Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations smallmouth bass and bullheads

Greeting from Iowa

I currently have a body of water that appears to have a smallmouth bass population in it, also have a large population of bullheads, will the smallmouth be effective in bringing the bullheads under control?

thanks Ilook forward to all replys.

How turbid is the water? Water clarity will affect how well SMB can locate young bullheads. What other forage items are in the pond besides bullheads? I initially think the SMB will need help keeping bullheads at low densities. Remove bullheads several times annually by fishing, trapping, and seining. Seining will also help monitor how well the SMB are recruiting fish in to the community. Maybe do some chumming of the beach area for bullheads before each seining operation.

Water clarity is good. The pond also has some bluegill, and to a lesser degree yellow perch and black crappie. Few largemouth bass are present. Channel catfish is also present in the pond, estimated at 100 fish per acre (120 lbs per acre) with all sizes present in good numbers.

Thanks, look forward to all replies.

What is good water clarity 2ft or 3ft or 4ft? Water clarity in this range leads me to think the bullhead population is not real or overly abundant (dominant) otherwise the water clarity would be less than 16". Clarity in the 2-4ft range will allow adequate predation of bass on bullheads. Obviously the larger bass will eat the large bullheads. And LMB will do a better job of it than the SMB. SMB should prey on them well while the bullheads are less than 3". LMB 15"-16" will eat 4"-6" bullheads.

Over time expect to see the LMB population increase and become a larger and larger percentage of the angler catch while the SMB population declines.

Targeted fishing tactics and seining will help remove the larger bullheads of 8+". Bullheads can be prolific and while in the pond you will probably always have to annually watch their densities closely.