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Joined: May 2019
Posts: 10
K
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K
Joined: May 2019
Posts: 10
Hello,

First i would like to say hello and i am loving this forum! I have fished farm ponds for a long time but I finally have my own. Just bought some land in Luisburg Kansas. There is about an acre pond already on the property. My wife does not think there are any fish in it and the old couple we bought from had no clue.

Reading posts it seems that spring is the time to get the forage going. My question is there a issue with stocking forage around mid June? Looking at prob stocking FHM and BG, maybe some crawdads and pk shrimp. Does anyone in the local area have better luck with BG, GSF ect?



Last edited by KCNewbie; 05/07/19 07:05 AM.
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Ideally, the FHM should go in sooner than June so that you can take advantage of a longer breeding season, but June is better than later. You will want some pallets (or some horizontal flat surfaces) submerged in the waters for the FHM to lay eggs on. And, you really need to determine if you have any fish in there for sure, otherwise, a stocking of FHM's my just be an expensive snack.

Crawdads breed once a year in the April timeframe, so you have missed the opportunity to stock smaller numbers, but they can be put in any time, just make sure you have plenty of rip rap rocks along the banks that go down to about 12 to 18 inches of water for them to make home. Without the rocks, they will become easy prey. If your pond level fluctuates more than that 12 to 18 inches, you will need those rocks to go further from the shore to accommodate lower water levels. I have the rip rap along about 25% of my little pond and have had good luck so far, but my pond predators are only in their second season and will start to feed on the larger craws this year.

How big is your pond?

How deep?

What are your goals for the fishery?

Will you be feeding the fish pellets?

The answers to these questions will help with respect to the BG and GSF question.

AND, welcome to Pond Boss!


Fish on!,
Noel
Joined: May 2019
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Thanks for the reply! That was what i was gathering from reading, the problem is I am in Africa for work and will not be back to KC till mid June. Which means i will miss getting them into the pond earlier. I am planning as if there are no fish in it as of now. My boys have been fishing it so i should know if there are any fish by the time i get home. Luckily we have a ton of pallets laying in one of the barns so the egg laying surface ia covered. I will have to put some rocks in as my wife says there is some brush in the water already but ahe doesn't see much rock.

The pond is just an acre and the folks we bought from say it is 10ft in thr middle. If i get home and it is not i am going to drain and dig it deeper.

The goal is good fishing aka cold beer and a line in the water as i have 2 months between work. My wife loves fiah so we will harvest what is possible.

As for feeding them pellets i have not done enough research on here to tip me 1 way or the other.


"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretzky

"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." Doug Larson
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The "good fishing" can be accomplished with a very wide range of methods...

The NO EFFORT (read - little effort) is to stock some BG, LMB, and CC and let it be what it will be. This is probably the most taken approach, but does not satisfy those of us with the idea that the BOW is a hobby rather than the occasional fishing trip.

The opposite end of the spectrum is to stock hybrids and/or channel cats with limited reproduction and feed the snot out of them a grow some big fish fast. All the while maintaining a log of fish taken, ladder stocking to keep the fishery productive, and fishing it regularly to maintain some sort of balance.

The difference between the two is expense, your time, and the risk of losing your investment.

At anyrate, try to enjoy your time on the other side of the big pond and spend your free time here at the forums...you'll be knee deep in your own pond soon!


Fish on!,
Noel
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Sadly i think that i will have to go the LMB and BG route since i am only in the states for half of the year. It will be a high effort towards the low effort option. I love the hybrid option but i will be gone to much.

So i guess my next question is can i skip the CC or do they add something to the mini ecosystem that i missed? Not big on eating catfish and when i catch them i want monsters (which from reading would clear out my pond)


"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretzky

"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles." Doug Larson
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You can absolutely skip the CC AND there is always the in-between route that utilizes the hybrids instead of the standards.

Forage base becomes more important with low reproducing hybrids because the typical BG/LMB pond has a lot of BG/LMB YOY fry that feed the stocked fish. When you use the hybrids, there is less reproduction and the forage base becomes their main source of food (or pellet feeding).

You should read about developing a pond that caters to large BG (or HBG). Ponds that a are stocked with the standard BG/LMB typically end up this way as the LMB overpopulate and stunt all the while eating up all the BG YOY leaving the older BG to grow big. This is given that the original BG stock gets out ahead of the LMB size-wise and that the LMB are taken out as they try to get bigger than 14 inches - thereabouts. If this scenario is not managed well, you can end up with a pond full of runty LMB and BG or very few BG at all. The cold beer still taste the same though!

I think that a low effort BOW is better suited to be a BG fishery rather than a LMB fishery.

Here's a link that will make you or break you with respect to growing large BG/HBG...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=189988#Post189988

Enjoy the read!


Fish on!,
Noel
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Hey KCnewbie, I just thought I'd chime in and say hello. I am also from Louisburg! Welcome to the forum. No better place to be for a guy with a pond! The collective knowledge and information here is amazing.

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Welcome to the forum from another Kansan.


John

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Im about an hour west near John Redmond Reservoir. I tried the hybrid bluegill. I fed them and they got big quick. The rains came this year and washed them all out. Same with most of the channel cat. I stocked regular bluegill 2 weeks ago. My pond is so full of fathead minnows it is crazy. A pond can be as easy or as much trouble as you want it to be.


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