Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait New CNBG pond

The brood pond is dead, long live the grow out pond.

We made a trip to Overton's yesterday, and Todd and I banged around some thoughts about the brood pond and it's possible potential. What we came up with is the full potential of a small pond, with the ability to drop and raise water as desired, control recruitment, and grow stocked fish until they were survivable in the big pond, was the way to go.

So, hybrid stripers, and a small stocking of Camelot Bell LMB is what we decided on. The CNBG that are being pulled, are 6-8", and are large enough to survive the grow out of HSB/CB's until spring. The brood pond is also loaded with 3" and under CNBG, hybrid BG, and GSF. Those and continued winter feedings should get the HSB to the 14"s I need to keep the HSB from getting eaten by my larger LMB.

Who knows what's on the table next? Winter trout or SMB? I figure I have 4-5 months each year to try something new and take advantage of the cooler water, so why not take a chance on a limited and controllable scale, with no real downside.

HSB and CB stocked in the brood/grow out pond.


My LMB in the big puddle are also very happy this morning. Just like most predators, the smaller LMB are gorging on the 3-5" crayfish that are size appropriate for them. The larger LMB are waiting for larger GSF/CNBG hand feedings, and will swim away from the crayfish. Yep, they're spoiled, but the results of the hand feedings have been almost immediate, but that's another story for another time.

Hope that works out well for you.

I'm trying to do something similar with RES in my forage pond and hope to get some wipers next year and do what you are doing in my sediment pond.

Good luck and keep us posted on the progress. Will be watching you for tips.

Hi FIH, great thread that has generated great posts and opinions along with a lot of facts based on experience etc. I have read several portions, and then reread them as time has gone on, just like today a complete reread. I appreciate all the info and the time you have taken to keep us up on your continued developments in pond management.

I know know that the next time I have some dirt work done, it will include at least one small(hopefully three) brood ponds. You and others who do this type of pond management have peaked my desire to do a bit more. I guess I am saying that one pond is just not enough! I hope you keep this going for a long time.

mpc, small 1/4 acre and below ponds are a blast. The best advice I could give anybody down here would to make sure they're close to a water source, either a bigger pond or water well, that allows you to flush or add water as needed. I've certainly had issues with this one(most problems were my own doings), but no problem was really unfixable if a 2-3" water pump was handy.

I've been very lucky, and seen some great small ponds that really produce. TJ and Highflyer's ponds come to mind. The ones I'll try to see at some point, belong to sprkplug. He has some crazy good hybrid BG stuff going on, and he really knows his fish.

Having looked back over this thread, it was your forage pond getting flooded and messing up your perfect plan that made me be aware of the possibility in my forage pond. My elevation of the forage pond, like yours, is so close to the main pond that a big rain event could back the big pond up into the forage pond.

So I was very careful in the planning of the overflow tube so this hopefully will not happen. It still could, but it will take a Noah type flood in which worries will be on things other than my forage pond if it happens.

So what I am trying to say, is thanks for documenting your pond progress on this thread. It likely will keep me from having the same flooding problem you had. PBF member helping another PBF member by sharing information.

My sediment pond will also be a forage pond till a too large rain event happens. It was just too close to the same elevation and fed by a terrace that tops the very top of a hill there was no way I could design it to not get it flooded some day when we have 12 inches of rain in 48 hours, which we will again some day. But till that happens, it is raising CNGB and RES and FHM.

I hope my thread documenting my forage pond will likewise help someone out some day.

I guess I officially have cold water fish now. Whole new experiences, whole new winter fun.

Too cool Al! How many?

How did the seining go??? Been waiting for an update!

Nice!!! You got Goldens! They are nice to watch swim around in the pond, expecially when you feed 'em. I prefer them to Rainbows because you can see 'em and because they seem to be more agressive towards lures than regular RBT. In my experience, taste is the same.

Now you're going to have to start looking up trout recipes!

Tony, we got about 20. I'm guessing, since they are sold by the pound. The pond should handle those quite well after a 3 day water flush to just freshen things up.

As far as the seining? I killed hundreds if not thousands of small CNBG due to my self imposed haste. Very traumatic experience, that I will not repeat again. I'm trying to figure out how to post and relate the whole deal, and make sure my errors can be avoided by others. The big CNBG did just fine during the seining and transfer to the big puddle, and we accomplished our stocking goal, but at a high cost to both my psyche and CNBG fry.

