I fully concur with everything that ESSHUP and EWEST posted directly above.
Additionally, I believe you need to remove all of the large catfish (those greater than about 24 inches), and you need to get several of the grass carp out of there. They become very ineffective when they get large, and they thrive on the sinking pellets from you feeders.
The catfish compete heavily with the bass for forage when they start getting into the 20+ inch size. As you've found, they can do some pretty significant damage to your pond. They keep the bottom stirred up, adding to the turbidity. They have huge mouths that work like big vacuum cleaners when the feeders go off. They eat, they become bigger, they get hungrier, they cause even more damage to your ponds and your forage population. I'll have to do some digging, but we have a number of good threads here about attracting, catching, and removing big catfish. It is how I got my name, and how I got my start here many years ago. "Chumming" with chunks of shrimp just before dusk, and then baiting large circle hooks with shrimp at dusk can be quite effective. Minnows at dusk, and just after dark, can be pretty effective too.
Jug lines with various baits can be effective around their holes, but I've unfortunately gotten quite a few snappers that way. I like having several snapping turtles in the pond. They help keep it clean, and they are just plain fun to have around. Mine eat a few pellets, but not enough to affect anything. They are too slow to grab anything really healthy.
Same with the grass carp. They are great for a lot of purposes. But, those critters become inefficient weed eaters after a few years. They become huge. They get really lazy and become major consumers of your feed. They don't really bother the other fish, but they turn all that food into something that causes the green stuff in your water. Yes, they are great fun to watch -- but get all but one or two of them out of there for now. Because your water is so dense, I suspect you have few weeds. I wouldn't add any more grass carp until you suspect a weed problem arising. They can be caught with large (about 1-inch diameter) bread balls or paste balls made from moistened fish feed.
You have to figure out if you want big bluegill, big bass, or intermediate of both. You can have catfish, but you can't let them get to destructive sizes -- IMO, over about 20 inches.
Unless you fully understand the ramifications, don't put in any more hybrid bluegill. They serve a great purpose in many ponds, but in a general fishery, they can generate offspring mutt fish, based on green sunfish, that you just don't want. They don't produce a lot of offspring at first, but the offspring of the offspring can proliferate. These offspring don't grow big, they spawn early, and they eat way too much of the offspring of your desirable fish.
Regards,
Ken
Last edited by catmandoo; 07/28/12 09:49 PM.
