Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Time to decide....

After spending the last couple weeks observing and fishing my pond, this is what i believe is living there.

A small population of 8" white crappie,which I think would have been the surviving YOY from the winter 2007 fish kill.(thick Ice and snow not removed from pond)that have yet to spawn.A good bullfrog population, plenty of water bugs,which are probably the crappies diet along with the tadpoles and small frogs. 2 Diamondback water snakes, probably keeping the frog population in check. Plenty of bottom plant growth for fry and fingerling to hide in.

Would feed trained LMB do well in this environment? Could I load them a little heavy to start and then cull them in the fall of 2010 to keep the bigger ones and relocate the rest into another pond?
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I would think that frogs, snakes and some crappie would not be enough to keep largemouth. And from my aquarium knowlage of largemouth, they arent the best pellet eaters. Just my .02 but dont make a final decision until the more experienced members talk to you.

I think feed trained bass on Aquamax Largemouth would do pretty well (up to whatever the 45% protein size limit is; 6-8 lbs has been reported as the top end for LMB on 40-42% feed) in a pond with nothing else. I would want to reestablish a better forage base for them, but I think you could start the LMB any time if they are good pellet eaters.

Do you think that if the crappie spawn, that they would create a good forage supplement along with the aquamax?

Not like BG would - only one Crappie spawn per year, if it succeeds.

If I put BG in now, do you think i will get another spawn out of them. That would give the crappie something to snack on over the winter. Maybe toss in a couple pounds of FHM with the BG to keep the crappie busy.

If they're big enough, they should spawn 1-2 times this year in Mizzoo.

I really dont care if the crappie make it or not, I just dont want them to eat up all the LMB and BG fingerlings.

Should I just catch em and give the cats something to do and start from scratch? I really want just a nice LMB pond, mostly catch & release of the LMB and controled removal of the BG.

It may be almost impossible to remove all the crappies in your pond via hook and line. If you could completely remove them, with your stated goals that would be ideal.

I think a good plan of action would be to stocking advanced sized feed trained bass fingerling. Say at least 6" and preferably 8" or larger... You didn't mention what the size of your pond is, but I would go a little heavy on the stocking of the feed trained bass. Say 50/acres, so if you have a 1/2 acre pond that'd be 25 fish and if you have a 1.5 acre pond that'd be 75 6"+ feed trained bass. You can get away with the heavier volume of fish because they are feed trained. Hopefully these bass will keep the crappie numbers down.

If your aim is a quality LMB pond based mostly on catch and release. Consider leaving BG out... It is sort of unorthodox but I think it could just work. Allow the LMB to feed on the pellets and the spawn of your white crappie. You can also stock RES sunfish. There is no worry of them overpopulating and they along with the crappie can add to the forage base.

I would also consider trying to get a self reproducing population of GSH in your pond as well. Particularly if you want to try to get some bass over the 8 lb mark. A lot of this will be based on the size of your pond. If under 1 acre, I would focus more on growing several 4-6 pound bass using pellets rather than pellets and GSH. If larger than an acre stock the GSH and shoot for bigger bass. Remember, even under a heavy feeding and aeration regiment, a pond can only hold about 125 lbs of bass as an EXTREME MAXIMUM. So if you have a 1 acre pond that's say 2 10 pound bass, 3 8 pound bass, 4 6 pound bass, 5 5 pound bass, and say 20 other smaller bass... Remember, the crappie count towards that 125 pounds also as they are predators as well.

If you are interested, you can always add all male BG to add some interest to the fishery. I realize this is an unorthodox stocking scheme but trying something different can't hurt... You can always add BG in a year or two if you don't like how things work out. Just a crazy idea I'm throwing out there.

This pond is only 1/4 acre, more like an aquarium that I can fish in. Not much room for error, that is why I was originally thinking maybe 10-15 pellet trained LMB and a handful of RES to clean up the snails etc on the bottom.

My other pond is about 1.5 acre levee pond w/well, electric etc. I will have more options on that one.

I think 20-30 RES and perhaps 10-15 pellet trained LMB would work. In that small a pond, the removal of the crappie may not be too difficult. I would seriously look into renovating and starting over to remove the crappies. If you don't want to go that route, just try to keep the vegetation under control so the LMB can effectively eat all the little crappies that may be born...

The problem will probably be getting ahold of the LMB without taking a loooong drive, and then back alive. Also the RES with enough size to have a fighting chance.

With the small numbers of each that you need, you may be able to get them over nighted to you...

Thanks for your input guys, it is much appreciated.