This sediment pond is taking a new direction today, as far as the fish in it are concerned. Its primary function is to catch sediment and some of the nutrients from ag land runoff before it reaches my main pond. That function has not changed.
There is only about 6" difference elevation full pool of this 1/10th acre sediment pond in relation to my main 3 acre pond it feeds into. I have always assumed that eventually LMB fingerlings would swim upstream via the emergency overflow or the overflow pipe from my main pond into this sediment pond. I know northern BG have (I watched them do it) and CC have (I caught a few hook and line and netted a few at the time of the fish kill). But as far as I know no LMB. I think the only reason is that I am getting no LMB recruitment in my main pond. No small LMB in my main pond so none to be available to swim up during high water event.
LMB in this sediment pond changed today. I stocked 100 4"-6" LMB from Hartley Fish Farm. My thinking is I am getting more GSF than I want to see in this tiny pond. I knew some day the BG would over populate and I would need to introduce a predator if none got there via high water. But after the fish kill, more GSF survived than BG. I did restock RES but the GSF were likely to run roughshod over the pond come next year.
So......... I needed multiple sizes of LMB added to my main pond. I have friends catch LMB out of my main pond what appears to be in the 4-6# range. I caught one about 2-3# this fall. I have larger LMB but seem to get no recruitment. We filleted over 400 BG this fall and caught and released at least that many over the year and out of all that BG fishing I caught a total of 2 LMB. I should be catching various sizes of small LMB while BG fishing, but I do not.
So this pond is going to be the solution to the lack of LMB recruitment. That and the 400+ BG I removed from my main pond. Plan is to raise these LMB to a size my big LMB can not eat them, catch them by hook and line, and transfer them to the main pond where they are needed to control my out of control BG population. So this sediment pond is now going to be a LMB rearing pond for a time. The 100 fingerling LMB should whup up on the GSF in there. Once they get about a foot long I will start catching them and over a year period try to remove as many as I can catch before they reach spawning size/age. Then go from there. At some point I likely will get recruitment in this pond (because I will never be able to catch all 100 and remove every one) and face an over supply of LMB fingerlings. I guess I will cross that bridge when I get to it.
