Hello Everyone, I am very excited to join. I have read the site for years and I finally purchased 9.5 acres with a .86 acre pond. It took me years to find a property that had a decent pond. Everything I looked at had silt problems, property line issues, or something else. This pond is nice but the banks are steep. It is about 16-18 feet deep and is 14 years old. It has channel cat, bluegill, shad, and shell crackers. Not to happy about the shad. I figure someone dumped a bait bucket. The catfish are spawning because I saw some small ones. Fish are pretty much stunted. Can I add some bass to straighten it out?
Welcome to joining PondBoss and posting on the forum Donspond123. Congratulations on finding your property! I might suggest you patiently observe your pond for a period of time-some months or even a year or more. You want to know what you have first, before you can accurately make changes that take you towards your goals. As you know from your reading here, once you add LMB, you're stuck with them. When you mention shad, are you referring to threadfins, or gizzards? Figure out and share your goals with us. Spend time sampling your fish population with various baits and tackle. Set out some minnow traps. Even consider electroshocking the pond. Keep records of what, how many, and what sizes of fish you catch, see swimming, find dead on the bank, etc. None of these techniques will be completely accurate, but all together they can give you guidelines. The experts here will then be able to really help you reach your goals. And remember Bob Lusk's advice. Ponds need harvest. If you've got lots of stunted fish, don't be afraid to take them out; the remaining fish will have more to eat. BTW, beautiful pond you have there. What an attractive setting. It reminds me of many of the mountain ponds I know out here in the Rockies.
Thanks 4cornerspuddle. I have spent about 3-4 hours a day the last month since I got the pond observing, feeding fish, and fishing. I am all about the pond it was a life long dream. When bluegill fishing you catch one about every cast but they are 2-3 inches mostly, but I have caught and seen when feeding a few 6 inch ones. The shad are what I believe to be Hickory shad and you catch one of those in the 4-6 inch range to every 5-6 bluegill. I can't catch any but I know there is big catfish because I have saw a few big boys in the 20 plus range feeding on the smaller fish when throwing feed. They won't eat the pellets though. I did see a couple of dead catfish in the 5-7 inch range the other day so I figured they are spawning. I love to fish all I can. My goal is just to catch decent fish that I can eat. Don't care much about trophy fish. I suffer from autoimmune diseases and am suppose to eat fish mostly. Not really picky about what type of fish. I wanted to stock hybrid stripe bass but can't get them locally. I also read I can stock trout from late October to late April or early may. I will feed the fish, stock, manage or do what ever I need too.
I think the culprits are the big cats. They are eating everything that you will target and want to grow. I would eliminate them. Jug lines at night might be your best bet.
It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.
Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.
Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
Post a picture of the shad so you gat proper ID by the pros here.
Catch a small BG and use it as bait for the CC. Throw it out there when you are feeding the other fish and see if a CC comes along and nabs your bait. Beware, use heavy enough tackle to make sure it doesn't get away. You have one chance at it. If it get loose, you'll never catch it that way again. And don't expect to catch more than one each time. The others will get spooked fast.
I'm with Dave on the jug-lines, if you can't catch them other ways. Try both BG and the shad as bait, and again make sure everything is good and strong. You don't want them getting away.
Welcome Don - It sounds like you have some fishing to do! Nice layout of your pond too. +1 on fishing out the cats. Big fish eat big fish, medium fish eat medium fish and so on. You'll find lots of learning here on PB so read away. Best I can tell, ponds take a lot of patience and turning a pond's population in the direction YOU want may take the most patience. Along with the possibility of the cats eating your bigger fish you may also have to remove some of the smaller ones to make room for their growth. Please don't take my word on it however, I am just a wanna-be. There are folks here that take Adjusting Fish Populations very seriously and will chime in with a bazillion questions to help you on your way. Be prepared to analyze your pond some more, make some personal decisions weighted against the time you have to spend at your pond and your budget.
It sounds like you will jump right in and get your feet wet!
Hey Don Welcome to the forum! When you saw small catfish were they channel or mud cats? Channel cats have a V tail and mud cats have a square tail. Nice looking pond
Very nice photos!! Welcome from deep east Texas. I actually read somewhere that if those huge catfish show up where you can get to them believe it or not shoot them with a shotgun!!
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