Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Stocking existing lake help?

I am fully aware that on here somewhere answers my question im about to ask but i couldnt find it, so first off my apologies for that. I have a 24 acre lake on my property and it had population of mudfish,turtles talapia, blue gill, and gators but ZERO largemouth bass!!?? So my question is.....how many fingerling bass would it take to stock the lake and my survival rate be good enough for fishing?? Id like my lake to produce larger bass rather than quantity. I can get 2000 fingerling LMB for 600$ what do you guys suggest?

Sorry not had....i meant to say has*

24 acres.... That's pretty big! Are you sure that there are no LMB in the lake? You say mudfish, do you mean Bowfin?

What's the largest fish in the lake now? (species and size?)

What size are the BG in the lake?

Have you done any fish sampling (population study) with any other equipment than fishing?

Yes i am 99% sure there are no lmb. Iv had maybe 15 of the best fisherman i know fish it consistently over 3 months no luck. The talapia are pretty big but are currently being commercially fished out by a buddy of mine. And yes i do mean bowfin i caught one the other day that was probably 20 inches and 4-5 lbs. the bluegill are ranging from 3-6 inches but no bigger, and there are a ton of baitfish on my bank line, my buddy refered to them as mosquito somethings.

Ohh and some more information for you....we had a bad freeze come through central florida last year that lasted about a week. And we had a bunch of fish floating at the end of the week and they were all talapia and armored catfish...if that helps at all.

With the bowfin in the lake, I don't know how many of the fingerling LMB will be eaten....

How deep does the lake get?

Its an old mine pit. The deepest part of the lake is almost 40 ft according to my fish finder.

Is there any aeration in the lake? (if not, usually a thermocline sets up and the fish can only utilize the top 8-12' of water)

Do you have any supplenental feeding going on?

Those fish your buddy told you about are probably Mosquito Fish. They don't get much bigger than 1.5" in length and the females bear their young live, they don't lay eggs.

There is no aeration and no supplemental feeding. And yup you are exactly right they are only about an inch long and there are a ton of them.

It depends on what size fingerlings you stock. A 2" fingerling will have a much lower survival rate than a 6" fingerling. It may suit you best to stock adult bass but in lower numbers. It can take thousands of fingerlings to establish a viable population in your situation. Your deeper water means you probably have year round warm water refuge for at least some tilapia to hold over each year. What county are you in?

You should be removing every bowfin caught. Get your anglers to target them and put a $ bounty on them if necessary. The bowfin will eat smaller bass due to their body shape. Reduce the predation pressure on the young bass until they have spawned and you see fingerling bass. With many mosquito fish the 2" LMB will likely have plenty of food to get growing right away to then start eating small sunfishes and other 2"+ forage. $600 is a big gamble but in this case if there are some natural vegetation beds in the lake it could work -but no guarantees from me.

What do you think about catching bass and transporting them to my lake in a livewell??

Am I the only one that thinks it would be best to draw the water level down as far as possible and nuke it with rotenone?

The main problems that I see in trying to correct this issue is that you have no idea how many of what types of fish you have in this lake.

I would feel better starting over than trying to fix this mess.

I would agree with the great ape. I just don't see being able to develop a good bass fishery with what is there now.

However, Hosed499 needs to determine how those other species got in there. If they would be replensihed with outflow from another source even killing and restocking might not provide the fishery he is looking for.

Retenone isn't cheap and draining down a lake that large would be a challenge. It's 40' deep, that's a lot of water! And, if it is 40' and as described, it is most likely fed by ground water, meaning it would be tough to get a full fish kill with a constant in flow. Best route would be to add adult bass. If you can source them from another pond owner, you can transport adult bass from their pond to yours.

Ok 1) i do not have an apllicators liscense for rotenone for starters.
2) how many adult bass would it take to kinda stabalize it all out?
3) what are some ways i can do a population count without killing whats there?
4) i have really really thick cattails surrounding the lake so there is plenty of vegitation for bass to bed and hide. Plus it is also feasible for me to sink some structure for them also if it helps at all.

I'm throwing this out there because I am completely lost on how to handle this without starting over.

Tiger Muskies?

Thoughts?

It's central FL, tiger muskies are not an option.

Stocking 10" plus bass at 25 per acre would be your best solution in my opinion. I would also work on removing the bowfin and any other unwanted predatory fish in there... If you have bowfin and armored catfish, they got in there somehow and most likely they will continue to get in there. So renovating the pond will not keep them from getting in there again. Adding adult bass will control their reproduction and they themselves will begin to reproduce within a year...

Ok thats what ill start to do then! Thanks guys!

If you could source a few Hybrid or pure musky in a 40' deep lake you might be suprized....exspecially if you had areation....

I have seen tarpon and snook in lakes....you are warm enough and should be able to source them...

If not I could help , I have seen mangrove snapper and red drum stocked in lakes also...They could really help clean up your tilapia and other abundant forage fish plus it would be really fun fishing...

it is pretty easy to acclimate certain fish to fresh water....

send me a PM in you want more info.......