Hello, Last year I bought a house in south central FL that has a small pond next to it, and I've been meaning to maximize it... my goals would be to have it where I can catch some bass, and bluegill and harvest a few every now and then.
The pond is right at .25 acre and 10-12' deep.... I have thrown a cast night a few times and got nothing, but that might not mean anything... I have plenty of mosquito minnows, and I know I have a very healthy population of hoplo catfish, which is a fairly recent invasive species that not many, if any studies have been done. I also have a few softshell turtles and at least one hard shell turtle. I have recently added 5 largemouth bass between 10-12" long and from the strikes I've seen recently, they are surviving. I also have a very healthy population of leopard frogs, which I take as a good sign. I have tried all manner of small lures, live worms, and bread and have caught nothing, so I assume that there is very little or no gamefish. The pond does have algae and is not very clear... I plan to aerate soon and was hoping for some advice.
Here are my short term plans... please tell me if I'm going wrong. -Buy an aerator.. thinking the Hakko HK40L. - Adding more bass and maybe a couple Florida gar, (I can can remove those later, I've also heard they are good eating but never tried them). -Adding some bream after I get the hoplo's under control. I want the bass to eat the hoplo's if they will, and I think they will, they only get to about 6-8" and only live 4 years, so I'm hoping I can control or eliminate them through predation). -Planting or seeding some water lilys, and hope they don't take over.
I also have 3 cows that have access to the pond and that will not change, they only go into the pond during that hottest months, I also have a well that has a pipe to the pond and I can raise the level of the pond during the dry season.
I assume you decided not to kill off the pond and start over. Assuming you ruled out that option then putting in the LMB will act as predation on the small catfish. Given those size fish I would add some advanced sized BG (over 5 inches) both male and female. Up to 100 would help. Adult RES would also be a good addition. You may need some structure to help the yoy BG. Be careful of adding low DO well water.
Thanks for the response.. you are correct, I'd rather not kill everything and start over, even though that would probably be easier... I built a Venturi for the well pipe, so that should help with the DO, when running the pump, not often.. I'll try to find a source for BG... But I maybe bucket stock for now, unless I find something close I can drive too... Shipping is crazy on live fish.
.gif)
