Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Channel Cat Spawn

Pond was stocked with 100 CC in 1999. Two years ago we were catching 6-8 pound fish, nothing smaller. This year we've caught a couple of 2 pounders, a few about 10 inches long and one six inches long. Could these have spawned and survived in a bass heavy pond? Or is someone sneaking in and stocking fish? I live about 2 hours away so I only get up about every three weeks. I have given up trying to manage the pond for certain fish and now just enjoy seeing the wildlife, catching a few fish, and enjoying the peace and quiet. The thieves don't bother anything anymore because they've already taken everything of value.

CC can and do spawn in ponds, given something to use as a spawning cavity - tubes, tiles, barrels, buckets, and natural attractions such as holes or even a cavity under a log.

Whether any survive predation from bass (and for small CC fry, BG and others IMHO) is another question. They have in my pond (managed bass-heavy to emphasize large BG). I currently have 3 year classes of CC that have hatched locally, in fairly small numbers (I hope). So I bet your pond could have had the CC spawn and survive too.

I have been wondering if bass-heavy ponds are a better environment for CC spawn survival than big bass ponds, due to a lower total number of mouths eating CC (a few bass and a lot of BG would seem to be more total mouths than a lot of bass and a few BG, at least in some situations). Any comments on that theory?

Theo,
Your theory does make some sense. I do have many small bass and a few big BG. I would think that some CC would escape predation each year. I just found it strange that I hadn't caught any small CC until this year and have this year caught some from at least 3 different year's classes.

My home grown CC have acted somewhat differently than the CC I originally stocked did at the same size. I think this is becuse the homeboys have had to worry about LMB bigger than they are their whole lives; the original CC were (and are) the biggest fish in the pond except for 5 innoccous GC.