Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Newbie

I am new to pond ownership and to pond boss. I have been lurking for a couple months, tried several times to register, never was successful, until today. This year( March 2015) we had a pond dug on our property near Cut-N-Shoot, Texas. It is roughly 80' wide, and 110' long, 10' deep. I figured it would take a storm off the gulf to fill it up. Filled in about 5 weeks. It does not have a dam, and pasture drains to it. I put 2# of fhm in, 2 weeks later put 43 ccs in. Caught a 4# cc on Lake Conroe, threw him in as well. I have one 12' cedar sunk in the deep area, and 8 concrete blocks on the other end. I am loving my new pond, and watching the catfish feed.
There is a lot of knowledge on this forum, can't wait to get some questions answered.

Welcome BB.

Welcome to the forum.

Cut-n-shoot, Texas. There must be a story behind that name?!

Glad you stuck with trying to figure out registration. Pre-Warning: the search feature is a lot worse.

Welcome to Texas pond ownership! Won't be long before you'll be researching aeration. I know you were just joking about catching a fish in a Texas public body of water and releasing it into your pond...cause it ain't legal. Some of the fish in my pond came from unknown sources. It's a miracle!

Welcome BB
Hope you're feeding those catfish pellets. That 4 lb will eat you out of house and home. Have you started a forage fish base yet? Give Overton Fisheries a call for your coppernose blue gill and other fish. Good people there. Post some pix when you can and ask lots of questions

Welcome double B. Cut-n-Shoot reminds me of when my son hit his teens and he and his buddies started bringing unsuspecting young girls around. Whenever they would introduce me to a girl I would tell her, nice ta meet ya, now a word of wisdom for ya. Girl cut un run, run fast and run far.
What are ccs? What are your hopes/goals for the pond? Have ya talked to anyone about the stocking plan? Much as I don't wanna agree with Pat, that big CC will clean house in short order. Personally I'd remove it to a fryin pan soon. I and many others personally understand impatience but ya don't wanna get the cart in front of the horse. Again, Pat is correct, it is VERY important to get a good forage population of several types established before adding the predators. FHM are dumb and slow. Best of luck to ya and ask lots of ?s and keep us informed. Bob-O

BB,
Welcome to Pond Boss...lots of good info and helpful folks here.... I'm not too far from you. I'm N.E. of Livingston...

I didn't know that it was illegal to stock publicly caught fish and release them into a private pond. I do know that the reverse is true.

I wasn't aware it is illegal to transport Channel Catfish. I have a fishing license, and he was legal sized. If it makes any difference, he swam all the way home.
I am just looking for the grandkids to be able to catch a catfish on a Saturday morning when they are staying at me house.
The 4# cat is doing well, but he is not making a dent in my FHMs. They have spawned at least twice and clouds of the fry are around when I feed. I feed floating pellets. I was hoping to catch a few more legal sized and put them in so we would have a few "trophy" catfish for the kids to catch, but i will hold off on that until I determine if it is legal or not.
I bought my fish from Overtons, they are a great place to buy fish and fairly close to us. I bought 40 channel cats (CC) and put them in. In the bag, I thought, no way that is 40 catfish. I counted them when I put them in the pond, I was right, it was 43 catfish. I have found two dead catfish, (weeks after putting them in) all the others appear to be doing well.
Thanks for all the information on the site, learning a lot.
BB

Yep! new Texas law. Livewells have to be empty when entering the lake and leaving the lake. If you have live bait you have to show a receipt where you purchased it unless you caught the bait from the body of water you are fishing.

Check out the section titled Rules to Prevent the Spread of Zebra Mussels https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdo...aquatic-species

How do they account for the trillions of gallons of flood water that covered the state this year? Think any zebra mussels rode the waves south?

I think I am ok on transporting the channel cat. The boat is in a stall, never left the lake. The catfish was transported(sans water) to my live well in the truck. I did carry a bucket of water from the lake to the live well in my truck, but I think that is ok. May have to ask The Man on that.
Thanks for the input.
BB

Welcome to the forum.

Legality aside, stocking larger fish in a new pond (from ANY source) means that any other fish that you stock in the pond has to be large enough to avoid being eaten, or stocked in such a quantity that you don't care if 90% of them get eaten.

It all depends on the size of your pocketbook.

Once Channel Cats get over around 3#, they start competing directly with Largemouth Bass for food, and switch to being mainly piscivorous.

Flame, I hadn't thought of that new law and how it would affect bucket stocking of ponds from public waters. But, I see it now.

So if your live well has to be empty when you get there and when you leave how do you keep any fish you caught? You have to put them in a cooler?? Or what....

RC

I would think cooler on ice.