Scott, I'm absolutely stoked about the trout. I'll give them until after Christmas before I actively target them. A little birdie told me I have a new Sage flyrod under the Christmas tree, and I think the trout would be the perfect first fish for that.

And yep, recipes are already in the works. You eat trout fresh and not frozen, correct?

How often have we heard: "You're not a real pondmeister until you've killed a bunch of fish"?

I try to learn from my mistakes, which are frequent and numerous, and apply that towards future endeavors.

Healing wounded pride? That's a tough one. My own sense of pride is covered in scars, scratches, scrapes and punctures. I tell myself that it provides a sense of character.

The 2 pulls we made easily had over a hundred pounds of fish per pull. Instead of thinking of 100 pounds as a single entity, I should have sorted the fish in 10 pound batches, and just dealt with that 20 times while the fish remained contently netted in the pond.

Tony, my pride is pretty scared up right now also. I learned a lot, and will make sure things go better in April/May when we do the next seining. I will get it right.

Nice looking Golden Rainbow! Looks like the kind of quality originating from Crystal Lake in Ava, MO.

Of that, I have absolutely no doubt. You'll get it done exactly like you hope next time, Al.

Sorry guys, I've been reading the cold water feeding thread, and I'm speechless right now.

Rex, I know they came from one of the big hatcheries in Missouri, but that's about it. The brood pond still has tons of fry, so we're hoping for great growth, and this becomes an annual deal for us.

Arkansas and Missouri seem to be really big players in the fish business. Arkansas is also the biggest player in forestry service sales.

Does anybody have a clue why? Is it water, weather, location, etc.?

Fire...

Dumb question: why are you seining your pond?


Pat W

Not a dumb question at all.

I wanted my brood pond CNBG to be big enough to survive the smaller LMB. I had originally wanted forage only, but decided that larger CNBG that could spawn as soon as spring was here was a better option for me. All the CNBG that were moved were in the 5-8.5" range.

I had a large number of CNBG, a few Camelot Bell's, and HSB in the pond, so I needed to lessen the fish load before the trout got here.

We'll seine again in April/May to remove the HSB. The trout should be toast, and the HSB will be in the 12-14" by then. Again, large enough to survive most of the LMB.

Al, when I'm there we'll go over seining 101.

Yes, fresh vs. frozen, but shoot Ken a PM or Stacy from Stubby Steves on how they utilize the trout. I remember a smoked trout spread.........

I'm pretty speechless myself, now...lol

Al, I'm positive those are Emmerson Strain trout from Crystal Lake Fisheries in Ava, MO...amazingly good genetics!! You'll love the growth, taste and fight. Todd3138 and Catmandoo can tell ya...

Arkansas is blessed with climate and VERY abundant water just below very fertile soils in the Delta regions. Miles and miles of flat ground originally planted as rice and cotton fields had high capacity wells installed and are easily converted for raising fish. The seemingly endless hills of AR have a wide variety of timber also. Some of the virgin, old growth forests are nothing less than amazing to walk through...

Al, I get my timber stand chemicals from a place in Ar. My chemical suppliers up here don't know what I'm talking about when I ask for some chemicals, and the place down there has them in stock.

Rex, the abundant water and available land in Arkansas makes sense. That may explain the forestry part also.

Scott, I don't need seining 101 help, I need "stop and think about what you're doing D**b A*s" help. Highflyer brought new member Sid over for a meet and greet while all this was going on, and it was obvious to highflyer what my problems were. He was correct.

Todd Overton brought my trout up, and we talked it all out, and now I "think" I have a grip on how to do the post-seining movement of fish better. Luckily for my wife, we had a trout delivery, or the nets would have been back in the water that day.

Wish I had been there to help and learn.

Since I'm a couple years behind you on the forage pond, and your pond was one of the forage ponds that caused me to try my own, I'll be watching you carefully!

I would prefer you make the mistakes and report the proper corrections so I don't have to repeat them!

John,

I'll be seining this Jan or Feb, stop on by!!

Brian you are going to need to pick a different time of year to get my help. I'm where it is warmer for the next few months.

Where it is warmer

But seriously, Carolynn & I like a good excuse for a motorcycle trip in the warmer months. If it works out, never know, I might show up. Don't be afraid to ask.

That's it Snrub. Rub it in!!!