Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Managing 8 acre pond for trophy bass

hello. it's been a while since I've been on here. I have a pond in mid Missouri that I'm lucky enough to have on my family's property. It was built in 2001. Typically I take one trip per year up there where we fish it hard for 4 days or so and remove anywhere from 200 to 250 pounds of bass. four or fiver years ago we started this venture. Back then we were catching a 5 or 6 every so often but then mostly all were around 1 lb 8 ounces. Last year I had one on the line that was probably 6 or more. we caught more 2 pounders than we ever have, probably 25 or more and a couple over 3. I can see that we are making progress.

My question is should be removing any bluegill? It seems like if we fish for them they are all huge, hand size or bigger.

I installed several PVC fish hotels last year. when you fish around them they are loaded with small minnows, mostly look like bass.

as far as the catfish go from what I can tell the only ones in there are from the original stocking and are all 6 pounds or larger. I know we need to get those out of there as they are eating some of what the bass could be eating.

Pond appears to be healthy and has a good variety of vegetation and cover.

No one else fishes the pond. This year I have more people coming on the annual bassination trip to exterminate more small bass. We are looking at only removing males this season if possible that are under 1lb 14ounces. that has been our cutoff the last few years.

I do think we are making an impact as you can see more of a variation in sizes of fish caught. Would it be over doing it to remove 300 or even 400 pounds of fish? 400 would be 50 pounds an acre. But the pond fluctuates as it is a watershed that can get up to 15 acres. From what I can tell the more removed the better, it seems there are 1000s in there!

So should be remove any BG's?
Total pounds to remove in your mind?
Take out as many catfish as possible?

Thanks in advance!!

Wow that's awesome Andrew! I am not gonna tackle this one! Except to say I don't think it would hurt to take out some BG of certain size. Here is what I been told when it comes to my BG.

If you have BG anywhere from small to 11 inches I was told to harvest the ones between 6 and 8. Keep the bigger ones for breeding and just for plain old fun to catch. I would say if you caught one about close to 11 to 12 inches it would be getting close to end of life too. Specially if you don't feed. I would keep it as well. Throw back the 8.5 to 10.5 inchers to breed, breed, breed for those bass.

I would do some RW charting to see where you stand on your LMB. You say your are catching a LOT of 2 pounders well get a RW chart a small scale, and a measuring tape and see where they stand? Are they suppose to be 2 pounds or 2.7 pounds? If they are less then 90 percent RW keep them. I would say if they are 91 plus RW maybe let them go.

Lets see what others have to say I am no expert by any means.

It sounds like a great time though have fun no matter what you do!!

RC

RC51 thanks for the reply. I don't know what RW charting is? We use a digital scale primarily. It seems like we are catching them so fast and having such a good time we don't do a whole lot of extensive measuring and what not. So what you are saying is make sure the fish are weighing what they should for the length they are?

The ones that we are catching a lot of are in the 1lb 8oz- 1lb 12 ounce range.

I was encouraged at Easter I went up there for a visit and the wife and I caught 28 in 2.5 hours. 5 over 2 lbs, biggest was 2-14oz. took out all the rest.

So tell me more about RW charting

Hello neighbor,

Try this http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=160456#Post160456

In short, you need weights AND lengths on each fish so that you can tell how good their body condition is. Additionally, this will tell us the numbers of fish in each size class, which is another piece of data we will we need to help you set slot limits for your fishery.

Depending on those numbers you may need to remove 20 - 50 pounds of LMB per acre, per year.

If you click this link (http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=352118#Post352118) you can see some data from my efforts to increase the average size of the LMB in our farm pond in Boone County, MO.

Bocomo- funny how you are right nearby and you find my post. My pond is over in Howard county near Fayette.

I enjoyed reading your text and looking at all your graphs and data. We have a 2 acre pond as well that was mainly catfish but also had bass and bluegill. years ago when we fished it all the time before we had the 8 acre pond it was a nice little pond that had some good fish. over the years the catfish kind of took over and all the fish stunted unfortunately. I just don't have time to work on both and I like the 8 acre one better as it wasn't as out of control.

That's cool that your brother caught that 4 pounder there. hopefully he's 5 by now!

I don't know that I have the time or resources to make the extensive graphs and record keeping that you have.

I guess all in all regardless of size and RW it seems it's best for us to just keep taking out as many as we can. I think you are making a dent in it for sure as am I.

I greatly appreciate your input sir. good luck this season.

Hey Neighbor!

Don't get discouraged! You don't need fancy charts...just weights and lengths. Post a list of those for your next 25 LMB that you catch and I'll do the rest. A little data goes a long way.

I would greatly appreciate your help on it. I should have some figures after my bassination trip next month. problem is that the figures will be from fish that are taken out already as I mainly fish out of a tube and can't hardly take the time when they are biting well to sit and document things. But out of the ones that come out I can maybe do some measuring and documenting. Thanks for offering to help! I just figure that regardless of the fish that are taken out anything helps. I like the idea of knowing more about it and taking steps to take out the right fish and return the right fish but in the end I think anything coming out helps anything that stays in. We are trying to focus more on removing more small ones this season and not all 1 1/2 pound fish. But again, if I can take one out that's under 2 pounds he's coming out. Like I said above we are trying to return females this year if we can tell by their vent. I also read a lot about how the females are the ones that talk back. so if they are talking they should go back in.

Thanks again bocomo!

Females Talk back? hehehe You just have to train them not to lol

Tracy