Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Happy Accidents and Crayfish Stocking Rates

Crazy thing - I forgot I had set my minnow traps 4 days ago in an effort to capture GSH and FHM and transfer from Main pond to the SMB and BC Crappie ponds. As you know, 4 days spells minnow genocide as they will typically expire unless you check traps every 24 hrs.

I was expecting six traps of awful smelling bloated BG and minnows. Imagine my surprise - they were packed full of tadpoles, as usual - but not a single dead minnow or BG. Instead - there were 7-8 large Crayfish in each trap. My guess is the traps were once full of dead minnows and BG, but the scent attracted the Crayfish and they made quick work of the meal.

Few things I learned from this experience:

1. How to effectively harvest Crawfish - bait traps with dead fish. Imagine beef or turkey liver would yield similar results. This is just like crabbing I did as a kid.

2. Pond ecosystems are pretty efficient. Even when I think I've wasted a valuable resource by killing scores of minnows and BG in my traps, I find they become a resource utilized by another important resource - the crayfish. Helps relieve some of my absent minded guilt.

3. Establishing a crayfish forage population isn't hard! I stocked 24 adult crayfish nearly three years ago with my initial FHM stocking - and rather forgot about it. I'd estimate there's a very healthy population established now. Once my SMB can get their mouths around them, they should be very pleased!