Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Old pond, stunted catfish

A farmer I know has a small old "trout"pond that has been ignored for the past 5-6years because the trout all died(full sun,lots of snow) and all thats left is catfish. The cats used to grow to a good size (back when he was feeding the trout)but now they are all only 4-6inches. If I can convince him to to let me start feeding the cats will they start to grow again or is it a lost cause? He won't spend money to aereate and has lost interest as the trout were a washout(duh). If I could raise some eating size cats in his pond maybe he would be receptive to further improvements.

Are you sure they're not Bullheads?

It sounds like a breeding population, since it has stunted out. Even if they are Channel Cats, the population would have to be reduced in order to have the room for them to safely get bigger. Simply feeding a pond full of small Cats would likely result in a pond overfull of bigger Cats, with a fishkill looming.

How big is the small pond?

Is it as packed with 4"-6" Cats as I imagine?

Not nescessarilly (sp?) Theo. I have a small pond overrun with channel cats. What I do is feed small amounts of food (as if they weren't overpopulated) and the more aggressive ones grow pretty good while the others grow slower until their mouths get big enough to compete. I would like to find some fish food the size of a ping pong ball. The problem is actually cathing them out fast enough. My advice is to just feed them a little and keep everything that is caught.

That would tend keep the little ones little, wouldn't it?

Wish they were CC but they are just our common mudcat. Someone stuck some in back when the owner had his trout. The pond was not suitable for trout but might be OK for a few LMB. The cats do spawn when they are about 4" long but used to grow bigger when the farmer was feeding his trout.

I was in the same situation. I removed many bullhead (BH) and stocked LMB. Two years later, the average size of the BH appears to be increasing. The bullheads I caught this year average about 8". Still not quite table size. Here are a couple links to previous discusions:

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=002503#000008

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=20&t=001862&p=0

JayMan :

You get the info I sent ?

Yes I did, Thanks. It was lost in the spam so I have not gotten a chance to look it over yet. Thanks again.

I will wait until the mudcat spawn is over(and the bass season opens) then add a couple of 14-16"LMB and start feeding the mudcat. The water is fairly clear right now but later in the summer when the level goes down it gets muddy. By then the LMB should have cleaned up this years mudcat minnows, I hope, and I also have a minnow trap that will catch 4-5" catfish for removal. Last years brood are only 2" long now so they are definitely overstocked.
If I can produce some table sized fish by next summer I will be happy and MAYBE the pond owner will get enthused enough to make some improvements himself....( I have my eye on his deer herd and want to get on his good side) Pat

Good luck, Pat. That sounds like a decent plan, fish- and landowner-wise.