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have 1 6 acre pond 1 3 acre pond not sure on all the short versions for the fish have gizzard shad largemouth bass redbreast bluegill warmouth stump knockers channel cats blue cats flathead catfish bullhead chain pickeral golden shiners shell crackers common carp black crappie koi fresh water shrimp and several different types of minnows

That's a LOF of different fish species!!

Welcome to the forum! There is a post in the archives for the acronyms. It's a bit confusing at first, but it'll make sense in no time.

Are all the species in each pond? How are the fish doing in the ponds?

Those ponds must be fun to fish in - no telling what you will hook!

Great diversity! What's a "stump knocker"?

Stump knocker aka RES, although since he also says shell cracker then warmouth stump knocker probably is his entire colloquial name for warmouth.

i am about to take my lunch break i will look us its offical name the warmouth and the stump knocker are two different fish i will post its offical name not the local name for it in a minute

ok i found it there offical name is spotted sunfish

yes there are in both ponds i manage the ponds pretty hard to keep balance right i take out alot of large mouth and crappie every year and i tag fish to keep up with them. i try to keep bigger predatory fish not large numbers of them i would rather catch one big bass instead of 100 one pound bass.the ponds are fairly new but the bass are averageing from 5 to eight pounds few more years i hope to have monsters.

Seems like to much going on to really successfully manage? I would think everything would stunt in order to get those giant bass.. With that many panfish and you taking out bass seems like a recipe for disaster.. Seems almost like a time bomb to me.. What are your fish like as a whole do some see stunted? I've thought about flathead to help control BG but have not read anything good, thn I thought blues but didn't read much good about them either, and you have both.. And I've never read a good thing about bullheads and crappie.. So you must be an extremely busy man managing those fish.. What's the #'s you originally stocked and have you caught all breeds since stocking or recently?

Noun 1. stumpknocker - inhabits streams from South Carolina to Florida; esteemed panfish
Lepomis punctatus, spotted sunfish
freshwater bream, bream - any of various usually edible freshwater percoid fishes having compressed bodies and shiny scales; especially (but not exclusively) of the genus Lepomis
genus Lepomis, Lepomis - bream

so far it has been ok alot of the species really don't spawn in large enough numbers to make the stunting going on.the koi i only have 6 of them in the pond they weigh from 6lbs to 14lbs i raised them up to about 2 lbs then i put them in the pond i had to get them big enough that the ospreys could not fly off with them and they have never got any offspring off i think everything eats there babies due to the brite colors. so far the blues and the flatheads have not had any offspring but could change.if i had to do it again i would probably not put crappie in there i usually take 100 to 200 out a year they really produce some offspring.it is a lot of work but i love to fish so it really isn't work. i have two different types of bullheads i have the brown and yellow bullhead.i enjoy catching both the brown seem to do a little better because they get bigger but i think the flatheads and bass keep them pretty well in check because there really isn't large numbers of them in the ponds.

It sounds like the fishery is pretty balanced to me. It's a lot of work, but the results are worth it, aren't they?

yes they defintely are. do you know of a good place to order blue tilapia? i would like to get them through the mail.

Blues? I'd look into R&S Tilapia Stockers. They ship.

OK THANKS

i couldn't find anything on rs stockers online do you have a link to there website

R&S....

http://www.tilapiastockers.com/

R&S is owned by our resident blue tilapia salesman and fish hauler extraordinaire, Rex Rains, aka Rainman as his forum name. Rex will be along, but if you PM him, he may see that sooner than he sees this thread.

oh ok cool thanks that worked hopefully i can order me a few next week

Buttercat, welcome to the forum! Your ponds sound amazing!

Sorry for being MIA on the forum...I've been busy creating a multi purpose barge together for Alum/chemical applications, laying air hose for diffusers...and of course recreation (if I get the time).

thank you yeah it is been some work but right now it is really doing pretty good fish are growing and healthy so all is well.i will be needing to make a order with you before here pretty soon. i would like to experiment with some of those blue tilapia.