In my old pond, which I cleaned out, I left a small puddle of water in the middle which was too wet for me to get out with the bulldozer. Big mistake from the GSF and BH standpoint. I had decided to make this pond a RES "heavy" pond and only stock FHM and mostly RES, with just a few BG that I knew eventually would take hold and get ahead of the RES. Was going to add predators as soon as I saw enough recruitment of the sunfish to need it.
Well, that puddle changed my whole plan, as it had GSF and BH in it. I had already put the FHM and RES in when I started catching GSF and BH. So needless to say, plans changed. I was just going to throw the bullheads we caught away, but wife thought some were pretty nice size and big enough to eat so she cleaned some. We ate them along with some CC and a couple of small BG we gut hooked, and the BH tasted good battered and deep fried. So we eat any that are any decent size now.
Having all the BH and GSF in this old pond, had to add some predators to keep the numbers in check. Caught some 9-10" LMB out of our main pond and put in earlier this summer. Caught one of them a week ago and it measured 14". Nice fat belly too. The biggest one that I have caught out of our main pond (stocked as fingerlings Nov 2013) has been about 13 3/4. So I would say the LMB in this old pond are doing quite fine on GSF and BH fare.
I could be wrong, but I think it's probably a losing battle to try and keep bullheads and GSF out of ponds. I think the best thing to do is utilize them as a sport and food resource. Keep plenty of Bass, and other predators of your choosing in the pond to manage their numbers.
Bullheads and other small catfish are one of the easiest fish to clean. There are plenty of video's on youtube that will show you how to clean them quickly and efficiently.
Mookie Outdoors Bullhead cleaning 15 seconds or less.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eXrV4qPIPEThe Fastest Way In The World To Clean Bullheads and Small Catfish Whole!-1/1http://youtu.be/7RjEUSkdks4list=PL3T5Zb924hBQZnQifuo-i_ccVuDAI3hWDI don't know if this has anything to do with it? But one of the ponds I fish has spotted bass in it, and I have caught very few bullheads from it. Another thing I've observed is those "Spots" seem way more aggressive than the largemouths.
