Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait some of my forage fish

Was down to the pond the other day and got a good picture of my forage fish, I could see more that were deeper but couldnt get a better picture, I wonder how many I have left out of 5 lbs of FHM that I first stocked

If you stocked them recently, and if so in your case, what you see is probably what you have left. Often in he smaller pond when FHM are under predatory stress they will congregate in one school.

Trials IIRC all you have are FH , small BG/RES and a few goldfish . If that is correct then you probably have quite a good % of the FH left.

I stocked the FHM around the middle of Aug. and the HBG-100,RES-50,CC-20 the first of Sept. I havent seen any of the CC since stocking and only a few of the res or hbg early on but not lately. I am curious to know if they have grown any in 2 month and if indeed they are eating the FHM, original stocking they were 3-5" fish all leaning towards 3.5 to 4" none at the 5 " mark. The CC were from 8-12" and I worried that they were big enough to eat the 3-5 inch fish.
Do you think that I will need to get some more FHM for the winter?
Also I did notice very small fish about a inch long but they are too shy for me to try and net, actually they all are much savy then me I havent been able to scoop anything out of the water.

The HBG , RES and CC may have grown a little but not much in cold water. The CC are big enough to eat FHs and some of the HBG and RES may be able to choke down a small FH. FH are cheap and a few more will not do any harm.

I would put up a blocking plastic fence. FHM seem to always find a fishes mouth to get into. Remember that ML's GG grew a lot during the TX. winter and ate many mosquito fish. Put some alfalfa cubes and range cubes for the minnows to eat behind the net.

Darn ewest you have a good memory, sheesh! I forgot about the gold fish.

What are alfalfa cubes? cube=bale?

I have thought about the blocking net by using a cage that I have that is wrapped in chicken wire and either setting it in the water or attaching a inner tube to it so it floats in the general area that the fhm hang out, but I dont want to make it too difficult for a minnow to provide a meal for the other fish do I?

Alfalfa cubes = compressed/condensed alfalfa, about 1" on a side, sold in (50lbs) bags.

great pic, Theo. Just as ML posted a good one of range cubes. The feed store near me sells scoops of them if you want. Put them in a mesh bag, in a trap and catch all sorts of bait, or for culling fish.

Is it used for livestock feed? I will have to check the local feed store to see if they carry any, thanks for the info.

I am thinking of getting a trap, where is a good place to find one? Maybe a bait store?

Yes - feed for horses and so forth. I remember seeing them in itty-bitty bags (a couple of pounds) for rabbits; that might be plenty for FHM.

Trialsguy....Wal Mart sells the minnow traps in their fishing aisle. I bought one last week for around $6 - $7. Just make sure that you get the two clips with it. They set the clips inside the traps which are apart. I noticed several of them were missing the clips.

I think you want the ones that are coated with a type of vinyl/plastic, and dark or black in color.

Earlier this year, I was emptying the feed out of my trap, and accidentally dropped half of the trap into the water. So naturally, I just dropped the other half into the water in the same place. One half does me no good, and I figure if I ever find half of the trap, I'll know the other half is right around there too! Smart thinking huh?

Sometimes you gotta make split second decisions.

Yea, the one I got was black vinyl.

I have had my trap in the water for 3 days now and the only thing I catch are back swimmers.
I have the thing suspended about 6 inches below the surface as this seems to be the depth that I have seen the minnows hanging out.

Never did get the alfalfa cubes but I did find some alfalfa and wrapped it up really tight and threw it in there for a couple days, no luck, but today I put a cup of fish chow in there to see if I can get something trapped in there.
I have noticed alot of varying sizes of minnows and I am hoping that maybe some of my game fish have spawned but as I am typing this I am thinking highly unlikely since I stocked HBG and RES.

trails - try 1/2 slice of white bread broke into 1" pieces in the trap. Place the trap on the bottom parallel to shore with about 3" to 12" of water over the top of the trap. In most ponds this will not be very far from shore. Placed near existing cover is a good place to start. A lot of the small fish swim and explore in quite shallow water along the shoreline when people are not around. Catching will be better this way compared to if the trap is suspended in mid-water. Try it, report how it worked.

PS Don't expect to catch much using the black vinyl-rubber coated traps or new shiney wire traps.

Good tip thanks! UH Oh I have the black vinyl coated trap! It will have to do.

Thanks for the advice I had a trap full of Fat head minnows but no other types.

I am glad to hear FHM went into that trap. For me the black vinyl traps always catch fewer fish compared to the plain wire type traps. When you get spawn from BG and RES you should see the YOY appear in the catch of the trap.

I saw the post and tryed the same thing yesterday. I caught 7 baby 1-2 inches BG in 5 min. I used bread, pellets and krill in a knitt type bag and put it in the trap. Then I got 3 more BG on the other side of the pond. No other species. I would like to establish a minnow population in the pond, maybe mosquito fish?