Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Tryin to balance and boost

Here is my log of tagged fish so far... any coments?

Date, Length, Weight in Pounds . Ounces???, Bait/Lure, RW, Tag #.

If I got the third column right, I figured it all out. That's about what I keep.

Just was doing a little fishing for catfish. I wanted to weigh and measure one. I put 17, 5 - 8 inch CC in the pond in January. Been feeding them Gamefish feed everyday since about march. I weighed and measured one today. I am shocked. 20 inches long and weighed 4 pounds 3 oz.

I gut hooked a bluegill and a Redear Sunfish. Kinda mad at myself. Here are there pictures. The RES weighed 7 1/2 oz. The blugill..is it a common BG?

Bill, you can chalk one up on your experiance belt... I did what you said, went and got a thin type bobber, went to a tiny hook and did some fishing with the FHM. I definatly dont have a shortage of bass in the pond. Caught 7. Three were in the 7 to 10 inch class and were skinny. four were in the 10 to 13 inch class, 2 were skinny one looked good and one was beautiful. I kept all but the one that beutiful. I am shocked that all these fish are fish I never caught and tagless. I definatly have to many 7 -13 inch fish.

The Fatheads are doing fine in the pen I have. I think what I am gonna do is in a few days another fish truck is comeing, I will go get 3 or 4 pounds of FHM and 50 more CNBG, let about half the FHM go and keep back half to thin the bass more. Hopefully it takes some pressure off the existing BG and new CNBG. I really feel I have to boost my forage.

I cannot see the BG close enough for a definate ID, coloration looks like BG. It is not a RES for sure. I need to see the gill flap clearer and closer.

Maybe my computer screen has more detail. I can enlarge the photos really well. The top fish is a female RES and the bottom fish is an immature male BG.

I agree. The BG is not ,I am fairly sure a CNBG. Fin colors show no sign of white , yellow or orange fringes

I was sure the pictures was a RES but I didnt know male or female. How did you tell that? The other fish I was pretty sure was a reg BG.

So I removed the seven bass today I caught with the FHM. I did there relitive weights but it isnt exactly true because they had a belly full of FHM's. I think i need to cull out more. these were there sizes, seems all my fish are falling into this slot.. I have removed 8 pounds so far this year. my pond is .7 of a acre. How much more? Maybe 8 more pounds?

8" .2 no R/W
9" .2 no R/W
10" .4 80%
10 1/4" .4 80%
12 1/2" .9 90%
13 1/2" 1.1 85%
14 1/2" 1.5 93%

Female RES has a thinner opercle border (ear tab) that is more orangey, as opposed to red.

I am getting back to boosting the forage. I thought Mosquito fish might add another level of forage. Been trying to get some local with no luck. Today I called someone who will ship them at a fair price. There is a but... he said that most fish dont like to eat mosquito fish... there is a coating or a fowl taste that turns fish off. Well probly not the boost I am looking for but prob will add some in a few weeks anyway.

Was also thinking of cast netting some threadfin shad. could get them easy from a big lake here. I doubt they live threw the winter but what do you think to add them now to spawn all summer long?

I had been considering stocking gambusia, but have just read too many negatives. I have decided against it. They are very aggressive against other fish, even larger ones and attack in groups, biting off fins, tails etc. Also they are tough on nests. They are so small, just cant justify them as forage. They are not any more efficient at preying on mosquito larvae than other small fish. I will make do with my golden shiners and probably add fatheads behind a net so they can spawn. Gambusia, being livebearers, seem to be too prolific.

Hmmm, that's interesting, I've never heard that before.

Experts, any truth to this theory?

I'm not an expert Jeff, but I've been keenly observing gambusia for many years. I think Burg is right. Gams are not great bait. Although I have caught many bream, bass, and crappie on gams, they prefer other bait to them. I do not like them as a primary forage species, but I think diversity is important. They are better survivors than fatheads, but that isn't saying a lot. I have never seen an over population of gams. I have always noticed them in pods of 100 or fewer... usually much fewer. Their legendary mosquito control is mostly myth. They're superior to small bream only in shallow ditches where bream can't survive. Bream are much quicker and eat a lot more. I think egg eating is a little overblown. Bream and bass lay their eggs where gambusia will never go. If they go near a nest, they're instant lunch. Fatheads lay eggs in gam territory, but they are fiercely protective of their eggs. I'm sure the gams get some of the FH eggs, but so do BG.

