Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations The plan works

I havn't been on the site in a while but I thought I'd chime in with some good news.

For those of you who don't know me, when I got my new lake 3 years ago all I could catch was 12-14 inch bass that were 75% RW. After finding this site and learning all I could I began to implement the standard recomended culling program. In '04 I culled 20lbs per acer of bass and over 400 crappie. In '05 I culled 15'lbs per acer and almost 1000 crappie. Now the RW are averaging above 90%, it's quite common to catch 2.5+ pounders, and best of all we just topped the lake record with a 23" 7LB 1oz Largemouth!

It's so great to see my fish getting big and fat.
Thanks Pondboss guys.

-Scott

Good job, Scott!!

You haven't been posting much lately. Glad things are going so well.

Thanks for the update Scott. Now we know why you haven't been posting lately What is your goal for the pond.... double digit LMB?

The main goal for the lake is to have fun with it. The goal for the bass is to have a lot of 5 pounders and to have a chance at getting an 8-10. Were also working on growing some big channel cats.

Jbrockey :

Always good to here good news about a ponds results. I think you have a real winner for a pond goal " to have fun with it " . I think I will adopt that as my goal , if its ok with you. Maybe a lot more of us should just keep your advice in mind. As ML says its about the journey. If its not fun then the journey can't last long. Life is short , take time to smell the flowers and enjoy the journey. Thanks. ewest

ps : I also like the title of this thread " the plan works" . How apt and ironic and on target can you get. The "plan" of "to have fun with it" reallllly , realllly WORKS !!!!! This is one of my all time favorite posts for keeping us in touch with what its all about.

My son really does have the right idea. We started out with such specific goals and did a huge amount of work to get there. But our goals have evolved. For example, a few years ago we would not take out any adult Bluegill because we wanted the max forage for our Bass; but now we happily let the kids from church catch 'em and even take a few home. It really is about enjoying the pond, enjoying the "work" and enjoying the results. The big Bass are a thrill, but really are secondary. Thanks for the kind words ewest, JB

jbrockey,

Interesting to read your "evolution" from bass lake to fun lake with bass. I think that has happened to a lot of us, especially as related to kids enjoying the ponds.

If you don't mind, I'd be interested in your crappie and how they have responded to bass removal and increased crappie harvesting. Did the sizes increase with more crappie removal or was that offset somewhat by the removal of LMB? Thanks.

Meadowlark, good question! We too have been wondering how our bass and crappie culling would affect the crappie growth. A little history: this year we took out a full 1,000 crappie. Last year just over 400, and in '03 we took out 55. The 8 acre pond was full of stunted bass and crappie when we bought it. LMB RWs and a shocking survey from Greg Grimes now show that we are well on our way to having a good balance of bass/bluegill. I'm hoping we are at least getting the crappie under control, but that may be a bit optomistic, because they are still very easy to catch. Clearly this fall though, the crappie are thicker/fatter, but I believe it is still too soon to tell what will happen to the population. I do hope they respond as the bass have. Catching fat, 12 inch plus crappie would be a blast.

Of the nearly 1,500 Crappie we have removed during the last 3 years, only one hit 3 lbs, and less than 2 dozen were over 12 inches. 98% were under 7 inches and all were very thin. I'm convinced that we will need to continue to be very aggressive in removing crappie as long as we own the property. Fortunately, we discovered a method to easily catch 20 or more (sometimes as many as a hundred) each evening.

I no longer am frustrated that I have crappie in the pond. They're easy and fun for family and guests to catch and fry-up. My wife even enjoys catching them, and she is NOT one who normally enjoys tossing a line. Drop me a line next fall and I'll let you know how they, and the bass are doing. JB

jbrockey,
It's so good to see you on the forum again! How's your son doing? Still intrested in studying fish?
Sounds like you've really turned that lake of yours around! Congrats!!!
You're right! This forum has probably helped turn alot of out of unbalanced ponds around for the better.
You & your son used to give great advise here also & deserve credit for some of those other sucesses!
Hope you'll stop in more often.

Thanks Ric, those are kind words. Scott is doing great. He's studying physics right now, but I won't be surprised if he ends up working in this industry one day. I believe that our studying of aquaculture and pond management got him interested in the sciences.

We have definately been remiss by not helping out here for the past several months. We've missed all our friends here too. JB and Scott

JB, what method have you discovered to catch a bunch of crappie?

jb,
glad to hear the news and see your ingeniuos plans are working. I need to get back up there in a few years to shock the 10 lb. bass that keeps (wishful thinking)breaking your line. BTW I guess you know this and if I did not say it I should have. The crappie will continue to be more difficult the more bass you pull out. They help keep them in check and with your Wr above 98% on most not nearly as many bass mouths as before. Of course your feritlity also aids in crappie recuirtment too, so do not stop at 1,000 still a month's worht of fishing to go,

So again the lesson sooo many folks continue to question is: DON'T PUT CRAPPIE INTO SMALL PONDS! Fortunately, I have "discovered" (though some of you may have also) a quick and easy way to catch sometimes a hundred per evening . Almost any evening my son and I can catch at least 30 or more in half an hours time; but you must have an areation system! We jump in our boat right as the sun sets with ultralight rods spun with 4 lb. mono. and tipped with 1/32 oz jigheads. The color doesn't seem to matter. Pull the boat up to about 30 feet from the column of bubbles on one of your the deeper diffusers. Toss the jig either at, or to within 15 feet of either side of the diffuser, and with tiny rod-tip motion, dance the jig in the top 5 feet of water. We get a strike on nearly every cast. Pass the word! JB and Scott

p.s. You won't catch any crappie slabs this way, just the little guys (3 to about 9 inches) that you want to cull. 4 times this year though we have landed bass weighing over 3.5 lbs. fishing for crappie this way on 4 lb. mono. (you think that wasn't fun?) I also caught my 7 lb bass pulling a glass rapala deep at the edge of the difusser. The big bass love to feed on the abundance of crappie that gather at the difussers. HAVE FUN!

jbrockey,

I'm not surprised at your trick! I have a similar one. I fish by the overflow pipe any time water is running or trickling over. Crappie and bass are both attracted to the noise.

In July at Pawnee Lake near Lincoln, if the water is flowing out of the lake you can stand on the overflow structure and the crappie are attracted by either the current or the sound and you can drop a 1/64 jig over the edge and catch little white and black crappie all day.

jbrockey, you have armed the crappie world with another weapon for control ! Do you plan on pulling them all out, or do you want to keep the population regulated ? Have they turned you off to the point you're tired of managing them ?

While I said I really no longer mind that the previous owner stocked them, I do wish that I had none in the lake. By culling for good LMB growth, I've opened myself up to greater challenges keeping the crappie under control. All I can do now is to "enjoy" pulling large numbers out each evening I get into the boat. My plan is to just take as many out as I reasonably can each year. So far, 1,000 seems to have been the magic number; but like Greg said, I may have to catch even more since I have fewer bass to help. The bass RWs will tell if I'm successful. If I'm not, I'll throw a party and you all can come and help me ...