Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species EURYHALINE POND UPDATE

Flagfish are neat fish. Great aquarium fish as well.

caught a snook in the pond sunday...

didnt take it out of the water, looked healthy and good weight. same condition I see them in the intracoastal around here.

the pond has tilapia in it and I am still Amazed to rarely see small tilapia around the pond.

I see a school of large ones when the feeder goes off.

they over winter every year and the school is not getting exponatioally larger...

the predators must just hammer the YOY and juvenile tilapia and thinned them out ....as prolific as they are it seems that would be well fed...I see tilapia nest and do occasionally see a small one hiding around the banks for shelter.

I have not given an update recently so here goes...

I watched the feeder go off yesterday...I saw the two big CG sucking down fish pellets like crazy and too many koi as well. I have removed 15 koi so far but I need to remove another 5 or so for sure. The CG seem to have gotten less spooky and are aggressively feeding right now. I have a couple snag hooks, I'm going to try that.

I saw some GSH around the feeder so some made it though the winter with out getting eaten. I placed some artificial plastic plants in the pond to assist with recruitment, Hopefully it helps.

I saw some smaller CNBG around the feeder but not too many, I know they are breeding but I never see too many YOY at any given time. I think they are getting eaten. In fact I saw a SNOOK come up and target one, I could not tell if he actually got it as it swam back out to deeper water.

Male tilapia have visible nest around the shallows already too.
As prolific as tilapia can be I don't see lots of YOY or babies for that matter. I does not seem that the adult population of growing out of control either. I think the predators really target them over the CNBG due to body shape. It is pretty hard to tell how many adults I actually have though I only see them at feeding time but it does not seem like to pond is over populated with them.

I took a little video

Bobby,
Cool video. If you could get close to the feeder by foot or boat could you not use a cast net to get those grass carp?

You said you had 4 LCS in your forage pond? They may have offspring or maybe you can source a few more? Someday maybe I'll have lots in my pond and can help you out.

The GC proven to be too fast for the cast net. I have tried multiple times. Once I miss them they don't come close to the shoreline again for months.

Bowfishing is fun if u want to remove some fish, might want to give it a try, course it takes a little practice.

Tracy

Operation Koi removal has commenced again.............

Used the Corn kernel trick seemed to work great...Actually every thing seemed to want to eat the corn. Caught a few sunfish as well ...

Landed two big koi and one broke me off. It sure is easy to underestimate how strong a swimmer/fighter those carp can be.

Once I landed a couple fish the commotion spooked the rest of them off so that was it for the day. Those Koi/Carp sure are smart...

this makes 17 total koi removed so far ........

I think the bigger one was about 24 inches long or so.
Now if I could just get some one to buy these koi from me...LOL

Nice fish Bobby! Carp are smart, so you might have a hard time getting the one that broke off.

To me, that last picture seems to be a hybrid between a BG and a RES.

I wonder if the koi forum would help?

Here's two Koi sellers in Florida. I wonder if they would be interested?

https://www.koisale.com/about-us.html

http://legacykoi.mybigcommerce.com/

I thought it kind of looked like a hybrid. But was not sure...

Thanks

I sold those last two Koi on craigslist for $150, Considering I gave "cray" 3 put 4 in the garden and traded the rest to a pet store that went out of business before I could cash in on much of my store credit....SWEET!

Now I can Buy more fish food to replace some of the food they ate. Ill try to get another one or two out this week or weekend.

Who knows I might have to stick a live bait under a bobber and get you guys a picture of one of the predators.

Good idea on Craigslist.

Now I have some guy from Craig's list telling,me he would take 4-5 big ones if I can get them. Guess ill be doing some Koi fishing this weekend....Ill post some pictures if I get anything.

Bobby, I've found the higher priced (i.e. quality name brands) of whole kernel corn holds up better on the hooks, and the individual kernels are bigger too. The cheap stuff is fine to use for chumming.

Good luck!

OH, good to know........I actually bought the cheap stuff because I was "just Fishing". I did notice the kernel size was all over the map, I will up grade.

THANKS

Little tricks from experience.

How might hominy differ from corn? Anybody tried it? Seems like it might stay on a hook a little better.

Never tried it but think it should work. When I was a kid, there was an old guy that fished them all the time and he used canned small brussel sprouts.

Corn? My spoiled fish won't touch corn.... Maybe wrong brand

Pat, I've heard that spoiled carp can sometimes be tempted by little grape tomatoes. Never tried it myself, though.

I thought you put spoiled carp UNDER the little grape tomatoes..... At least my Grandmother did in the Spring!

well I harassed the koi all weekend, tried cast net at feeder time, Corn, bread balls and worms and got no interest. I found a pack of stubby Steve's I had put in the freezer and tried them. I got no lookers then finally one fell for the bait. It was the biggest one yet. the thing had to be close to an 8 pound fish. This makes 19 total including another one I forgot about a month or so ago...

Every one has gotten really spooky so I will have to let the sit for awhile and get back into a feeding pattern with out harassment I think.

So in total I have removed 19 pretty big koi and one very big Grass carp so far, this has to be helping a little. I still have two big grass carp to remove, I might end up shooting those things.



Craigslist yielded $75 bucks for it so that's another positive.

I did see a snook and a couple flounder imprints around the bank in very shallow water. Looks like the flounder are back in the summer nighttime feeding pattern along the shallows.

Keep opening up that biomass for your game fish. How many koi would you say you have left in there?

I counted 11 at the feeder yesterday, so I have removed more than half. I'm gonna focus on those grass carp now. Lethal this time.. I think the eel grass might actually grow some with them gone. I also noticed the water clearity was improved too, along with some FA development... Funny how that works.. It was not too much though, I think the tilapia help
In that regard.

Scored some baby Lake Chub Suckers at the aquaculture place near me. Got 50 lil Yoy from him. Going to grow them out here in my planted pool. Hope to get them to size in a year and plant in the pond for additional forage species.

Those with a keen eye will notice the hitch hikers. 7 games mixed in with them after sorting. Goes to show how easy it can happen.

Well done! Hope they thrive! I envy the forage diversity you're building. To me that is like buying life "assurance" for your predators. Pellets are great but I have yet to see one reproduce and become a sustained population!