Well im trying to get a jump this year and want to continue my fish program here at the ranch.
History: We have a 7 acre lake here on the place that I want to setup as a solid balanced fishery. I will attach some photos at the bottom. It is 40+ yrs old, and a rather deep BOW. The only real shallow area of the lake is in the back cove which consist of about 1acre of flooded stumps around 1-6ft deep. The rest of the lake pretty much slips off into 10ft or more depth with about 2-3 acres along the dam ranging from 20-35ft deep.
What has been done so far:
The lake was bass heavy and pretty low in BG numbers. Bass in the 12-18" range mostly, and not skinny but not fat either, just normal looking ole bass.
For the past two seasons we took out 20 lbs per acre the first year than 15lbs per acre last year.
Nothing else in the lake but bass and BG.
I devoted a .2 acre pond this year to growing my own CNBG and have successfully transfered ~4000 3-5" CNBG last summer/fall. Also, I am growing my own Florida bass and F1's and have transfered around 16 12-14" Floridas and 12 12-14" F1's. Tagged and documented.
Goal:
I don't want really have a desire for any other predator fish. What i would like to do is get the FLorida genetics established and start naturally producing some F1's in the lake. I want the CNBG/Bg numbers to be at max for producing nice healthy bass. I don't want to attempt a trophy bass lake and deplete the bass #'s down to the point where its hard to catch anything, I just want it balanced. I think a balanced fishery will easily produce big fish in my opinion, 5 lbs or bigger is big to me.
Also as shown in the photos I have done some major clearing on the land surrounding the lake and have pushed in some big 10-30ft trees in along the bank every 20yrs or so all the way around. The lake is about 4ft low now so once full in the spring it will have some awesome structure setup. I pushed in ~30 full size trees and tossed in 30 christmas trees to find a home wherever the wind blows them.
What else to do:
I want to dump in another load of CNBG. I have probably 1000-2000 CNBG in my small growout pond anywhere from 2-6". I want to make sure i have plenty in to jumpstart the system.
I will add maybe 10-20 more 12"+ Florida bass this year.
Take out around 20 lbs bass per acre this year and take a look at catch rates after 20lbs is reached or if its reached.
OK, now that i've laid it all out, i need some suggestions on what is most beneficial for me to do to help push the lake.
Here are my thoughts: Im kind of shying away from T-shad as they are $$$$ and might not make it and i might even lose them to the cold which didn't seem possible untill the last two yrs. See the photo, we had snow in texas 2yrs straight. Finally i have to maintain a solid bloom in the lake which im not up for yet, unless it does it naturally once the 60 grass carp have worked on it for another year.
Tilapia: Not sure here either, i've used them in other ponds and think they benefit the BG more than the bass really. Just based on what I see in my bass growout ponds, soon as they spit out the 1/8" fry the BG wipe 99% of them out. I've seen this over and over again. I just don't see how a decent % make it to 3-5" for bass to benefit from directly. I do have another .2 acre pond that I could make a Tilapia Production pond and move 2"+ fish over during the summer but I've never heard much on Tilapia forage ponds and if they are worth the work...
Feeding: This seems to attract my attention most. For $1000 i can dump in 2000lbs of Game fish Chow a year boosting my forage in the lake probably far more than say $1000 of tilapia (125lbs)could ever do especially when such a small % of offspring make it past the mouths of BG. If I want to produce more bg/CNBG i'll feed them pellets, not tilapia fry. its just more efficient per dollar i'd think to feed.
I'd rather put 10lbs of tilapia in my .2 acre pond by themself and try a forage pond if i thought it would be worth it. Anyone ever did a tilapia forage pond... I need imput on that id it could be a real beneficial option.
All in all i'd like to get some suggetions on things to do to help push the lake to meet my goals the best most efficient way possible.
Ok here comes the photos and i'll shut up. They are taken showing the lake from left to right standing on the start of the dam.
