Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Minnows?

https://youtu.be/gKi1oFZQdG0

I took this video this afternoon. Is this normal to have this many minnows around the shore line? Camera on the cell phone was having a hard time focusing on the pile.

You can see some of the emerald shiners flashing. They tend to stay just a bit deeper then the common shiners.

Cheers Don.

FWIW when my minnows form balls like that in shallow water, I can see predators in slightly deeper water that have herded them together.

Yes Bill that is what was going on. The feeder was about 40 minutes from going off so the perch were sitting there ready. Every once in a while they would shoot in to get a minnow and all the minnows would jump some right out of the water onto shore.

The shiners have had a good year this year for young.

That amount of minnows is common in ponds where the sport fish are fed pellets and there are no 'serious' predators except yellow perch. In your case it also helps to have mainly predator avoiding shiners that reproduce well as the main forage fish. Your predation pressure minimal on the shiners because you so far only have pellet eating perch. Your abundant crayfish population with appropriate crayfish habitat also helps reduce predation of your shiners.

I am guessing because of the pellets being fed having a very large population of minnows is not effecting the growth rates of the perch ie. the extra bio mass or carrying capacity of the pond.

I expect in time then the young hatched in the pond perch will tend to take to the minnows more then the pellets then put more pressure on the minnows.

My biggest worry is young perch. I am not able to trap them yet. Wondering if there is something I am missing. We do catch some in the spring 5-6" but don't see or catch any small little minnow like perch.

I will try what Cecil mentioned to try at night with a light bulb near the shore line. It will attract the young perch. For some reason I thought by the 4th year we would be over populated with young perch. In our case just not seeing them yet or its still early.

your shiners could be hammering the newly hatched fry?

Bingo!!! Last spring I was able to catch thousands of adult emerald shinners, probably 10000. I put them in my 1/2 acre pond with perch walleye and bluegill. I had the minnow trap out all summer and barly caught any yoy bluegill. This year I missed the shinners coming into the creeks and my traps are full every day with yoy bluegill.

Dono - I think the high numbers of 2 species of shiners some of them larger (4"-6") they are eating lot of perch fry soon after they hatch and start swimming around in open water.

Time to get some WE or SMB Dono?

I wondered if the larger shiners would do that. We are catching common shiners in the 5-6" range and emerald shiners in the 4-5" range. I expect these are adults. The emerald shiners young we are catching are in the 2-3" range but don't seam to see them smaller than that at all. The common shiners we will see from just about clear to 3" all over the pond. I think the smaller emeralds are really hard to see and can swim from the trap.


I will do my best to find some walleye. Any good suppliers that I can get some from? I have tried here in Ontario and it is very difficult when the Ontario government takes every thing that is produced for stocking Ontario lakes.

Cheers Don.

Donno I got mine near Peterborough but that is a long way from you, its actually 3 hours from me but I did the drive with a cooler and aerator. Are you saying your emeralds are reproducing? Mine don't and I was told that they don't in ponds.

Yes our emerald shiners are reproducing confirmed for the last two years. Bill Cody thinks it is only because of our waterfall. In the spring we run the waterfall in the day time to help warm the water up faster. After the water is up to 55-65 I run it at night. At night is when the emerald shiners do their bait ball mating.

After the water comes in over the waterfall in the water on the bank down to the bottom of the pond I run rubber then placed beach stone on top of the rubber. I didn't want the current of the water coming in washing out the under side clay of the waterfall. I guess the eggs when they spawn fall into the beach stone and the water flow hatches them out for us. I think the common shiners do this as well.

I am fine with making a run to Peterborough. I am building stairs for a building in Bowmanville.

Speaking today with many Ontario fish farms who on their web sites state they offer walleye. The MNR for Ontario are stocking public water ways with only 2" fry. Dumping in millions and millions. The hatchery's are giving the MNR first priority because of numbers and cash flow with huge numbers to one buyer.

The problem the fish farmers are having is that 99% of these 2" walleye are basically being fed to the small mouth bass population that existed in these lakes and rivers the MNR is stocking with them. The fish farms say they need to be raised two more years before the MNR should be releasing them into the wild. They should be 8-10" but the hatchery up here don't care if they are make sales.

The local fish farms are going to push hard this fall to the government to allow smaller fish farms to get first dibs on 2" fry.