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Great story? Ha. Pretty funny video - the second one wherein the trespassers returned to find a 13x19 printed pic of their fun from their previous trespass.

Our land is private. But not 100% idiot proof (obviously). Every now and again someone or someones make an appearance. Most turn away at the postings and surveillance equipment. These 2 love birds made it beyond as they arrived in a route less traveled. In the end, their photo with the letter also posted was enough for them to gasp (literally), look at each other, the guy shrugs while the lady smacks him on the shoulder clearly embarrassed, and they depart never to return.

We're not concerned about good deeders dropping fish. I noticed some disturbances one day and while I had game cameras already installed, I had some signs made, posted, etc. We've got our largemouth bass from Greg (Grimes) in and growing, growing, growing. Our pond is very removed from other water bodies, and someone would have to travel a ways to drop a fish in. All of our bass are tagged, so any untagged bass would be easily identified. And enjoyed over dinner.

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Bill D, the mortality rate is huge. Of all the fish eggs laid, about 1 to 2% ever get large enough to spawn. And, that is in a balanced pond. In the absence or extreme shortage of other forage, lmb fingerlings have even less chance to ever grow to maturity. Even in a "balanced" pond, the biggest predator of small lmb is larger lmb.

If you think about it, it has to be that way. Assume that the average BG lays about 20,000 eggs. And, given the opportunity in warmer climates, they might spawn 4 or 5 times. No pond could handle that biomass.

Last edited by Dave Davidson1; 12/13/14 05:05 AM.

It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

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Overtons fishery brought 100 lbs of fatheads and shinner mix. I had same prob- new pond- non established forage base- and bucket bass added. Since I fish my pond often to check up on fish growth I may have got to the problem.... Least got my attention to start working on getting rid of as many bass as possible util the CNBG can catch up. Instead of shocking and removing I opted to fish and supplemental feeding of FHMs/ shinners.
Clint from Overtons was very helpful with handling questions and suggestions. Those guys are a class act...and they will go anywhere they are needed.


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OMC, if I can help you fish out he LMB, just let me know. smile Light tackle can travel. smile


Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.


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Hello to all. New here. Been reading for a couple years now, but I'm now getting closer to a pond build myself so I thought I'd actually register and start researching a little more.

As I read this thread, there were a lot of thoughts that crossed my mind as to how the LMB got there.

1. Birds was my first thought. Up here in the land of 10,000 lakes there are a lot of isolated lakes, and unless they freeze out regularly, they all have fish in them. Even little 2-4 acre ponds in the middle of nowhere. Some relatives have a pond that is only a few feet deep and it freezes out every few years. A few years later there are always fish. But, they don't start as sizable fish, so when that 3lber was found, that discounted that possibility.

2. Flow from another body of water. Very possible, but the owner would know if that was probably or not.

3. The stocked fish. Possible up until the point were they were discovered to be very large.

4. Bucket. Possible but the owner said its not likely being home often and having dogs.

Like most, I'm going to go with the bucket, and a plausible scenario.... only because I was a young man once upon a time and I enjoyed a few beers from time to time.


Step 1: Bob and Tom pick up a case or two of beer
Step 2: Bob and Tom proceed to drink 75% of a case.
Step 3: Evening rolls around and B&T, while pondering the joys of life, decide that life would be better with their owning fishing hole. (and they have an idea of the perfect place) They can stock it at night, then wait a couple years, then go back and fish it at night.
Step 4: Bob's pickup transports them to the local lake with a bucket and 2 poles, along with more beer.
Step 5: Catch a few fish and place in bucket, drink some beer.
Step 6: Go back to OMC's pond and park a block down the road.
Step 7: Sneak in under the cover of darkness, dump the bucket in the pond and run like the wind. Hope dogs are either inside or cant hear them.
Step 8: Drink another beer at the truck.
Step 9: Drive poorly back home and bask the glory of their twilight mission. Have another beer.
Step 10: Pass out. Next morning remembering their actions, but not remembering where the pond was. Or - remembering where the pond was, but knowing that it was a bad idea and not worth ever going back to.

And then there were bass...

As far as fixing it, no idea there. I'm a newbie on ponds, but well experienced in midnight missions.

Best of luck.

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Lightning
Welcome to the jungle it's a blast!



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Lightning,

I think you are on to something.

OMC,

Do you know two guys named Bob and Tom.....?


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Lightning,
I believe I know some ole boys like that!!! Welcome to Pond Boss...
Charlie

Last edited by stickem'; 12/22/14 07:52 PM.

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I'm so glad that this thread finally made you want to post after all these years!!!

Your recount of the potential history of OMC's pond rings true on many levels.

There was almost a similar late night event at Pond Boss I with the target being the hotel's pond & fountain system.


Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."

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Well because of the weather and just being busy, I had not fished the pond since December. During December I removed between 300 and 350 pounds of fish.

I decided to get back at it this weekend, knowing that the fish are either spawning or about to. I really don't think they have because we have had a good bit of ice and snow over the last couple of weeks and the water temp has been in the 40s until recently.

Over three outings, about two hours each I caught 23. All fish were considerably healther looking, a few actually looked like footballs, so I am confident that I have at least improved things somewhat. Many of the fish were also full of eggs.

