Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond Fail....Disgusted

This may end up being long, and I apologize for that. It may not be in perfect chronological order (I will explain why shortly), but I will be fairly close. So with that said, here goes....

We had a 1.5 acre pond dug back in 2014. When full, our deepest areas are around 10ft with an avergae depth of about 5ft across the whole lake.
In Jan. of 2015, we stocked 4000 Fatheads, and 3000 Bluegill (90% Coppernose, 10% Shellcracker). I started fertilizing and pellet feeding immediately after the water hit 60F.
In May of 2015, I started noticing hatchlings of bream along the banks of the lake.
At the end of June 2015, I stocked 200 Northern LMB.
In Dec. of 2015, I started throwing rooster tails and caught a few bass ( I recorded catches of 10oz, 5oz, 8oz....with those lengths being 10in, 8.75in, 9in....not exactly what you would be expecting after 6 months in a loaded lake).
In the Spring of 2016, I managed to catch numerous fish "around" the 1 lbs. mark, but nothing more.
In May of 2016, I stocked 50 lbs. of Tilapia to aid in algae control, provide supplemental forage, and give us a snack come winter! I immediately started seeing hatchlings from the tilapia.
In Sept. of 2016 I caught a LMB 13" at 1lb 5oz (still low on RW). That fish was the biggest to date. I didnt feel like it was doing good, so I contacted my fish hatchery and they told me to start removing all of these 8-10 inch fish I had been catching. My original stock from the prior year should have been much bigger.
I have been wearing out fish and tossing them.
Fast forward to today...They came and shocked the lake. What we found was nauseating at the very least. We didn't find a single original stock bass (should have been in the 15"+ range and 2lbs. plus.) We also didn't see a lot of bream...especially smaller, edible bream. He was as baffled as me. Water tested good at 39ppm when checking alkalinity.
I am open to any and all opinions of why none of my brood stock bass are there and what could have caused such a decline in my original bream stock prior to my bass feeding on them (remember,I never caught a fish about 100% RW since pond inception).....Ready...Go!

Welcome to Pond Boss, and sorry to hear things aren't going as you hoped.

How big were the LMB when you stocked them?

fingerlings

Is the pond in your yard?
Did you see fish feeding?
Was the pond filled with groundwater or rainwater?
Did you check water parameters before you stocked?

possible predator? otter?

Pond is in yard, but we didnt finish building our house until Nov. 2015. We have friends that live right here though.

Yes, I have seen fish feeding.

Rainwater

Water was checked prior to stocking.

This is the hatcheries only explanation....but they aren't sold on it since no sign was ever seen....droppings, fish remains, slides, tracks, etc.

you and i are within a month of each stocking. i stocked 2500 cnbg and 2500 fatheads in february 2015. i stocked 150 f1 bass in may 2015. my bluegill average 9.5" and the bass average 15". i have some bass that take pellets that look twice the size of my other bass.

Yea...I definitely have a problem. It was astonishing at the lack of fish that were in the lake. My hatchery guy told me he shocked a lake Monday that was on the same time frame as me, and those fish averaged 3 lbs. with the biggest shocked up at over 4.

where in alabama are you located?

Southside in Etowah County.

When laid out on a timeline you can tell that the problem occurred very early, as I never caught bass at relative weight or better. This leads me to think that there was never a good effective spawn, and the bass eliminated what was there, leaving me very few bream to maintain the aggressive bass population.

The only question left with that scenario is where are the 19 month old bass? 13" is about the max that we have seen, which would equate to fish from 2016's spawn.

You stocked Northern LMB. Do they thrive or just survive in a southern pond?

They do great normally.

Electroshocking doesn't bring up every fish, nor does every shocked fish float. Some sink.

I doubt you lost all 200 LMB, but do agree you should have seen more during the shocking.

Also, I don't think that 10" fish from fingerlings in 6 months is unreasonable, and 1 lb or 13" at a year old is not unrealistic.

If you were harvesting those 10" LMB, I think you were taking out your original stockers.

My thought exactly

Not sure that is the case. Remember, these fish are almost 2 years old now....NO WAY they should only be 10". Even back when under 10" fish were being harvested last year, they were 18 months old. Those fish should have been pushing 14" to 15". Again, a lake just down the road, double stocked like mine at the exact same time is averaging 3 lbs. fish. Biggest fish out of my lake has been 1lbs. 5oz. Something went terribly wrong.

In Sept. '16, your LMB are about 15 months in-pond, right?

So, from fingerlings to maybe 13" in 15 months?

If the 10 inch LMB were not original stockers then are you saying the original fingerlings grew large enough to spawn and that their spawn grew to 10 inches?

Thats correct.

The more surprising information we got from the shocking today was the lack of small bluegill. 2" and lower are literally non-existent.

Yes. I had a pretty decent bass spawn in 2016. I culled as many of them as I could when they got big enough to bite, but couldnt get them all. Those fish would have been some of the "under 10's" I started culling in the fall of last year.

It seems like Scott69's results are somewhat similar to yours.

I'm really unsure if you had a LMB spawn or not. Many say that bass can spawn very early especially when at low quantities in a larger body of water.

What size were the 3,000 bluegill when you stocked them?

That is some of my catch data put in to an excel graph I utilize. You can see things never got off on the right foot.

I know without a doubt a I had a spawn in 2016, as I saw the fingerlings swimming the banks. The 3000 bluegill were 1-3". Remember, those were stocked in Jan of 2015, 6 months prior to the fingerling bass.

Interesting problem.

Offering up some numbers but I'm not a pro...

My understanding...

Recommended stocking of LMB is 50 to 100 per acre so for a 1.5 acre that is 150 so you were a little high at 200.

Recommended stocking of BG to LMB is 30:1. If that is correct, BG stocked would be 6000 for 200 LMB.

If those numbers are correct, your LMB may not have enough forage and will be under performing. I would expect to see a shortage of small BG.