there. Like they said a few bad seeds destroy the crop.

Thanks CJ, i appreciate that. Trap went in taround 10 am and I will pull it around 5 or 6 tonight. Will post results.

Thanks Greg, with the .4 acre pond I am managing now I really only need enough fish that can be safely shipped via FedEx or UPS, so even that would work for me... To get quality fish, I'll pay the price.

Greg, if you need help on packing for air freight, gaive me a call. I can ship 50 pounds of fish per container succesfully AND consistantly.

Should we wager on how many nasty bullies Mark Brown pulls in?

I'm going with (4.34).

I'm changing to (6.15).

Brutal.

Per trap? I'm going OVERS on the 6.15

I'm impatiently waiting for his results!

OK guys. I let the trap soak 7 hours. I had fish chow, chicken necks, old sausage and even a bad smelling pheasant in there. NO fish. I was very surprised. I am thinking that the loose fish chow was able to get through the little holes so there was no need for the BH to try to find the main opening to get at the bait. I also spilled about a pound or so of the chow into the water lowering the trap.

I will try this again with just chicken or something else large for bait that can't get through the holes and soak the trap overnight. This way the fish will have to find their way into the trap to feed.

Trial and error. keep plugging along.

On another note I did put the 2nd application of fertilizer in. The water has definitely greened up since the first app 9 days ago. With no rain this month the FA is really starting to grow. Hope the fertilizer helps and its not too late.

OK. Well, let's try again.

Mark, assuming the bullheads are eating pellets, I think you could get rid of the pheasant and other nasties. I usually just use pellets inside of a paint strainer bag. Tie the top together and toss it into the water. Then, toss some pellets around the trap. They eat them and then start hunting for the ones in the trap. Of course, hot dogs are almost a sure fire deal on bullheads.

rainman I had you in mind on making these deliveries as well. I will contact to discuss air frieght methods.

Too bad on the trap, I think not many succedd in first attempt at somethign, good luck second time. My guess 3.4 BH.

Well the pheasant was freezer burned, the sausage had been uncooked in the fridge for 4 days and the chicken was just a thought from my crab trapping days.

I have had the feeder operational almost 2 weeks and I have not seen fish feeding when it goes off yet. I think i remember reading here that it takes 3 weeks or so for the fish to start using it. Is this pretty standard?

I will bait the trap as Dave suggests next week when I have more time and see what happens. I was even thinking of putting a trot line down and really wear them out.

CJ,

I don't expect much from Zett's. They pretty much have a lock on this market. You order the fish and when you pick them up they are in bags of oxygenated water inside boxes. The only fish I have gotten from them since the initial stocking was FHM.

The first time was an order of 2000 that I picked up and dumped in the pond myself. Did not see anything unusual then. The second time they delivered in a tank truck. I ordered 10,000 FHM. 2000 for my pond and 8000 for another pond on our hunt club. Their workers dumped them in with nets. That could have been the problem. Who knows what was in that tank truck? maybe it wasnt empty when they put my FHM in.

Mark, until the fish start eating the pellets, I doubt if they would work.

Good point Guv.

Bullheads eat pellets pretty easily, so that's wierd.

What brand food are you using, Mark? The bluegill should have started eating some by now, though you're right in that I have read it sometimes takes two to three weeks. I wouldn't feed more than once a day until they start eating it; otherwise you're wasting a lot of food, not to mention the food is decomposing in the pond and adding to your waste load. Do you have the feeder positioned in a spot where you've caught/seen bluegill? It's important to put it where they are. What time of day do you have it set for? Early morning around 6:00 or 7:00, or evening around 6:00 or 7:00, would be good times.

If you're starting to get a good plankton bloom, the FA should disappear within a week or so. Initially it may flare up more, but a few days of the good bloom blocking out the sunlight and it will be gone. And pretty soon you should be able to see an explosion of tiny critters in the shallows, everything from crayfish you never may have seen before to water bugs to invertebrate larvae etc.

I think the trotline might work better than the trap for fish that size - doesn't require them to swim through anything, they just have to open their mouths and take the bait. No mercy on bullheads!

What takes so long? I have been been feeding intermittantly by hand for 2 years. I would think after 2 weeks they would be all over the fish chow. Maybe there is too much food in the pond?

What takes so long? I have been been feeding intermittantly by hand for 2 years. I would think after 2 weeks they would be all over the fish chow. Maybe there is too much food in the pond?

It's not the amount of food, especially if you just started fertilizing; lots of fertilized ponds are also pellet-fed, including one I'm working with at the moment, and the fish eat fine. The intermittent feeding, unless there were periods in which you fed daily for any length of time, would not train them because it's intermittent and they never get accustomed to the food. Also, I found in a previous message that you were feeding catfish chow, which bluegill don't take to as well.

I'm wondering if you have the feeder in a spot the bluegill don't frequent. It might seem like in a pond, anywhere would be fine as long as the water is deep enough and the food doesn't wash up on shore; but pH can vary slightly from spot to spot, as can DO, and obviously food can, as well as susceptibility to predators; there are lots of factors that go into why bluegill may choose to camp in a particular spot, and if you have the feeder where they ain't, they probably aren't going to come there to eat. I always make a point of placing a feeder where I've caught not even just one but multiple bluegill, and preferably some of the bigger ones in the pond, whether that be only five ounces or twelve or more. Is your feeder close to where you caught those good-sized bluegill recently? If not, try moving it right on top of where you caught them.

I found a previous message in which you said you're feeding gamefish chow that has pellets of various sizes. This shouldn't make a difference, but I'm just brainstorming here - you might try Aquamax 500 instead. It's 9% higher in protein, which shouldn't make a difference, but I know that I recently installed two new feeders on a 56-acre lake, and within two days of installation the bluegill were feeding very well at both feeders. There's one other feeder that's been on the lake a couple years, but it's a quarter mile from either of the other feeders so the fish eating well at the new feeders have probably never seen pellet food prior to a week ago, and they're killing it. The Aquamax has fish oil in it; I know other posters on here have experienced their fish hammering it after being lukewarm to other feeds.

Beef liver, it'll draw them in... If not Mark, I do have some other traps you can use that I know work quite well on bullheads...