Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My introduction

Just thought I'd give an update on my pond. GSF numbers seem to be down while BG numbers are up. Crappie recruitment has diminished, possibly due to the HSB. And my LMB look like this.

Good to have you back cheyenne19 . Those LMB are sure in good condition. That is a good report. How are the shad doing ? Is that a shock boat you are standing on ? If so what did the survey show ?

How have you been Eric? I've been hanging around, I just read more than I speak. I'm waiting to get all the info back from SE Pond, but the G shad looked great. It seems that the BCP aren't as stunted this year, which could be from the FHM we stocked last year. They did recommend a load of T shad for the BCP and HSB. Jeff thinks this will boost the growth of the BCP and help the HSB as well. Here are our LMB a few months after stocking.

I'm not sure why our G shad don't get overly large, but I have a thought. We have some large BC that might be controlling the large G shad.

Awesome pics, cheyenne19!

What a first-rate operation!

Good to hear from ya, Cheyenne. As the forum fish neophyte, I don't have much to add...but...I do want to take a quick left turn and ask you about your crop. With the push to ethanol, does this have any effect on your planting choices? I don't know much, but my farmer pal near our project tells me that just about anything that grows has the potential for ethanol extraction. It's just a matter of the cost vs yield. What about rice plants?

In a lake that size with big predators like those LMB and cats I bet they are controlling the GShad. One point to note is that a number of studies show that (get this) TShad suppress GShad and the GShad #s and condition go way down while the TShad do well. You might ask Jeff about that.

Rice is our primary crop. It has by far the most expensive inputs, but the yields help overcome that. With wheat and soybeans bringing the prices that they are now, we can grow winter wheat followed by soybeans and come close to the same profit that we do with rice. We try to stay pretty diverse and keep rice and soybean acres at equal amounts. I do believe that rice is being used for ethanol, but the driving force behind it's price is the world shortage of rice, and the countries that will no longer export their crop.
Cason

I'm glad you said that, as I had forgotten that little tid bit. He did say that he would only stock them at 1/3 what he would normally recommend. He recommended 1 load which is 8000-10,000 adults. He said that they weren't neccessary at all, but that they would fill a niche that I didn't have. I feel like they would take some pressure off of small BG and in turn help for large forage items for LMB. Am I on the right track?

I think TShad would be a good addition. They should do exactly what you described and maybe establish themselves as well.

Jeff felt like one load would establish themselves. He said that with all the other forage I have that predation on the TShad wouldn't be too severe. How much, if any, potential harm do you think that the TShad would do to the GShad pop?

Not much in that size lake with one load. I would ask Jeff anyway.

Earlier you had asked the question of whether or not having a lake that the average depth was five feet was good or bad. I would think that if you were not worried about drought it would be ideal for growing fish in the south. The best bass fishing lakes that I have ever been on were all very shallow. Have you ever heard of stick marsh in Florida? It is very shallow and probably averages only five feet and produces fish in the sixteen pound range. If you had a shallow lake it seems that you wouldn't have to be worried about stratafiction either. Am I right?

Nice to have you catch us up on what is going on with you Cheyenne. If I recall correctly you have quite a large operation on your hands.

Oh and why didn't you tell us that you knew Vin Diesel?

James shallow ponds are more susceptible to DO problems because summer stratification occurs at a shallower depth leaving only the top few feet with O2. C19 has a pipe circulation system for irrigation which can pump water around so he can get by with a shallow lake. I would not want his bio-mass with out some from of O2 transfer system. A little deeper would be better but what he has is working very well.