Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Young Fish Behavior?

We stocked fingerling bluegill, redear sunfish, and fathead minnows into our year-old pond in March. I have seen zillions of minnows all summer mostly along the shore and in the shallow areas. This past weekend a cold front came through with a bit of rain and lower humidity. Saturday morning I saw what looked liked small fish breaking the surface or actually jumping up out of the water a bit. This was out in the middle of the pond. There were lots of insects on the water. Could those have been our BG and/or RES? They were so quick and my binocs weren't powerful enough to get a good look at them. They couldn't have been big tadpoles out that far, could they? We do have lots of those too. I have seen tadpoles in later stages of development kinda swim up and get a gulp of air but usually they are closer to the shore. Since we are new to pond/fish culture any help would be appreciated! What kind of behavior can we look for in our fish at this stage? Thanks.

Those rippling or surface disturbing fish were likely fathead minnows. Fatheads will do that out over open water when there are few or no predators. Sometimes fatheads will feed at the surface when insect larvae (usually midges) are hatching.

Thanks for your reply, Bill. I'd seen the small minnows feeding around the shore. I guess it was the larger, older ones out in the middle. Hopefully we will stock some LMB this fall.

It will not be long after you stock the LMB, that you will not see this minnow thing going on in the middle any more. After LMB fatheads will be few and far between.