There are many fish up really shallow, two feet or less, no doubt getting ready to spawn, but I am going to fix that tonight. My son had the bright idea to slow them down I just need to drop the water level about two feet. That will buy me a few more days. Then I may drop it a couple more feet a few days later.

My plan now is to remove as many more bass as I can over the next week or so and add a good bit more forage. Then add what I know to be full strain Florida large mouth, either fingerlings or full grown.

If I can come up with some adult Florida's, I was thinking of dumping in a thousand or so pounds of crawfish, to help keep them off of my other forage. What does everyone think about that?

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If you drop the water level pay attention to see if the fish bite equally well after the draw down. Come back here are give your results. When I drew down my pond catching fish was not as easy as it was when the pond was full.


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I like the idea of messing with the LMB spawn as a control measure.

I wonder if others have any experience in doing so.

Seems like the culling has been having an effect.

How much does the 1,000 lbs of crayfish cost?


Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."

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Originally Posted By: Sunil


How much does the 1,000 lbs of crayfish cost?


I have not shopped hard, but I know that I can get them for under $1 a pound.

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Originally Posted By: Bill Cody
If you drop the water level pay attention to see if the fish bite equally well after the draw down. Come back here are give your results. When I drew down my pond catching fish was not as easy as it was when the pond was full.


I'll report back. I expect the same thing. I don't have any experience with fishing ponds after the water drops, but I have a great deal of experience fishing lakes under those circumstances and the bite is almost always more difficult.

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The fish on the left is a sample of what they look like now, the fish on the right is what they looked like in December.

It's amazing what thinning them out can do.





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that is amazing!


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OneMoreCast,
I'm surprised you can get crawfish that cheap... they are $3+/lb in south La.


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Originally Posted By: djstauder
OneMoreCast,
I'm surprised you can get crawfish that cheap... they are $3+/lb in south La.


That's strange. You can buy live crawfish one pound at a time from caterers for $1.50 per pound and you can get them boiled for $3.50.

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That is a huge difference in fish condition!!

Congratulations!!!

Regarding the price of crawfish, I'm not sure what long term benefit you might get from putting 1,000 lbs. in, but if the money is not really a concern, then I don't think it hurts anything.

You do need to be aware of one type of craw (rusticus .....or something like that) that could have negative effects on existing craw populations.


Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
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Thanks. I am not real sure what effects it will have either.
My thinking is that if I put 1000lbs of crawfish in right before or when I put in my new bream, it may give my new bream population a better chance.

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I just thought that I would update this.

I did have the bass in my pond DNA tested and they were all 100% native.

In late spring of 2015 I had more CNBG and FHM added to my pond. At about the same time, I dropped in 1000lbs of crawfish thinking this would keep the bass off of my CNBG and FHM.

During the summer I also had an unbelievable amount of bullfrog tadpoles in my pond. So many that you couldn't throw a moving bait with out hooking one every other cast. I did not put these in there, but I think they had a lot to do with my CNBG doing so well.

Then in spring of 2016 I had Greg Grimes do a survey of my pond and he said that of the 5000 plus ponds he had surveyed, mine had the highest population of bluegill he had ever seen.

During this time they only shocked up about 10 LMB and the average WR was about 115%.

In the fall of 2016 I added 42 Adult Pure Florida LMB averaging about 1lb each with a WR of about 100%. I also tagged all of these fish and recorded their weights.

Bass were very difficult to catch this winter, but I did catch a few.
Now that the water is warming and I have taken a little more time to fish, I am catching them a little better, I caught five Saturday in about four hours of hard fishing.

None of these fish were tagged, so I am assuming that there were all the original native fish.
They weighed 4.4lb, 4.4lb, 4.3lbs, 4.2lbs and 5.4lbs.

The average WR for these fish was about 115% with the 5.4lb being 120%.

I am tagging and recording every fish that I catch.

It's interesting that the Pure Florida bass do indeed seem to be much more difficult to catch.

I have three feeders feeding Aquamax HEAVILY. I did slow down the feeding during the winter, but I never stopped it.

All last spring and summer I averaged feeding about 300-400 pounds per week and I believe that the fish would have easily eaten ten times that amount. They can eat it almost as fast as the feeders can throw it.

In retrospect, I am very happy with how my pond has turned out so far and I'm actually glad that the native bass are in there.

Now I will eventually have some F1's, if my CNBG don't eat all of the fry. Meanwhile I have a decent number of 4-5lb native bass that I can actually catch and hopefully they will be 6 plus pounds this time next year.

Thanks for all of the help.

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So how did the bass get in there, what was the answer to the mystery stocking event?

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Originally Posted By: canyoncreek
So how did the bass get in there, what was the answer to the mystery stocking event?


No idea

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you remove the ones from the electro survey and any untagged fish or are you leaving them to breed with the FL BASS you added?

Last edited by BobbyRice; 02/13/17 05:31 PM.

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Just curious, but what is the reason for supplemental (heavily) feeding when you're so BG/forage heavy?

Great story and glad to see you're happy with how it's turning out. Congrats!


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(a short video tribute to the PB members we met on our 5 week fishing adventure)

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