Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations New pond owner

Hey folks, great sight, glad I found it!

I've recently purchased a home that has a pond approximately 3.5 - 4 acres on it. About 2.5 acres is on my property and the rest on another property.

I haven't had a lot of time to evaluate the pond but it seems to have a lot of small bass and no bluegill. I've only fished it a few times from a floating dock and usually catch 2-4 small bass from 8"-12". I haven't caught anything larger than 12".

I haven't fished for bluegill but I haven't seen one bluegill around the dock or shoreline yet. I tried spreading out some bread just to see if I could get any to feed on it and no luck.

There is really no cover in the lake so I suspect that the large mouth have overpopulated and eaten every small bluegill. The neighbor says he sees bluegill nest down in a pocket behind his home when they spawn. So I assume that there are probably some bigger bluegill that may be hanging out in the deeper water.

The pond is probably 9-10 foot deep at the deepest point and the banks are shallow slooping with just a few old stumbs in 6-10" of water. The pond is probably also around 25 or so years old.

There are a ton of very small fish about the length of your thumbnail. I'm not sure what they are and there are a ton of small frogs around the pond so I assume there are a lot of tadpoles in the pond as well.

The pond probably has never been managed so I'm looking for some ideas on a coarse to take. I am interested in big largemouths... just the fish species.

I'll try and gather more information when I get the chance to get out in the boat and check it out.

Thanks,
Layne

Howdy, Layne. Let me join rmedgar in welcoming you to the Forum.

Thanks, this a great site and I've already subscribed to Pond Boss Mag. I'm looking forward to trying to raise some nice fish.

Layne

I would also suggest that you purchase the book "Raising Trophy Bass." You can click on the "Pond Boss Store" link in the upper left had corner. It is a great book that describes the food chain required for LMB. Even if you're not after trophy bass it is a great book IMHO.

It is very important that you get an assessment of the pond. Find out what species of fish are in the pond and in what relative numbers. In other words how many forage fish per predator fish. If you have more than one large predator (for example LMB and Channel Cat) then this will have an impact on your course of action. Before a plan can be recommended you must first determine what you have going on currently. But that's just this idiot's opinion. Hang on for a better answer.

This can have a significant impact on successful recruitment of forage fish. You may need to add some structure to insure that some of your forage fish are able to grow to a larger size. LMB eat different size forage depending upon how big the LMB is. Getting the forage fish to grow to an adquate size to feed the bigger LMB is fairly important. It the fry have no where to hide then they are going to get eaten. Once again, just one keyboard monkey's opinion.

Thanks for the reply. I new I would need to add some cover and was thinking of scattered brush piles and some rock since the property has quite a bit of piled rocks around.
Is there some other type cover that should be added? How about the PCV pipe structures that are sold?

Layne

Layne, there is a fine distinction between structure added to attract larger fish and the type of cover need to protect fingerlings. They serve slightly different roles. One popular method of providing cover is by submerging pine trees other folks have submerged wooden pallets. Different species of fish like different types of cover. Hang on for a more expert opinion (which I'm not).

Here is some good reading for you. Archive thread about structure and cover.

It will take you a while to read all of that but it is a great primer and should give you some ideas as to what other folks have done.

Layne, it sounds to me like you have the classic over populated LMB pond. Most ponds revert to that if left alone for many years. You probably have some real monster BG in your pond though. If your interest is to grow large bass, you're gonna have to remove a large number of the 8"-12" bass. There are a number of methods to do this, some cheaper than others...

Through angling, catch and keep every bass you catch. In a pond your size, that could be in excess of 300 bass if not more!

Hire a company to electroshock your pond and keep every bass they electroshock up.

Purchase a fyke net or two and set them out to capture LMB and keep all you catch.

Stock a species of Esox, usually tiger musky or northern pike to help remove the many stunted LMB in your pond.

One of more of these methods will help... As you remove the bass, you should see the remaining large BG have more success in maintaining their numbers through spawning. You can also consider stocking additional BG. You can also consider diversifying your forage base. The addition of RES, GSH and possibly TFS if you aren't too far north may assist you in reaching your goals.

Renovating a bass heavy pond into a trophy LMB pond can be a trick and a balancing act. Start keeping track of the relative weights of all fish caught, including those you keep. As you remove more and more bass you should see the relative weights of your bass go up. My guess is all the small fish you see in your pond are small YOY BG. As they get larger, your over abundant bass will quickly thin them out.

Talk to others who fish the pond and get an idea what other fish if any are in there. Are there crappie, catfish, carp or other species? These can all affect your goals and how to manage towards them...

Add 8 for the keyboard monkey. That ought to put him up to about 13 or so.

Layne,

I use old pallets and they provide good cover for minnows. They are easy to use and usually free. Spread them all around the pond. i just throw them in and they get waterlogged and sink really quickly. They dont float too long. Good luck.

Thanks for the reading Jeff, lots of great info there.
So CJBS, the small YOY BG probably have NO chance of reaching any significant size before they are consumed?

I've seen bass busting in the shallows and I assume they are feeding on these small fish.

So from what I've read when placing cover for the YOY BG it should be in just 1-2' of water and thick? I'm thinking some pine limbs wired to a few pallets should help for the BG and the PVC trees sound great for the bass.

I read that there should be only about 15% of the lake in cover, why only 15%?

Thanks for the replies.

I'll have you know that I was at 15.5 good posts before this 8. So now the good post count is....

drum roll if you please....

23.5 Outstanding, informative, low carbohydrate, caffeine free posts, and that ain't bad. I'm well on my way to the goal of 50 good posts by 2010.

(The end of 2010, there's no way I'm making 26.5 good posts by January 1st, I'm mean let's get real here).

You are quite welcome Layne. Oh and don't forget to take photos and post them, we love photos!

Bump for some more answers for ya.

Most of the YOY BG will be eaten, however a few will survive and grow much faster with little competition. That is why you have large BG in your pond...

1'-3' for cover is great for YOY BG. Also sink some cover deeper, in 8'-10'. Your ideas sound fine.

As far as the 15% cover... It all depends on your goals.

Xmas trees work well for BG cover from predation.




See the archive on structure/cover.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463#Post92463