Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations So how long is long enough to prove stability?

An update on my BCP experiment....

I'm on year 9 of my 6+ acre pond with LMB, BCP, BG, RES and HSB and as of yesterday everything is still working as planned. My plan was to have a pond that could consistently produce good numbers of large BCP.

I consistently catch BCP in the 10-14" range, with RWE always 85% to 100%. I have never caught a stunted fish. I do catch smaller BCP occasionally, which get thrown back. But this is the exception, not the rule.

We're averaging 350 or so BCP removed per year, and have done so for 5 years. So far in 2016 we're at 206 removed and cleaned. I expect to be right in the 350-400 range again this year.

I'm not an expert by any means but what I've tried to do is take very few BG out as I feel this is my bread and butter food supply - what this has done is create a very good breeder population of BG - this time of year they're all the way around the pond edges spawning.

I also manage for a glut of LMB in the 4+ lb range, which I feel controls the small BCP population. I do tend to remove a good amount of 1-2.5 lb LMB just to try to keep a decent ratio. I added the HSB in the hopes that the open water areas would also have decent predation. I don't know if this is working or not....

thoughts?

Intriguing.

What are the RWs on the LMB and BG?

Dale,

Sounds like you've got things figured out for your pond. I imagine when people say crappie are not a good pond fish it is because most ponds aren't managed and will get out of balance without harvest.

RW on the BG are outstanding...I haven't been checking the weight consistently but I'd put them up against some of the pigs commonly posted on this site. averaging over 85% certainly, and I've caught some that would have to come close to 100%.

RW on the LMB is varying....on the 4LB and larger it's very good to excellent. I do catch some that are lower in the smaller size class - hence the removal.

I'm banking on a combination of attention to detail and harvest being the combination that's keeping everything chugging right along.

No one fishes the pond without my permission and everyone is required to provide details on fish caught. And the only fish that other people take out are BCP.

Given that I built the pond to provide both fun and food, having to catch hundreds of crappie a year is anything but a burden.

Chart all species RW and compare. If one starts going down then change mgt approach to fix. Have you done seine and/or shock survey ? What you are missing from a mgt stradegy is what is going on with hatch/yoy/small fish- yrs 0-2 . If you can also watch that you will have a head start on possible pending problems . The big problem with crappie is when you have a giant spawn . They happen and are next to impossible to predict or manage .

+1 It seems the more I read about BCP in smaller BOWs.... the success stories are those puddles actively harvested/managed and the disaster scenarios are those not managed aggressively. Makes me wonder if there are TWO slot size ponds where BCP are successful. Slot one is where the pond is small enough to manage by angling. Slot two is BOWs large enough for nature to manage the BCP. Is it the "in between" BOWs that are unmanageable?

No seine or shock survey done, and none planned. I keep an eye on my shallows - that combined with analysis of stomach contents fairly regularly would be how I check the YOY and up fish population.

Again, with a basically free range BG population, thus far having forage hasn't been a problem. Right about now I can make a lap around the pond and count literally hundreds of BG on beds.

Dale,

This is one of those fun threads to read. Ultimately, if you manage correctly, you can do almost anything and make it work.

I love thinking outside of the box.

Nice work.

A few notes from recent threads.

IMO the reason crappie don't work in ponds is not forage related but is rather because of their spawning traits. With the potential of over one hundred thousand crappie yoy per pair of spawning adults I am not sure one can keep enough forage of the right size supplied.

For example one factor may be that many of the yoy crappie die due to starvation because other species eat all the right size plankton/inverts etc leaving none/little for the yoy crappie while in a pre piscivore stage.

Crappie spawn first which is a problem due to the competition advantage their yoy have over other species yoy.

Crappie - Spawning occurs from about 59 degrees Fahrenheit to 68 degrees Fahrenheit ( 15-20 C )

BG - Bluegill start spawn¬ing in late spring at around70 F (21 C) and spawn periodically until early fall, providing a plenti¬ful supply of small forage. In small, east Texas reservoirs, female bluegill spawned an average of five times over the season.

RES - Reported spawning temperatures for redear sunfish vary widely, with several pub¬lications indicating that redear start spawning at slightly cooler tempera¬tures than bluegill (68 to 70 F; 20 to 21 C), while other literature indicates the opposite.

LMB - after the water temperature
has stabilized above 60 F.
Bass normally spawn at temperatures
of 65 to 75F

Tilapia - spawning normally occurs at temperatures greater than 22° C (72° F). Tilapias are mouth-brooders; the female picks up fertilized eggs and incubates them in her mouth. The number of eggs that can be reared (typically 300 to 1,200 per clutch) is limited by the size of the female’s mouth. Thus, although they spawn frequently, relatively few offspring are produced at one time.

TFS - Threadfin shad spawn starting at 67 to 70 F (19 to 21 ºC) and broadcast adhesive eggs over vegetation and woody debris. Prolific spawners, shad mature in less than 1 year and produce large quantities of eggs. The length of the spawning season is vari¬able and spawning can occur over a broad temperature range.

GS - Golden shiners spawn in the spring when water temperatures rise above 68 F (20 C). They quit spawning when temperatures exceed 81 F (27 C). Once spawning
begins, fish will continue to spawn even when temperatures drop below 68 F. Golden shiners spawn frequently, attaching their adhesive eggs to aquatic vegetation or spawning mats.

FH - Water temperatures higher than 64 F (18 C) trigger spawning. Females spawn at frequent intervals, up to several times a week. Once the water warms to 84 F (29 C) or higher, spawning
stops.

Just checked crappie spawn in brush , roots or plants in depths of 20 cm to 6 meters.

Crappie have a history of spawning in waters with large depth fluctuations . Unless water depth is changing rapidly then fluctuation should not matter in most ponds.