Joey, since you have kept good records on the LMB you have tagged, you can now SWAG the number of LMB in your pond. Total # of tagged fish caught/ the total caught = total # of tagged fish/ X or total number of fish in pond. On Sunday you caught 20 LMB of that 20 4 were tagged. You know that you have tagged a total of 10 fish in the pond. Then 4/20 = 10/x then X =50 fish in the pond. You caught 1/5 of the tagged fish. Hence the number of fish in the pond is 10 times your # of tagged fish. The more fish in your sample the more accurate it is. Also we assume that all the tagged fish are still catchable as are all the untagged fish.

what am i seeing with my gams right now? they are schooling up in near surface small pods right along the shoreline. several inches below the gam pods are many expectant BG, i am guessing, waiting to snatch newly hatched youngins. seems to me in el dorado, the BG are the bullies, the gams the prey....its fun to watch.

You may not consider yourself an expert Bobad but you obviously pay close attention to what is happening in and around your pond. Thanks for posting this information.

24 5-8 inch Blue Tilapia...stocked today. Actually got them to try to help the FA alge but I will take the extra forage base to.

Thanks in advance if you answer.

Just trying to figure if I messed up or should I be still OK.

Subject... Catfish.

Recently, we have been catching several bigger cats, there is only 6 that are like 7 pounds but we been catching 4 pounders which was from my second stocking..that I thought didnt make it.

My thought was I better see if the other stocking of cat were still here. I thought the bass ate a lot of them but... I fished for them yesterday and UT OH I caught 3. 2 Albinos and 1 regular CC. Both FAT as pigs. and those Albinos ARE DEFINATLY not eating pellets. I never see anycats except for the original 6.

Threw out the stockings I put 311 channel cats, of those, I know 11 or so died. I figure there could be as many as 300 of various sizes. My pond is about 3/4a.


You think I got to many?

What the heck are they eating to be fat as pigs and never eating the pellets?

Joey, about 5 years ago we made a big mistake by (over)stocking about the same numbers that you stocked in our ~2 acre pond and still having trouble removing them.

Son Jeff caught a 13.5 pounder on a trot line yesterday but unfortunately also a 5# LMB, so thats not going to work.
Gotta come up with some other way to catch them - those buggers are smart and hook shy..

I have been trying to balance this pond. Its not easy. I want to ask you guys what you think. The cats are getting big but there is only 5 big ones like 7 pounds, the rest are smaller but there are a good number of them. The stripers are wild but there is only a dozen or so. The bass fishing does seem to be better and we are catching small but nice fish now there is still about 20 bigger largemouths in there. I put tilapia so whatever the contributing. My question is, If I have about 500 really nice sunfish living around my docks that are just about spawning size, Do you feel they can support a heavy preditor base if I continue feeding. That dont include all the others that dont come to the dock.

Check out this moose. This fish is less then 2 years old. I put 18 in in late January year before last. They were 6 or 8 inhe skinny things. Over the past 2 years culled some, I am down to 5 of those originals, unfortunatly for this guy now down to 4. I kinda feel bad but there just over 7 pounds and about 25 - 26 inches and I felt 5 was to many. I might go down to 3. ANY THOUGHTS?? Also there supposed to be channel cats but is the tail forked enough? I counted 25 or 26 rays on the anel fin. Here are a few pics. This one took a live Bluegill.

It is a channel. I think the easiest way to tell the the difference is to look at the shape at the bottom of the anal fin. In Channels it will be rounded like the one in the picture. Also the amount of anal rays can range from 24-29, which this fish also lies within.

Definitely a nice CC. Tail is forked plenty, no angle on the back (not a Blue), way too big for a Bullhead, and just plain not right for a Flathead.

Talk about a WAKE UP call. I just cleaned the fish. I feed these pigs every day sometimes twice a day, with added feed at the end for these big cats...THINKING keep them fed so they dont eat much of anything else. WRONG Stomach contained a beutiful 6 inch sunfish and something else smaller. and he went after and ate my 4 incher that I was trying to catch a largemouth with. Sorry to say but there coming OUT, starting tomarrow. I may leave one just to have a lunker. I am in shock, a little pissed at myself. Holy cr_p... those pigs must be eating at least 3 or 4 or more 5 inchers a day. OH boy and I got a lot growing up in there to. I caught 2 12 inch albinos the other day that were fat and I never see them eating the feed.

This is what I love about ponds.

We can see so little of what's happening under water, and when we do catch a glimpse, it is awesome. But it is such a small piece of the whole picture.

This channel cat's gut doesn't lie. He's chowing down on medium sized bluegill, and we'd never really know but for the post mortem. You know, we think we're feeding him to satiation, but really, he's off being a bad, bad boy.

Just like Lusk's skinny LMB with the soft plastic baits in his gut, but Joey's case represents the more "natural" vibe of the fish.

That's vibing with another dimension.