Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help No Fish OR feeding activity since Katrina

Hi All

I have a half acre pond in Carriere.

Since the huricanne, I have not had any activity what so ever in my pond except for some minnows.

I had four trees fall into the pond and removed them about 3 weeks later.

My feeder goes off and I get no response from any type of fish (Channel Cats and Bluegill) I don't even hear the bass smacking against the shoreline anymore.

The water has a black hue and about 12" of clarity

Anybody have a clue?

Thanks

1) What kind of trees were they?

2) How much overflow do you think you got? It's doubtful to me that they all washed out, but maybe that's a possibility?

Theo,
They were oak and pine trees

We got maybe 4 inches of rain and my outfall pipe is 10". Banks have never overflowed

We have had rains with plenty more than this and I have not noticed a differance with fish activity

Thanks for the fast response

I wondered if there could be any toxicity from the trees - someone will have a good idea now that you have ID'd them.

My personal bet is plain and simple traumatized fish - big weather change = big change in behavior with a long time before they settle down to normal. It will be interesting to see what experienced hands from the hurricane belt think.

Have to disagree with Theo's trama theory. I had 18 hours of near hurricane force winds with top winds of 120mph...winds which blew my feeder over into the pond....and it was chained down. One day after feeder recovery and repair and fish were feeding. Today (10 days after Rita), they are extremely aggressive, jumping out of the water to get the feed. No, trama isn't the reason, I don't believe.

The black water and 12 inches of visibility is the clue, I believe. The oaks may have contributed, but you may have some other contributor. Is there any way a toxic material may have washed into the pond? Is there anything in your drainage area that may have caused this?

The trama theory had an effect on my chickens, I have 7 chickens and two ducks. They each would lay 1 egg a day (9 eggs total per day) now I get maybe two eggs a day. (they are penned up). The black hue was there several weeks before katrina, and fish were present and aggressive.
I used to see hundreds of small bluegill hanging under the dock at all times. I went down last night with a qbeam and saw nothing but a few minnows and a small turtle. I do not see any signs of death nor any odors of decaying fish

ML said: Maybe those Texas fish just don't scare easy!

I have no serious weather effect on fish experience past thunderstorms; I knew you or someone else could easily yeah/nay that trauma thought.

Sounds like water quality/ph testing might be in order, just to rule some possibilities out. I don't think it's a sure thing to have much sign of dead fish, even if there were a large number. How long after Katrina was it until you were able to observe the pond - fairly short time?

AMC, look on the Miss. fishing forum. It states that there were fish kills on Pascagoula river basin and several lakes and ponds in S Miss. after Katrina. It is attributed to much debris washing into them, also causing upturn of organic sediments, which increased microbal activity which used up all the O2. My guess is extreme stress from low O2. Better get some sort of aeration going.

AMC:

On the Rita Fishkill thread today, Meadowlark raised the possibility of turnover induced by the storm causing the fishkill. Could you have been susceptible to that?

No signs of a kill...I have two diffusers running.

I was out of power for almost a month though..

I live on site and observed it every day

AMC, have you tried fishing at all?

I believe you mentioned that you were not seeing any fish at the feeders, and I wondered if anything could be caught by hook or lure, or fish trap for that matter.

Have not tried to fish it...will do some this weekend
I will also buy a castnet and try that

I visited my pond in Tyler county, TX (East Texas) last weekend and notice the lack of feeding activity as well. I don't have any feeders but normally throw out about a gallon of floating feed and for the first time saw very little activity so I am thinking the storm did affect the fish somehow.

The hurricane effected my fish for about a week and they are now about normal. We just got back on line about 3 days ago.

Low oxygen or poor water quality can make fish go off feed without killing them. If you can look at your pond at daybreak you might see them at the top gasping for air.
Side note slightly related: I have a small bass in an aquarium on feed that one day was sitting on bottom and wouldn't eat. Next day coming to top to look at food and today acting hungry but not eating. The water is pretty clean. I guess fish get sick sometimes too. Maybe your's will recover.

Still no activity at all what so ever.
The minnows are increasing by the thousands though.

I fished for about two hours with live crickets and worms. I did not get a nibble

I got a cast net and threw it about 35 times...No fish

I guess its time to restock

2 yrs wasted

I think I will just do cats this time

What do you all think about just cats?

Thanks

AMC,

Have you been able to determine what caused the fish to disappear? Is the water still black color as it was reported after the storm?

Seems like you need to find out what happened to the fish first before restocking. Must be frustrating. Hang in there, it will get better!

Water is back to a normal green hue. still about 18" of clear water..

I would think there would be signs if I had a total kill (ie Floating fish-Bad smell or some carcasses left on the banks from the birds and varmint)

I don't know about that...we have a great clean-up crew in East Texas called racoons....they can consume amazing amounts of fish in short order...and call all their friends over on the cell phone.

Wih all those minnows you have you should be able to get back to your bass/Bg pond pretty quick..I wouldn't give up, unless you just prefer cats.

Meadowlark..Thank You for your input..

I just think that cats are a whole lot easier to catch than bass.. What about a bluegill/cat pond with no bass?

Will the cats keep the bluegill in check?

Channel cats? No.

Bluecats? Maybe. There are some Bluecatters here with lots of experience who should have a good idea.

Flatheads? Heck, from their reputation, they can keep everything in check, with extreme prejuduce.

I personally don't think that cats will keep bluegill in check because I have seen ponds where they don't even keep green sunfish in check. A small pond you could probably help a whole lot by trapping and fishing.

AMC :

Sorry about your fish. When stocked at normal rates catfish will most likely not do an adquate job of controlling BG numbers. You do have some options. You could stock BG at lower rates and with feeding get good growth rates on both BG and cats. If BG #'s start to get to big you could add a few female only LMB to help control the #s. Another option is to use hybrid BG with cats ( this is one niche situation where HBG can work). However after a time you will have to add more HBG and cats to offset those taken out as well as natural mortality. You could also use male only BG and cats with just as good results. You could also try cats and RE (redears) which don't reproduce in as high of #s as BG. None of this addresses how many fish you intend to take out which is another factor to account for.

If you can tell us what you would like (pond goals) there are a lot of people on the forum who can help. ewest

AMC,

It's your pond and if you want cats, go for it! They should pretty much keep the BG in check. In fact, the State of Texas recommends a CC/BG combo for your size pond.

If you want to try something different...and have a fish that's great eating, won't overpopulate, and is a great sport fish, you might consider HSB. I haven't tried them in that size pond, but if you also feed them, I'd expect them to do just fine...but again if you want cats, then by all means, get them.