As many of the regulars know, I've had a love-hate relationship with channel catfish forever. I love to eat and catch them -- when I can. They are feed hogs (at least I think they might be...). They get hook smart, and stay that way from a young age.
For the last several weeks I've been trying to outsmart and cull what I figure are mostly 4-year old channel catfish from my main pond (0.7 acres/9ft max depth, 5 ft ave depth). I've been getting 3-4 per week between 18 and 26 inches, all at Wr's of real close to 1.00. I figure I've got another 8-12 to get.
Interestingly, their Wr (relative weights) have all been extremely close to 1.0! This evening's CC was 22 inches and 4.7 lbs. I got a 26 inch CC two nights ago that was 8.3 lbs. Five nights ago I got a 19 inch CC that was 3.1 lbs.
In my love-hate relationship, I'm now re-thinking that they may not be out-eating my bluegill. This season, I've decided to hand feed my two main ponds so I can get an idea of who is coming to dinner. I hand feed, large handfuls at a time, to eating satiation. In the main BG/LMB pond where I want to remove the catfish, this takes 10-15 minutes, and is pretty consistent at 17-18 oz. of 38% protein feed. The smaller 1/3 acre HBG/CC pond takes 20-30 minutes to reach satiation, at about 24-26 oz. of the same 38% protein feed.
I'm trying to eliminate the channel cats in the main pond because my bluegill are not growing to the size I want. I see some really big bluegill at feeding time, but for about the last three years I have been getting a pretty consistent catch range of 3-inch to 8-inch bluegill, with an occasional 10 - 13 inch fish. These larger sizes were fairly typical a few years ago, along with a good cross section of smaller BG sizes. In general, I was catching a lot more fish per hour in this pond a few years ago. I'm thinking the CC are part of the problem. Food competition at feed time may be another factor. For the last several years I have maintained a great over-abundance of LMB in the 6-10 inch size in this pond. I can probably catch 10 of them for every bluegill I catch.
In previous winters I've usually added golden and rainbow trout to the main BG/LMB pond (it has some crappie also, but I catch less than 10 per year).
This past winter I put the trout in my smaller HBG/CC pond. I got nearly none of the trout back this spring because of the aggressive nature of the HBG. The HBG will grab a lure or baited hook before anything else even has a chance to realize it is in the water. I believe that all of the trout succumbed to low oxygen/high water temperatures before I had a way of getting them out of that pond.
I'm beginning to second think my planning. I just don't know where to aim these second thoughts. I want good fishing for kids. I want good fishing for elderly/handicapped. I want fishing for me. I love to cook and garden, and I want to share the harvest with my guests.
I enjoy my fishing experiences with the HBG, CC, BG, and LMB in that order. As for eating, I wish I had more Hybrid Striped Bass (I think I'm down to one in each pond), but they are really difficult to find in this area. The rest of the fish are all good fun to catch and eat. They are probably really good for my guests.
No more trout, at least for several years.
Retired life is really good these days. But, I'm perplexed as it relates to the future of my ponds.
Ken
P.S. My lower pond is 0.7 acres and about 25 years old, with a present maximum depth of about 9 feet, and an average depth of 5 feet. It has lots of stunted LMB (my preference), too many channel cats, plus a reproducing supply of white cats and black crappie, and a good range of BG -- it just seems there aren't as many as there should be.
My upper pond is about 0.35 acres and three years old. We built it three seasons ago. The dam was built to easily accept a 45-foot handicapped bus. The pond has steep sides and a flat maximum depth of about 7 that is about 25' wide x 150' long so that we can easily seine it with a 20 foot seine if we drop its level to about 3 feet. It has three class years of 100 each, HBG. It received about 25 4-inch catfish two and three years ago. The first year stocking also included 25 redear sunfish of dubious ancestry. Last season I added six 4-6 inch SMB and one 18-inch hybrid striped bass. Because of HBG spawning, I added six 6-8 inch LMB this season.
Last edited by catmandoo; 07/25/14 08:32 PM.
