Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help rmedgar needs our help!

rmedgar has provided us with a picture of his pond and would like a little imput on some fathead production/forage ideas that he has.

Here's the photo:



He will now magically appear and give us a little information on what he's like to try to accomplish!

Thanks Bruce, Ok, here's my situation: I want to raise fatheads in my lake w/o a cage. My thoughts are that I can run a screen from the "finger" (jutting out into the pond) to the bank and trap them in there to spawn and grow a little without the bass getting to them. Were the screen meets the bottom, I can fold back in a "U" and drop in rocks from my creek and get a pretty tight fit with the bottom of the pond. Tke bottom is flat and about 4' deep. Where the screen meets the bank is going to be a problem. I plan to do this in Feb-Mar. Please offer any suggestions or advise.

So you're trying to create a nursery, correct? How long is that finger?

rmedgar :

I use a blocking net to block off a small cove to growout and spawn BG. Next spring I may add FH to the mix. I have had good results. I use pallets on the pond bottom with rocks on top of them. That way the adults can spawn on the rocks and the fry can hide under the pallets. I looked at using 1/4 in. rigid plastic neting (like cages are made of) as it comes in rolls. You can make a fence out of it and stake it to the pond bottom. The blocking net was easier to order and more flexible so that is what I bought. I put it in and take it out as needed. I feed behind the net and have added small brush to grow algae and provide more hiding places. You can order custom size nets (length & highth and mesh size.) However the place where I got them is on the Miss. coast and is probably no longer open. Hope this helps.

Bruce, the finger is 30' long. I don't know how large the fatheads get - that's why I suggested a small window-like screen, but I think ewest suggested plastic and I believe that would work better. Aren't fatheads the fish that someone mentioned would spawm under boards or in cups etc. Any info on spawning etc would be appreciated.

Fatheads will spawn on pieces of styrofoam cup that float by. If you have any kind of structure or enclosure to keep the adults from getting out and the predators from getting in, then I would assume the adults would spawn and the fathead fry would escape through the mesh, eat a bunch of detritus, and turn into lunch. Sounds like a good idea to me. There was an article in last Pond Boss about committing entire ponds to forage reproduction I believe...and I don't think it was too encouraging. I really liked ewest's experience/suggestions.

The largest fatheads I have seen were about 2 1/2 inches long. The BG would eat the FH fry, but that should be OK.

It sounds like an interesting project but I'm not sure it would really pay off. I doubt that you could get a small enough screen to really block them. I feel that if you can raise bluegill, you should have a good forage base. They are probably as prolific as fatheads. That said, I'd probably try it. However, no matter what you do, I doubt that you could get all of the predators out of the area before you place the screen.

I like the idea of a separate forage pond. I've done that and it worked great. Too well, as a matter of fact. Lots of work trying to stay ahead of BG and FH spawning.

rmedgar :

To be clear I looked at but did not use the rigid plastic fencing. I used a blocking net that is made of 1/4 in nylon mesh. It looks like a big seine net (6ft. deep by 50ft long) with lead weights on the bottom and floats on top. I drove small poles (2in.x2in.) in the pond bottom opposing each other 4 ft. apart and every 8ft. across the cove. I did this for support and so I could tie the net up 6 in. or so above the water. Below are 3 links which may help but they are for southern climes but should work with adjustment.

Bait fish production
http://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm?catid=2

Forage fish types and biology
http://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm?catid=4

Complete listing of fact sheets
http://srac.tamu.edu/fulllist.cfm

I have noted before that these are the single best source to start for pond mgt. info covering the entire range from pond site selection to hatchery management to production and sales . Also Dave Willis has a good paper on raising FH in northern waters .

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll go with the 1/4" mesh and BG. The easiest way would probably be to run the mesh from the tip of the finger to some point on the bank (triangle) rather than try to make a square or rectangle. Now I've just got to remember how Bruce said to ID the boy & girl BGs.......