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Joined: Sep 2016
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My family rented a farm this year in West Central Illinois, usda zone 6a. It has a rock quarry, probably 1 to 1 1\2 acres that I have been told has been there since the 40's. We measured the depth and it is pretty consistently 22 feet deep. Water clarity is what I would call mostly clear I guess. As far as vegetation there is none other than moss on the submerged logs.It is surrounded by trees and leaves are beginning to fall so I am sure it fills up with a lot of leaves. Not sure if this is good or bad. I have fished this quarry several times this year and have found that it is full of Green Sunfish. For every 20 to 30 we catch 2 that are maybe keepers. Also I have seen some larger fish 18 to 24 inches that I am certain are Common Carp. I have been unable to catch any other species of fish. I have tried Nightcrawlers and stinkbait using several different methods. I am planning on buying fish for stocking. I want to stock Channel Catfish. Would CC coexist with GSF?I also thought about just managing this quarry for GSF. They are fun to catch, tenacious biters and would be great for the kids. I really want a CC quarry. What should I do. Thanks

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Duke, I am no expert, and even less when it comes to cc!

A couple of things that I would want to know: what will the cats eat? Gsf probably won't feed them for long. Will you use pellets? Are you going to restock every few years? Cc usually work best as put and take. They get wise to hooks real quick!

Heavy weights will be in with some better thoughts for you, holiday weekend, many are fishing!

Good luck.


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CMM, I am hoping they will eat the GSF and keep their numbers in check. I have thought about buying a feeder and feeding. I have been feeding by hand but I cannot get there everyday to feed. I am planning on restocking every year or so. Keep in mind that I do not own this quarry, it is rented by my in-laws. So I don't really want to sink a lot of money in this thing. My goals are to have Channel Catfish and keep the GSF numbers in check. Will stocking strictly CC accomplish this or should I stock a combination of species? Thanks

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The species of fish that I have to choose from are Channel and Albino Catfish, Bluegill, Hybrid Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Black Crappie, and Redear Sunfish. They also have Fathead Minnows and Golden Shiners.

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Duke,

Cc can gain lots of weight quickly, if that is your goal, but they need to eat to do that. Depending on the density of your gsf, maybe it will be enough for the first year or two. I just don't think gsf will spawn enough to feed the cc in the long run. Maybe someone else with more cc experience will chime in, but I would think, with limited feeding of the cc, bg (not hybrid) would be better forage. If you can set up a feeder, and feed an appropriate amt of feed, then your forage decision is less important.

I understand not wanting to sink gobs of money into a pond that's not yours. Didn't you say you were building one of your own in the future? How bout you enjoy fishing for the gsf, and save your money for building and stocking your own pond?

Just a few ideas for you. Other opinions and ideas will come in for you to think about too. Can't wait to hear what you decide and how it works out for you.

Last edited by CMM; 09/05/16 10:07 AM. Reason: Typo.

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CMM, I have been seeing lots of 1-3 inch fish. I'm assuming these are small GSF. If I do stock CC, I am not sure how many I will stock. So I'm not sure how quickly they will reduce the numbers of GSF. I have begun feeding in the evenings and may buy a feeder. I am unable to get over there and feed by hand daily. In the short time that I have been feeding, the Common Carp eat the majority of the food. I am not seeing any GSF that are large enough to eat the pellets yet. Maybe they will come later. You are correct, I do plan on building a pond in the next couple of years(I need to do my homework here at the Pond Boss forum first. Maybe I should just manage the pond for gsf. Any suggestions on how to do that? Also with the common carp, I have only been seeing three of them. Maybe they are not reproducing. Should I try to get rid of the common carp? I was thinking about breaking out my bowfishing rig. Thanks

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Hello everyone, its time for me to add a new chapter to the story. As I said in my last post, I have begun feeding by hand when I can. I have still been seeing three common carp come to feed for the most part. While my kids were fishing saturday, catching lots of immature GSF, my dauhgter caught a 6-8 inch bullhead. So add a new species to the mix that I did not know was there. Also on saturday I ordered 100 6-8 inch CCs and 25 6-8 inch Albino CCs to stock on Oct 15. I am thinking about ordering some RES to control snails/parasites. I do not know if there are snails/parasites present but figure it would be a good idea to stock RES sooner rather than later. Thanks

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With common carp and bullheads, I am guessing this quarry gets flooded out on occasion. Personally, I don't think I would spend much money on stocking fish that may swim away after a good rain.

That said, fathead minnows are used to supply early growth forage when planning to stock fingerling bass and would do no good for you in this pond now. If I were going to stock fish, I would want to know just what species and size predators are already there. If you happen to have several pound + largemouth, most 6-8" CC will be snacks shortly after being released....so will most BG or RES under 6". Some small stockers may live, but you'll never reliably estimate how many might survive a stocking.

If planning to keep control of the pond for years to come, I'd strongly consider lowering the water level a lot, and killing off all fish with Hydrated Lime and restocking with fish you can control...again, if the pond does not get flooded out regularly.



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Hey guys, just wanted to give an update. My fish came in Oct. 15 and I stocked them and all went well. I was pretty busy in the following weeks and unable to throw out feed. When I was able to get back to the quarry a couple weeks later I could see some albinos swimming in the shallows so some or hopefully all the fish survived. That was a good feeling but those albinos really stick out, makes me scared that the GBH may clean them out.

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Some years back, we released my son's overgrown white goldfish in a shallow duck pond that gets a lot of GBH traffic. I also expected it to be toast. However, we saw it on occasion for years, sometimes harassing LMB of the same size trying to find a friend.

Last edited by RAH; 01/20/17 10:49 AM.
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The company that I ordered the fish from is coming back April 22. My plan is to order another 125 CC. That will put me at 250 CC which is the fish companies suggested number of CC for a 1 acre pond. They say 100-500 CC is doable but 250 was suggested. I plan on feeding them and trying to get them up to 2-3 pounds ASAP. When they get to that size I will cut back on the feed and I hope they will begin thinning out the GSF. I will begin harvesting them at that size too. I have been told not to catch and release CC so I plan on keeping every one I catch and keeping a record of fish taken. I will restock every year if need be.

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I have 70 CC in my 1/4 acre pond and that is too many. I wish I had stopped at 45 or 50. I fed about 250 pounds of food from Oct 2015 to Oct 2016 and got them from 6 inches to 2-1/4 to 4 pounds. It varies a lot depending on the individual CC. I think you would do better to limit the CC number to 180 to 200 per acre, but this is only my opinion.

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Do some reading on carrying capacity. Most ponds will reach carrying capacity in 2 years as the fish all try to fill up the pond with their own kind. Stocking into a pond that has had fish in it for several years requires managing the fish there to make room and/or increasing the food supply through feeding or fertility (if needed). How do the fish look now fat or skinny ? You may better off spending the money on feed rather than adding more CC.

Last edited by ewest; 01/26/17 12:06 PM.
















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