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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1
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OP
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1 |
I had Nate and Austin from Herman Brothers Pond Management come to my place on Monday and do some shock surveying and analysis. I had a few questions I wanted answered: 1 - as some of you know I'm one of the minority on this site that says you can manage BCP long term in a small(ish) BOW. I wanted confirmation (or not) that my management plan is working. 2 - given my location and the runoff I get into my big pond, I wanted some advice on controlling sediment 3 - I was interested in any other advice Nate and Austin might have My overall goal for this pond has always been the same - to have a solid fishery primarily focused on good BCP. After a few hours and some rewiring of the transducer (thanks to some redneck engineering) we got everything I wanted. The fishery is VERY healthy, with good age classes of LMB, BCP, RES and BG caught. The BCP were especially impressive, and many over 12" were shocked up in a very short period of time. I should have my report relatively soon and I'll update this post once I get it, but here's a few pics:
Dale "When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water." - anonymous
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Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 274 Likes: 5
Fingerling
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Fingerling
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 274 Likes: 5 |
Thanks for the post. I guess I will come out of the closet and state I will be adding BCP to my pond this weekend.
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1
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OP
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1 |
Thanks for the post. I guess I will come out of the closet and state I will be adding BCP to my pond this weekend. LOL....well I'll tell you that I don't regret them one bit. You have to manage the pond for them, there's no doubt about that. For me the management is basically keep the BOW predator and prey heavy - predators to keep the small BCP numbers down and prey so that the growing BCP have plenty to eat. And also take out a nice chunk of 12+" fish every year.
Dale "When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water." - anonymous
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 3,954 Likes: 184
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 3,954 Likes: 184 |
Dale what do you do for the prey part of the equation. I am loaded with 8-1” LMB as well as some hosses that can eat whatever they want . Not seeing any BCP recruitment 8-10” LMB not 8-1”
Last edited by Pat Williamson; 04/11/19 04:30 PM. Reason: Type O
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 8,799 Likes: 69
Chairman, Pond Boss Legacy award; Moderator; field correspondent Lunker
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Chairman, Pond Boss Legacy award; Moderator; field correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 8,799 Likes: 69 |
Dale this is great evidence of a solid fishery management strategy employed - it's new science for the forum which will be helpful for many of us and I'm stoked for your success! Keep harvesting and enjoy those BCP fillets!
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1
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OP
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1 |
Dale what do you do for the prey part of the equation. I am loaded with 8-1” LMB as well as some hosses that can eat whatever they want . Not seeing any BCP recruitment Pat, For me it's been multi-faceted. First and foremost I keep my BG population high...we rarely target them and never during spawn. I want all the little yoy BG I can get in there, as food for my BCP. I also have stocked glass shrimp (very successfully, through nothing but luck on my part), FHM (multiple times via a forage pond) and GSH (not sure how well this worked, shock survey didn't bring up any of these. I also make sure that at least 30% or so of my BOW has good cover - weed beds etc. It's fairly deep overall so there's always a 'shelf' to fish off of, but this way there's lots of invertebrates and other wiggly things that make good fish food.
Dale "When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water." - anonymous
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1
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OP
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1 |
Dale this is great evidence of a solid fishery management strategy employed - it's new science for the forum which will be helpful for many of us and I'm stoked for your success! Keep harvesting and enjoy those BCP fillets! Thanks TJ!! Appreciate it. I'd never claim to have it all figured out, and like Nate said while he was here a fishery is ALWAYS changing so it'll take me keeping in front of it over the years, but 10 years in I'm calling it a very successful experiment.
Dale "When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water." - anonymous
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 3,954 Likes: 184
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 3,954 Likes: 184 |
This is the first year where there is plenty of little BG, and more weed . I thought I might need to get rid of some LMB young and let the BCP have more to eat
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1
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OP
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 904 Likes: 1 |
This is the first year where there is plenty of little BG, and more weed . I thought I might need to get rid of some LMB young and let the BCP have more to eat Pat, I don't catch a ton of small LMB so I can't speak to that. I think they're just more food for the bigger BCP and obviously also for the larger LMB. I've got a good population of 2-4 LB LMB is what it seems like based on the shock survey, and those boys/girls can put a hurting on small to medium size fish.
Dale "When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water." - anonymous
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