Hi spark plug,

Two reasons for the fish kill...

1. I have come to the conclusion that the channel cats in my pond are eating all of my bass's food. I could be wrong but I also surrender to catching those blank blank blankety channels cats! They are very very hard to catch. Also, before the channel cats were stocked, and actually for a year or two after, I was able to catch bluegill and bass in all sizes. Not the case today. Basically the fishing is not like it used to be. All of the LMB are 10 to 11 inches. I used to have LMB from fingerlings to 4 lbs and the bluegill were also mixed sizes. My boys and I had the times of our lives fishing our pond! I have been keeping several bass for 2 summers hoping that removing all I can catch would help balance population. So far no change except that there are very few LMB left! I certainly do not claim to be an expert on this matter but I have consulted several and they all recommend starting over for my one acre pond and my inability to catch the infamous catfish that I did not intend to be in there to start with. They told me that once a channel cat gets to be 2-3 lbs that their diet changes to eating smaller fish and their conclusion is to remove all the cats. I want to make sure that they are all gone for good!

2. I plan to drain the pond to a low elevation that will enable me to create some more shallow water area for more spawning areas on the north bank. I also intend to install all sorts of cover on the bottom as well. When we built the ponds they were in ravines with creek beds all in the middle of the woods. My contractor did not have time to shape the bottom of the bowl he created like I was hoping. Also I did not know then that I would have cleared the woods along the north bank for my future retirement home and that is one of the reasons I want to put in fish attractors along the north bank. It is literally a lawn now and has become the place to fish. I hope to have this pond a BG and LMB fishing pond only and welcome all advice and suggestions!

My other smaller pond is full of channel cats and bluegill so I have resources for my fillets! I do love to eat the cats!

Back when we built the ponds I was always planning on the smaller one being for channel cats and bluegill and my larger one for bass and bluegill.

To sum it up I surrender on catching the big cats in my 1 ac pond!

I would love to get all the advise I can from other experienced pond owners on the restocking rates of flathead minnows, regular bluegill and largemouth bass!