Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Heavy reducing of FHM numbers

In summer 06' i put in 30 lbs of FHM along with 750 CC. one year later added 900 BG. 08' i added 100 LMB (1-3").

Last year i seemed to have a decent minnow amount, enough to outlast the unending hunger of the CCs. Since the addition of LMB, the FHM seemed to hold strong, but over the winter and spring, the numbers drasticly reduced and now i only see scrawny groups under the dock.

Should i add more FHM, or reduce my LMB? not sure on what actions to take.

Pond is 3.3 acres
Max depth is around 23 feet and avg depth near or over 10 feet,
Heavy structure on one side

Thanks,
CFG

Let's try Door Number Three.

Realize that FHM are at their best as a start-up forage species. They are slow and are easily caught by LMB (and other predators), and rarely last more than a year or two in the face of such consumption.

The BG will provide the main sustainable forage for your LMB. Rather than spend $ on more fatheads, it is more economical to feed your BG & CC. The LMB will benefit indirectly from bigger and more BG to eat.

P.S. Unless you have big water, you have a large number of CC. What are the details on your pond and your goals?

I'm not entirely sure about why we bought so many CCs, my stepfather bought them, ive been actually trying to overfish them to control the pop.

as for the BG, theyre hybrid, im not sure it makes too much of a difference, but when i use them as bait it works just as well as the FHM. Some of the CCs are REALLY growing, im not sure if its a good thing or not, but we have a couple over the 6lb line.

HBG will NOT be a good long term forage for bass.

If you are interested in moderate to large bass, stocking regular BG would be an excellent start.

I'm new at this so,, I had been replacing fhm in my pond on a yearly basis until this year. I found out the fhm lay their eggs on the underside of wood. I placed a couple of weighted pallets in water about a foot deep. I now have clouds of small fhm.

Hi Mipond and welcome to Pond Boss, thanks for joining in a posting!

anybody but me have watermeal problems? B.J.(arkansas)

Mipond - welcome to the forum! Good work on the pallets - you've certainly done your homework. I've had great luck with them encouraging FHM spawns. I can almost walk across the ponds on the clouds of FHM. Won't last long, but I'll enjoy them while they last. Supplemental stockings are in store for me annually, but I might dedicate a small pond to FHM reproduction and grow out to save the $$. Just an idea.

bjr19722002, welcome to the forum...

You may want to start your own post in the aquatic vegetation section to seek help with watermeal. That way you'll get more exposure of your question and the best possible solutions. I can tell you, many guys on here have issues with watermeal and duck weed though!

I just finished digging a small grow out pond after watching my FHM and GSH get decimated this summer. I was down to LMB and BG minnows only after only three months of LMB predation.

I could not get GSH for my small pond so I will have to wait until spring to get them in, I am hoping for a FH spawn soon since the minnows I just got had a lot of males wearing their spawning colors.

When you transfer FHM to a forage pond, I like to make the ration anywhere from 3 to 5 females for every male. I see the best boom in reproduction that way. With FHM though, they breed like rabbits with the right conditions, so just about anything will work... I posted on your other post with info for you as well.

Very true. I transferred mostly males to a newly filled pond and still have thousands upon thousands in reproduction with a new age class of fatheads ever few weeks.

I would never however count on fatheads sustaining bass. Too small eventually and as Theo says they are slower moving than the bass and get wiped out pretty fast. Some fish farmers push them on a continuous basis (other than as a one time deal to get healthy predator fish going) but IMHO they are being deceitful in doing so.

You don't suggest this?

No. For two reasons:

1.) I'm not a fish supplier.

2.) Even if I was I would only suggest planting fatheads for an initial boost for a newly planted pond, or in a pond where bass do not exist and the fish that feed on them won't wipe them out (in my case yellow perch). I like them in my male bluegill/yellow perch pond because they provide the perch and bluegill something to munch on over the winter. This insures they come out of winter in good condition.

I suppose you could plant the fatheads in the fall to provide the bass something to eat over the winter but that is the only time I would plant them.

For a fish hatchery to tell people they need to stock fathead minnows every year to feed the bass in their pond is deceitful. It's not only a waste of money for the pond owner but it's like feeding the bass a temporary snack. And it's not what the larger bass need as they need larger forage as they get larger to stay in good condition.

I think of it like this... How many fatheads equals one Aquamax largemouth pellet? 5 FHM, 10 FHM? I honestly don't know... Let's just say 5... So each time a bass eats the pellet, it's like them eating 5 FHM. How many pellets are in a bag of Aquamax? 200, 500? Again I honestly don't know. Maybe someone who feeds Aquamax largemouth has a rough idea. How much do you pay for the Aquamax largemouth? $25 a bag? Say there are 300 pellets per bag, at 5 FHM per pellet that's the equivalent of 1500 FHM... Can you buy 1500 FHM for $25? Compare GSH, goldfish, etc... Kind of how I look at it. Anyone care to tear my line of think apart? I don't feed bass pellets, so perhaps my lack of experience in that area gives me inaccurate ideas?

If I may play devils advocate,in the winter the fatheads won't go moldy ,or sink in the mud, or if you have ice cover and can't feed pellets, I'm not agreeing with stocking fatheads every year, just another 2 cent point of view.

Excellent point CB. Actually I would wager there are more than 500 pellets in a bag depending of course on the size of the pellets. Ever spill a bag? When you do that there are a lot of &%$#@! pellets to pick up!

Cecil are you shocked someone agrees with you.

I was always under the impression that "devils advocate" meant taking the opposing point of view.

I was DA to CJ's post.