Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait New CNBG pond

Bill, the LMB was seined from contaminated flooded forage pond prior to final draining and hydrated liming.
The "young blugill above" are new "cream of the crop" OTS CNBG stocked after forage pond was refilled with lake water.

I was the official "on-site observer"...

Check out OTS CNBG Club link for brood stock family for latest generation spawn...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=256037&page=1

http://www.overtonfisheries.com/MoreStuff/CoppernosePictureGallery/tabid/397/Default.aspx

Small update.

One of the suggestions I had received during restocking was to cage the water inlet pipe to prevent contamination, and lime any puddles that could potentially hold small sunfish. I'm glad I did this since we had big rains roll through East TX yesterday, and we had lot's of water moving into the CNBG pond. Hopefully there will be no cross contamination this year.

The water had cleared nicely after refilling, and has about 18" of clarity. I will fertilize, and add pallets for the FHM this week. Water is at 66 degrees and steady.

I've been unable to get any shipments of Aquamax yet, so I had been hand feeding AM 500 with no results. This weekend, I crushed the pellets, and tried again. The CNBG fry boiled the water. Dumb me again, because I should have known this. After several crushed feedings, I just threw 500 out, and they attacked it. I guess they just had to adapt to the different sized food. I ordered AM 400, so that should be about right for the feedings.

2 threads that will be of great help on my future growout pond build have been active in the last few weeks. I learn something every day here at PB, and being able to easily drain the pond and remove the fish is just as important as being able to raise the fish.

TJ's Thread

Cecil's Thread

Water warming will really get those CNBG to eat. Mine went from not feeding to eating like pigs in 2 days last mth due to a few 70F days in a row.

We're about to have some much cooler temps. Again!

Dave, I'm ready for Tues/Weds. Colder and more rain! We got almost 2" this weekend.

Actually, it was a great weekend the more I think about it. Fish were eating, got some much needed rain, it was chick day at the feed store so there were lot's of little country kids just beaming with excitement, Hooten's had every ag dealer for a hundred miles there, and First Monday at Canton.

Makes me wish I could just dump town, and hit the road. What a great Easter weekend to be in the country.

Al, I was stuck in town. I'll bet that I get away somehow this weekend. Looks like reasonable chances for rain the next couple of days.

The disaster of last year seems to corrected itself via the lack of rain. After this Spring's stocking, there haven't been any issues other than the fluctuating temps that made early feedings sporadic.

Made a big puddle cull trip with George today, and we wanted a hook and line survey of this brood pond. We caught about 10 in the 4-5" range, and all were healthy.

I was going to treat this pond with Alum, but have decided to wait and fill it to full pool while i can still access water from the big puddle. That water is very healthy and clear, so any further decisions will wait til the brood ponds settles. So far though, this year has gone according to plan. That's very rare for me.

Also, thousands of 1" to 1 1/2" CNBG swimming the banks, and fighting over pellets. Looks like I've already had a good spawn.

Here's a OTS CNBG with good conformation markings.


Headshot of same fish.

Allen, LOOKS great!!

Pretty looking CNBG

After a decision not to Alum this brood pond last week, I decided the first thing to do was to refill it to full pool because of the drought, and recheck turbidity in 2 months.

I was losing access to water, so 3" PVC pipe and fittings were used to extend my reach to clear big puddle water.

The pump below should be completely underwater, but as you can see, it ain't. 20' of PVC was used to extend the reach to the pump, and the inlet was screened and caged.



One issue I wished to avoid, was creating more silt by just dumping the fresh water into the pond. Most soft outlet hoses flail in the water because of pump pulses, so I added a 5' rigid extension to the outlet, floated it, and used a 300 micron filter bag to catch any possible weeds pumped into pond.


Assembled rig.


The rigid pipe, filter, and float worked perfectly. When I left last night, the filter bag was easily a third full of various big puddle weeds, and no soil disturbance was created.


CNBG and FHM's were loving the fresh water, and no silt or weeds were added during the refill. Quick, cheap and easy method for water exchanges.

Nice job Al ! That water is not very turbid. Fish like the new water - see them in pic. Look like gams.

Al,your approach was very good and well thought out!
Excellent!
G/

Eric, funny how adding clean fresh water cleared things up and made the fish happy. Alum isn't a have-to any more.

I hope those are FHM's.

I'm guilty of under managing my weeds, but the FHM's and CNBG fry were visible by the thousands yesterday after the water rise. I left Johnson and Dallis grass around the edges, and they immediately started migrating to those areas. I know it will die, but I was surprised at the numbers.

I will add something else. I have been feeding Cargill in the comparable Aquamax 400 size. CNBG have aggressively been eating, and I've increased the throw times. When I threw out a handfull of 500 AM, the feeding really slowed to a trickle. Since these CNBG will be added to the big puddle as quickly as possible, being observant in letting the fish tell you what they want, paid off. Will go to a 400/500 mix later this summer. Then everybody should get fed.

The learning is as much fun as the result.

CNBG pond has been filled back to pool, and the fish are happy. Since this pond is in a depression, the water had become stagnant and needed some TLC. Adding the clearer big puddle water negated and need for Alum, and the prevailing southerly winds keep the water moving.

Hardy Lilly pads were re-added to the pond, and all seems good. Vallisneria, Corkscrew (Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis) will also be re-added when things cool off a smidge.

I will also add, with a disclaimer for accuracy, that preferred aquatic plants do help keep the water clearer. My personal experience has been that suspended particles do adhere to plants, and FHM love the protection. With the weeds flooded, tens of thousands of FHM have moved into the protected water.

My CNBG continue to eat aggressively, and are much easier to see coming to the pellets with the fresh water.

Full Pool


Flooded weeds


High Tech depth gauge. If the rock's dry, the water's falling. If it's wet, the water's rising.

Very nice. Those cnbg look great nice coloration I am planning on contacting todd and stocking some this fall when it cools a bit. I probably missed this earlier in thread but how big is cnbg pond? My pond is 1/4 acre and I am wondering about how many to stock with the plan being to stock hsb as well.

WRX, I have it at a 1/4 acre when full.

I stocked 1,000 CNBG, and 10 pounds of FHM. I probably understocked it, but I really didn't want to create any more work. I think with proper management, it could easily hold double or triple that amount. I've really enjoyed this pond more than my big puddle.

Somebody else will need to chime in on a CNBG/HSB stocking ratios. This was set up for a put and take forage pond only.

I agree with the Fall stocking. Handling and transporting fish during 100 degree weather can get sketchy.

Nice work Al. Always good to see/hear about a plan from start to finish. Doing that adds context for others to base decisions upon.

Thanks for the advice Al. New to this and reading through some of your old posts have learned alot fast. Also loved the high tech depth gauge. I employ the same one...very effective. Thanks again.

Randy

I love the depth gauge Al. I had to upgrade to one of those new-fangled sticks to measure mine. Dang kids kept trying to skip my old gauges...

Time to start putting the runts in the public pool. Caught 20 of these today between 5-6".

Rigid fence coral will go up this weekend, and give these CNBG an overnight soak before they're released.

Yeah, I dropped him.

Looking good Allen. How many are you taking out of the little pond? How many are you leaving in?

Not sure yet how many I'll take out, but I know I've one spawn. Hopefully with no predators, I've got self sustaining numbers by now. Fresh genetics every couple of years will be all I need.

Al, very nice - well done!

Al, that fish looks great!