Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Rehabbing Mr. H's small pond

To obtain larger sized RES I suspect that you will have to go angling. Since RES do not readily accept artificial fish foods they are not as easily and efficiently raised as BG or HBG. To grow larger RES one has to sacrifice space for a less productive fish. Most hatcheries will not do this due to money issues. Thus it is very difficult but not impossible to locate hatcheries that sell juvenile to adult RES. I know of a hatchery in Ohio that sells RES up to 10" long, but that hatchery is one of the exceptions. The hatchery manager grows these large RES in several fairly large, relatively shallow ponds that are drained once a year and contain a mixed fish community. Larger fish are then sold for pond stocking. Not very many small hatcheries have 10-30 acre lakes that are used as produciton ponds.

GW, I bought my RES from Hartley Fish Farms.. really good people. They overnighted them to me in a cooler and they're doing great. They were about 5-6".. My pond is small and pretty clear, so I've seen them hunting for hours for snails and they clearly like them - however I have caught them on little minnow type jigs pretty often last year. Your idea is interesting and wish you luck. My only question is are you going to be able to keep just this population of fish for a long time? or are you going to get bored and want to experiment??? (you seem more like me wanting to break the mold and play around)

http://www.hartleyfishfarmsinc.com/

Thanks for the tip AaronM, I'll give them a call.

I'm managing this pond as a favor to my neighbor and I think he'll be happy with a single-fish pond, or maybe RES and WM. Before this pond crashed 4 years ago he had attempted BG only. He has a 7 acre pond also which has the usual mix of gamefish, and 3 or 4 other ponds in total.

On top of that I just finished my own 1/2 acre pond and soon my girlfriend will have a 6 acre pond complete with wetland. I don't think I'll be bored anytime soon.

If I try a FH/RES mix in my pond I might do it for a few years and then start to add WM, Florida Gar, Chain Pickerel and any small native minnows and sunfish I can collect. One thing is for sure, if I can get a pond full of 1+ pound RES I'll be happy for a while. The record Redear is 4 lb 13 oz!

So I have to ask, your original goal was the trophy green sunfish.. why not just do them instead of the RES? Or at least in addition to?? Common wisdom doesn't apply here since your goal isn't to feed big fat bass... The greenies would grow well on FH (and/or gambusia) and would be at the top of the food chain. I'd put gambusia to see if you can keep down recruitment of the greenies. Don't think it would be an issue. I think they'll take pellets more easily than the RES. Just wondering why the original 'interesting' goal changed.. (they'd also be easier for those grandchildren to catch I'd guess)

My favorite fish was originally GSF, then I learned that they aren't native to my area but WM are. After researching and catching WM they replaced GSF as my goal trophy fish. WM have been the goal for Mr H's pond since I started working on it, but the problem is that there is no one selling them so they need to be collected locally. After about 3 weeks of effort I've added only 6 small/med WM to the pond.

After 4 years of waiting to get this pond back in shape I don't think Mr H will want to wait much longer to fish it. He asked me last week about stocking RES in addition to the WM and I agreed to help him. Today I realized that we don't need to catch the RES. My main goal is to help Mr H get his pond in good fishing condition as soon as possible and I think RES may be the solution. Most likely he'll be happy to buy some RES, but I think I'll also keep adding WM in an attempt to give him the best "brim pond" I can. The sooner I can get a decent population of catchable WM/RES the less chance there is that he'll be tempted to stock the ample BG from his other ponds. I like BG very much, but I think they would quickly dominate the other fish, and I think that would be boring.

Good enough. If you want a few more warmouth for your 'aquarium' - here's a place I ran across a while ago: http://www.jonahsaquarium.com/JonahSite/fishlist.htm

I've seen that fish supplier before but I couldn't deal with the $5 price tag per fish. Maybe I'll call them and ask what the discount would be for 100 fish.

Would Kansas WM be genetically identical to Georgia WM? If not, would this be an advantage? Even if they were technically identical would the Kansas fish strengthen my WM population by mixing genes with my local WM?

GW local populations adapt over time so even if they are genetically the same species they can exhibit different traits. The one I would be concerned about is their ability to survive Ga summers. As a general idea the studies on fish (LMB and BG) take the position that its best not to stock fish from widely different populations. For example not only did Fla LMB do very poorly in cold climates (grew poorly and died in some locations) a control group of Northern LMB from the south also did poorly (better than the Flas but much worse than local fish). One thing to remember about genetics is new genes (change) in a natural setting often produces negative results and nature cures it by non-viability (extinction/death). Other times the change works and a species becomes better adapted. The point is adding new blood (new genes) is not necessarily a good thing -- It all depends.

This does not address the potential of introduced pathogens anytime a fish moves from one population/pond to another.

I noticed fry in the pond today and I assume they're from the FH spawn. Adult FH can be seen all over the surface at times, and now these fry can be found anywhere along the bank.

GW all I think I can tell you from that pic is that fry is not a lepomis based on its alimentary canal.

When the image is enlarged, I can see the gut tract (alimentary canal) that ewest notes. Ewest is correct; it is not a Lepomis. It is a minnow or shiner based on length of gut and species noted as present in GW's posts.

I have to admit that Mr H and I have lost perfect count of the adult Redears and Warmouth we've added to his pond. Our best estimate today is 15 RES and 19 WM. Of course we may have had some of these stockers die in the process of moving, but I don't think the two turtles will let us know if that's true.

How do these numbers sound in a 130 ft X 60 ft X 10 ft deep pond?

I added 4 of the WM this afternoon and just after I did, Mr H can out to visit. I was watching the water as we were talking and I noticed a few of the minnows jumping almost out of the water. The Fatheads are normally pretty active in the early evenings but this caught my eye as a little different. Then I remembered the 4 new WM. They had just been moved from a pond that is very short on forage to one that is teeming with all sizes of minnows. In true Warmouth style I believe these new fish were already preying on their new found bounty.

It doesn't seem logical that after the ordeal of being hooked and transported that they would feed so quickly, but my aquarium experience was similar. I netted a couple of WM out of our creek and put them in a 10 gal tank. I accidentally added a few Mosquitofish as well. Within 10 or 15 minutes the Warmouth were trying to eat the minnows.

Warmouth may not have the fire of a Redear, but what they lack in attitude they make up with a huge appetite and a mouth to match. I see large Warmouth in Mr H's future.

That sounds like decent numbers of adults to stock in 1/6 acre.

Thanks Theo. I'm hoping these fish will spawn this year. I told Mr H he might want to do a little fishing in this pond in the fall. I figure we can replace anything he catches with adults from his other pond. I'm curious how much growth we'll see in 5 or 6 months.