Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations bullhead overpopulation

Your water turbidity is definately caused by bullheads. The more abundant bullheads are the cloudier the water becomes.

Again, recomendations for your situation, it is all about your goals for this pond. If you are not in hurry to re-establish a specalized fishery then Bruce' suggestion to supplimentally stock bass. My experience indicates that stocking fingerlings will probably not be very successful. Extreme cloudiness of water can easily result in zero survival of fingerling bass that are stocked. Start by stocking 6"-12" bass and keep removing bullheads by fishing and trapping until there numbers dwindle to a point that the rate of catching them slows down. In one acre you may need 3 to 5 traps to be effective. Consider buying or building some larger sized traps in addition to smaller ones. Bait traps with dead fish or fish food. Consider regular feedings of fish food to the bullheads to get them to congregate for more efficient trapping and angling.

If you are interested in quick results and producing a specialized fishery then renovate the pond with rotenone. Restocking of desirable species can be done yet this late spring early summer. Do a search here for rotenone for some more background information about that topic. To me it sounds like you have a mess and if it were my pond I would kill it off and start over so you can produce some decent sized panfish and predators in 12-24 months. Otherwise you will be spending a lot of time and a fair amount of money messing with this problem for 3-4 yrs getting the bullheads under control and if not done right you will still have a "fishery mess" after 3 yrs.