Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Old Pond Situation

I have a friend who has about a 7 acre pond that is around 40 to 50 foot deep. It's a 50 year old gravel/sand pit. She just bought the property about a year ago. The previous owners weren't really into fishing or the whole pond idea so there is absolutely NO habitat/cover in this pond. The bottom slopes gradually from the shore until about 20' from the bank where it drops straight down to about 30'. I went fishing there today and caught about 30 LMB and 4 CC in about 2 hours of fishing. All of the bass were between 13"-15" and seemed to be fairly healthy. The largest catfish I caught was about 7 pounds and very fat. I never had any hits from any smaller type fish (BG or small LMB)so I was wondering if this lake is out of balance because there seems to not be much food for them to eat or habitat/cover for small baitfish to survive in? Do you think there are any number of larger bass in this pond or can they only grow so large because of a lack of food? I'm not sure what was all stocked into the pond or when it was stocked since it is about 50 years old. Also, the river runs within a few hundred yards of it and sometimes floods into the pond allowing river fish to get in. Just thought this might be a good place to ask some questions and get some info as to what I could do to make it a better pond. Thanks.

camoman:

The next time you fish the pond, take a good scale with you and get some weights (down to 0.1 of a pound). Then go to the archives and look up the relative weight chart for LMB. See if those fish are at the correct weight for their length, or heavier. If they are, then there is enough forage fish in the pond for them.

I’ll take a guess at this. If by no habitat you mean no water plants then the fat catfish and healthy looking LMB must be eating plenty of fish washed into the pit from the river when it floods. It seems like something is working for that pond.

It seemed like there were a few weed beds near the drop-off but very few. I was thinking more along the lines of throwing in some cedar trees, cottonwood logs and branches, tires, concrete and other type of structures to give the fish a place to spawn. Right now it would seems like they would spawn and their offspring would have no place to escape when a predator fish comes by, therefor the offspring would never get a chance to grow. All the fish I caught were very aggressive in hitting the lure. If you got a hit and never hooked him you could throw it back there and they would keep hitting it until you caught it, sometimes 5 or 6 times. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the pond, I just thought it was odd that ALL the LMB I caught were the same size and there seemed to be a lot of them.

Went fishing at the pond a few days ago and caught the usual 13'-15' bass. I also caught a 18" LMB that weighed 3 pounds 12 ounces. Also caught a few more nice healthy-sized catfish in the 4-5 lb range. We are having our local game and parks commission come out and look at the situation to see what type of habitat to add and also if we could stock some BG since there seems to be none.

Camoman these are just my thoughts and I'm just an observer and in no way an expert. But I start with how much food do the fish get and where does it come from? I was wondering how clear your pond is? Does it take on the green bloom phytoplankton and zooplankton that starts the feed chain that some more shallow ponds? You have a few weeds and once in a while a flood overflow from a stream that provides some food. For the right pond copying Thoreau's Walden Pond is a thought.

I was re-reading Thoreau's Walden Pond that might apply to your pond. Walden Pond was extremely clear with little vegetation around the shore and a quick drop off. He could see to 40 feet down and said the bottom was mostly sand. When he sat in his boat fishing lots of minnows would surround his boat. So where did the food come from for the Walden Pond fish. He mentioned that when the anchor was pulled up that sometimes a green weed would be on it. What weed would grow at depths of up to and beyond 40 feet in a very clear pond. I check with the Walton Park Service and the plant seems to be Stonewort, which is rare nowdays because most waters are polluted and cloudy. If your pond qualified it might be interesting to try some Stonewort if you can find it. Here is some info on this subject from England.

http://www.pondconservation.org.uk/OneSt...74ec33ad9ad490c

John, I would say this pond is not extremely clear, but for this area it is fairly clear. Right now you can see down about 12-18". As far as the fish getting their food from the river, I'm not sure they get much of it because it only floods into the pond maybe 1 in 5 years so I don't think their would be enough food washed in to sustain them for that period of time.

I think you need to add more habit throughout the pond. I know of a similar situation and it would be nearly impossible to catch fish. They would catch a few just by pure chance. But once habit was added, it was much easier to catch and locate fish.

I just got back from fishing at the pond today. The bass we caught were all the same 13"-15" size and were extremely aggressive and hungry. They were so hungry they would actually hit the bobber itself as you were reeling it in over the top of the water. We were trying to catch some BG and did manage to catch a very nice one. It was about 8-9" and extremely fat. Probably spawning. It was calm today and the water was clear enough to see pretty well and I did see a lot of smaller 4-8" LMB right up next to the bank. Can any more suggestions be made from this info? This is the third time I have fished the pond and the LMB are always the same (easy to catch and lots of them). Do you think I need to start keeping some of the 13-15" bass to allow them to grow to a bigger size or do they just need more forage? thanks again.

I think you need to keep quite a few and add some more forage but be careful that you aren't adding an expensive meal for the current bass.