Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations New to pond management

Hi, I am new to the site as well as pond management. My wife's family last year (3/2012) stocked their pond which at the time was about 2 surface acres but the previous several years would go dry as Texas was in a horrible drought. They stocked according to the recommendations of the hatchery where the got the fish as follows:

Okay, I think the best bet would be to stock it at a 1 acre amount. So here my recommendations:

3-4” LM Bass 100
3-4” Black Crappie 100
4-6” Channel Catfish 100
1-3” Coppernose 500
1-3” Redear 200
1-3” Fathead Minnows 10 Pounds


Well the year has passed plus a little more and I went fishing for the first time last week. Also since that year has past we have had a good bit of rain and we are now approaching 4+ surface acres now. I caught 2 bass that I would call healthy and had 2 lost to others. I was using ultra light tackle and 4lb test not realizing I could expect some very fun fish so fast. I would estimate that were about a 1+ lbs each. One that broke my line did so right at the boat (of course) did appear to be larger than both of those fish. I also caught a few nice bream and some very small crappie. I didnt take the pictures of the smaller fish but will start.

My question is do I need to start removing fish now. Ideally we would like a good balance of fishing but would love to have 5-6 lb bass and most everything else is secondary. We were also thinking of buying several more pounds of minnows if that would help fish continue growing.

I have read the stories on stunted fish and over populated BC and I just want to see how to get a handle on it from the start.

mattyg06, first welcome aboard. I personally think stocking for 1 acre was a good idea for several reasons, primarily related to the big drought related water fluctuations.

I can't comment on the current stocking, but I wouldn't stock any more FHM. They'll get eat as fast as you put them in. Adding CNBG would be the best option right now. If the CNBG are going to be part of the fishing fun, then hatcheries will sell larger fish that may better survive the LMB.

As far as the stunted LMB, if you haven't caught any yet, or you haven't started catching 20-30 a trip, then I wouldn't worry about it. That day will come, especially if the water level drops back down.

Also, general info on the pond itself may help with other advice, especially the depth and soil makeup. I hate to hear about it drying up, but droughts are the perfect time for dirt work.

What part of TX is the pond in? Anything west of the I35 corridor is tough right now for obvious drought related problems.

Good luck.

Good growth on those bass for one year.

If I caught a crappie, I would keep it. Those eating machines can be a real problem for anything less than 25 acres. It's usually a question of when and not whether.

I believe that I would restock a couple thousand more coppernose. Some recommend 1,000 per acre but an awful lot of us in Texas are thinking about 2,000 per acre with bass added later. Those sunfish are the backbone of the pond.

I agree 110% with Dave. I would remove every Crappie that was caught, and add more CNBG.

If the pond isn't aerated, I would look into setting $$ aside to purchase one in the future. It will help minimize a fish loss if the pond starts to shrink due to a drought.

If the pond stays full for a couple of years, then shrinks due to a drought, I would start to fish it heavily, and keep the fish. It's hard to keep 4 acres of fish alive in 1 acre of water.

Thanks for the quick reply guys. Ok I attached a shot from Web Soil Survey. The 'W' in the middle outline is the rough outline of the tank. This image was from 2010 I believe. The tank was orginally about 15 acres but it is just north of I 20 just east of Cisco so when the highway went in 30 year ago the watershed was cut in half. We have only owned the property for about 5 years total. Since it was completely dry we we bought it we did a lot of dirt work. The dam had a large hole in it so the dredged the whole area directly in front of the damn and patched it. They type of soil lists as combinaion of bonti loam, bonyun loam, exray-bonti complex. I am not sure what all that acutally means.

When the tank was stocked the water level was just in that small green area directly surrounding that small little blue puddle. Now the water stretches back past the 'W'. As far as depth the whole width of the damn is about 15-17' and then was going back up the creek settles to between 4-6' for a large part.

You're not too far from me. I'm just north of Cisco about 10 miles. Your stocking is right around what I did for 1 1/2 acre pond with the exception of the crappie and catfish. My pond already had some CC in it. Keep reading here, plenty of info and plenty of help.

With bass that size do I need to look at buying larger CNBG? The hatchery has them 1"-3" ($40/100fish), 3"-4"($60/100fish), 4"-5" ($80/100fish).

The larger of the CNBG have to be special orderd which I dont have a problem doing but buying 1500 more CNBG will get pretty expensive at that largest of sizes (costing double the 1-3"). Would the added money be worth the investment?

Have you been able to catch any of the LMB this year? Ideally stock fish that are at least 1/3 the size of the LMB.

The LMB pictures I posted were from just a few weeks ago. The LMB seem to average 1.5-2 lbs and about 15-18"

Stock the larger ones. FYI, the large size pricing is good. IMO, I would stock at least 500 of the 5 inch+ CNB and if you can afford 1000, do it. IMO, you did not stock enough in your initial stocking.